Modern British restaurants in England
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Adlard's Restaurant
This elegant and airy Michelin-starred eatery is the place to splurge on both food and excellent wines. It specialises in modern British cuisine with a French accent and keeps the décor simple and pleasing with wooden floors, large canvases and large windows.
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Mr Underhill's
This dignified and award-winning restaurant is set in a converted corn mill that dips its toes in the river, and the Modern British food is exquisitely prepared, using market-fresh ingredients in a daily-changing menu. Should you be too full to walk home, rest up in one of the four particularly elegant suites.
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Riverside Rooms
Lynn's classiest restaurant overlooks the water from a converted 15th-century warehouse, with crisscrossing beams overhead and elegant white-linen tables below. It serves upscale cuisine from crab omelette to lovely beef and Boddingtons (bitter ale) pie.
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Blake's of Dover
This snug but stylish English restaurant has an intimate cellar bar with fine wines, malt whiskies and microbrewed ales, or you can stay above ground for the sophisticated wood-panelled restaurant, serving locally caught fish dishes on candlelit tables.
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Boathouse
Sleek riverside restaurant with wonderful patio dining overlooking the water serving up excellent modern English food, such as venison with braised cabbage and thyme mash, and goat’s cheese and red onion tagliatelle.
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Midsummer House
In a Victorian villa backing onto the river, this sophisticated place is a gastronomic delight. Chef Daniel’s creations, justifying their two Michelin stars, are distinguished by depth of flavour, great technical skill and expert pairings of ingredients. Expect the likes of slow-roast duck with sweet potato and grapefruit, and sea bass with truffle. Service is exemplary and free of pretention.
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Frankie's Fish Bar
This is best described as a posh chipper – you can get a take-out (£4.80), but the best way to appreciate the quality in store is to pick from the more extensive eat-in menu, which features a lovely lemon sole and gorgeous homemade fish cakes.
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Cornhouse
A relaxed wine bar and restaurant in a handsome old town house, laid out with white linen and wicker chairs. The menu of inventive modern British food features occasional nods to North Africa.
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Lussmanns Eatery
This bright, modern restaurant just off the main street is enduringly popular with locals despite ample competition around town. It serves a changing monthly menu of creative British dishes with Mediterranean touches – from seared Cornnish mackerel to wild rabbit and mushroom linguine, all in a bright, modern space with oak, leather and metal decor. Ingredients are ethically and mostly locally sourced, with plenty of information on the menu about where your food has come from. Book ahead.
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Taylor's
You can watch the boats on the boat float from the huge bay windows here, while the menu takes care of your tastebuds. There's everything from grilled lobster and Dartmouth crab to Devon lamb or asparagus and goat's cheese tart.
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Bradley's
Eat in the elegant Georgian dining room at this riverside restaurant, or relax in the popular wine bar with some lighter meals (£8 to £10); either way you're bound to be pleased as this is probably the finest food the city has to offer.
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Market Restaurant
Excellent British cuisine is on the menu at this Northern Quarter restaurant - and it changes every month or so to take account of the season's best. While the decor isn't too pretty, the beer list is a cracker.
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White Vine House
Fine dining in a fine setting can be had at this elegant vine-covered Tudor building, with an exquisitely painted dining room and a reputation for cooking the freshest local produce. It also has pristine rooms.
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Fat Loaf
This increasingly popular restaurant is in a Grade II–listed building on Didsbury Green. Dishes are sourced locally (slow braised English lamb shank, roast Gressingham duck) and are done to perfection.
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Purnells
Exquisite, inventive dishes (such as ox cheek with lentils cooked in toffee) are served in an airy Victorian redbrick building with a striking modern interior. Run by celebrated chef Glynn Purnell.
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Columbine Restaurant
On the lane leading down beside the town hall, this understated restaurant is the top choice among in-the-know Buxtonites. The chef conjures up imaginative dishes using mainly local produce as well as sinful puddings. Bookings recommended.
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No 21
A mellow eatery with subtle art on the walls and subtle lights on your food. There are imaginative fish, meat and veggie options - try the sea bass and chorizo or open mushroom ravioli.
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Vintner Wine Bar
Set in a town house from 1600, this quirky place is full of beams, exposed brickwork, and low ceilings on which to bang your head. Locals as well as out-of-towners come here for good food (mostly steaks, salads and roasts) and lively conversation.
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Michaelhouse
Sip fair-trade coffee and nibble focaccias among soaring medieval arches or else take a pew within reach of the altar at this stylishly converted church, which still has a working chancel. The simple lunch menu features quiche, soup and salads, as well as more substantial hot dishes, and has a good range of vegetarian options.
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Edward Moon's
Named after a famous travelling chef who cooked up the flavours of home for the British colonial service, this snug and just-refurbished eatery serves delicious, hearty English dishes, many livened up with herbs and spices from the East.
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Three Choirs Vineyard
This bright and airy restaurant serves classic brasserie dishes using locally sourced produce if possible, such as the River Wye salmon. You can also take a guided tour of the working vineyard (£7.50) and try the award-winning wines before departing with a few bottles from the gift shop.
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The Pig
Add this to your must-do list. Home-grown and own-reared produce packs this hotel's imaginative menu, including rarities like crayfish, quail, and smoked sea salt. Eat inside in style or enjoy a flat-bread pizza on the terrace beside the roaring wood oven – toppings include tomatoes, smoked chilli and home-cured ham. The rooms here are an excellent place to stay the night.
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Samphire
The shabby-chic jumble of tables and chairs, big-print wallpaper and blackboarded menus creates the perfect stage for meticulously crafted mains containing East Kent's most flavour-packed ingredients. An interesting side dish is its namesake samphire, an asparagus-like plant that grows on seasprayed rocks and cliffs, often found on menus in these parts.
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Reform
Inside the stylised Castle Hotel, the menu of its sophisticated restaurant, Reform, is inspired by local, seasonal produce. Starters such as Stilton mousse or crispy pig cheeks with polenta are followed by mains such as confit of pork belly or seared scallops and pigeon, but the real showstoppers are desserts such as warm plum and raspberry crumble tart with white chocolate ice cream and quince purée.
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Pea Porridge
Set in a 19th-century former bakery, this exciting newcomer on the Bury scene is responsible for some of the most memorable dishes in town, executed with imagination and flair. Expect the likes of curried sweetbreads with sweet potato, and grilled mackerel with Yorkshire champagne rhubarb, with attentive service to boot and beautiful presentation. All mains £11.95 at lunchtime.
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