For truly special and elegant destination dining minus the chi-chi pretentiousness, The Woodspeen offers exceptional quality dishes, personable service, and a riveting booze list (hm, hm, award-winning). You’ll find them nestled away in the West Berkshire countryside with huge picture windows in their modish, Scandi style restaurant taking full advantage of the breathtaking natural vistas on their doorstep.

Inside, the open kitchen makes chef-watching irresistible as they flex their creative muscles and create mouth-watering concoctions with expert care and precision. The food is wow and you can expect a pinpoint focus on seasonal dishes, using ingredients foraged or grown on their own land and kitchen garden. Eating fresh is gospel here and only the very best produce is used. The vibe is attentive, warm, and unfussy, but what they serve is serious business. Ask the front of house team where each ingredient was sourced, and best believe they’ll know.

On the menu, you’ll find hand dived Orkney scallops, Woodspeen smoked salmon, roasted partridge breast, and braised venison shoulder, but their steaks are stuff of legend. The beef wellington (for two) served with truffled Camembert gratin, garlic roasted celeriac, and Wiltshire black truffle is pretty much as close as you’re going to get to foodie nirvana. They are all too happy to cater for vegans, vegetarians, and those with allergies or intolerances too.

Want to learn from the very best? Well, you can. A stones throw from the restaurant you’ll find The Woodspeen’s state-of-the-art cookery school, housed in a beautifully converted barn that overlooks their vegetable garden. Dinner party dining, steaks, Sunday roasts, breads, pasta, and desserts – there’s a course for every budding master chef. Grab a napkin and tuck in.