Cliveden restaurants: the Dining Room above the Parterre, the Astor Grill in the stables, and what each costs

The Cliveden Dining Room was the drawing room of the house: a large south-facing room looking over the 19th-century Parterre, the National Trust’s gardens and the Thames beyond. The hotel calls the cooking modern British, and its Gourmet Stay offer names the executive head chef as Chris Hannon. The room has 3 services: dinner every day from 6pm to 9pm, afternoon tea from Monday to Saturday between noon and 2.30pm, and lunch on Sunday from noon to 4pm.

Dinner is ordered from the à la carte menu or as the Cliveden Journey. On the card, starters cost £18 or £20: ham hock and Iberico terrine, venison tartare with nashi pear, hand-dived scallop with tomato and chilli jam. Main courses run from £28 for chickpea panelle and £32 for violet artichokes with romesco to £44 for pan-fried cod, £50 for lamb cannon, £52 for beef fillet with Hermitage jus and £56 for Dover sole; sides are £7. Caviar opens the menu, from £50 for 15 g.

The Cliveden Journey is the long form: 7 courses for £165, from Oscietra caviar with chicken consommé through cured sea trout, the terrine, cod and beef fillet to a pineapple and coconut panna cotta and a chocolate marquise. Leave out the trout and the panna cotta and it becomes 5 courses for £125. There are 3 wine flights: Classic at £75 with 5 courses or £100 with 7, Sommeliers’ Cellar at £125 or £165, Iconic at £240 or £300. A separate vegan Journey and a vegan card are on the menus page, and the hotel says 30% of its dishes are vegan or plant-based all year.

The Astor Grill sits in the old stables, where Lord Astor kept his best fillies, and keeps the horses in its decoration. The idea is American dishes beside British ones, after the family the room is named for. Its all-day menu starts with small plates meant for sharing, 3 or 4 between 2 people, at £13 to £20: pissaladière, beef tartare, a prawn cocktail of popcorn prawns. Then fish and chips or miso-glazed cod at £30, the Astor Burger with maple-cured bacon and Monterey Jack at £28, grilled bass at £35, and sirloin on the bone or leg of Herdwick lamb at £38. Sides are £5.50 and puddings £13 to £15.

The Grill is the dog-friendly table, with a menu of its own for them, and it has no strict dress code. It also keeps the longer hours: noon to 10pm without a break from Friday to Sunday, and noon to 4pm then 6pm to 10pm from Monday to Thursday. The same menu prints the cocktails, £20 for an Astor Fizz and £22 for an 1894 Old Fashioned made with Calvados, and Laurent-Perrier Héritage at £20 for a 125 ml glass.

Among the 2026 reviews that mention dinner, most are about the Dining Room. In June one guest found it «a delight», light and spacious, and thought the food had «gone from mediocre to really good in the last couple of years»; in August another called the tasting menu excellent while rating the stay 3 stars; in May a third wrote that the 7-course dinner was «mostly lovely dinner we have ever had». 2 reviews of January and February 2026 go the other way: «extremely overpriced for what it is» in one, dinner that «wasn’t up to scratch» in the other.

Coworth Park, near Ascot, has 4 places to eat. Woven by Adam Smith holds 1 MICHELIN star and opens for lunch from Friday to Sunday and dinner from Wednesday to Saturday; The Barn, in the stables area, is the everyday restaurant, open daily for lunch and dinner.

Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Oxfordshire is out of the running for now: its restaurant is closed until summer 2027 while the house is redeveloped, and the page announces Arnaud Donckele as culinary director.

Chewton Glen pairs The Dining Room, with seasonal menus and produce from its kitchen garden, with The Kitchen by James Martin, where the menu is wood-fired pizzas, chargrills and burgers.