The Hand & Flowers

Excellent experience. The food is out of this world. We decided to celebrate my sons A level results at the Hand & Flowers and the whole experience surpassed our expectations. The service was excellent with very attentive staff. The food was absolutely delicious and wonderfully presented, at the same time it was affordable. I can't wait for the next special occasion so we can return.

Stayed here for our wedding night in a beautiful room in a one up one down cottage 50 yards from the restaurant. A bottle of champagne and card had been left (i had only mentioned in passing as i dropped my bags off in the morning I was off to my wedding!). Breakfast was sublime, service exemplary - unfortunately I didn't get the name of the girl who served us but 5* for her as a waitress - nothing was any trouble. Faultless stay - HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

Avoid! Extremely disappointing meal at this restaurant. Phoned up to book a birthday lunch and the member of staff was EXTREMELY rude. To his credit, owner (who sounded genuinely nice) sent an email to say the member of staff had been spoken to which was good. However, we then turned up for a meal and the owner hadn't bothered to be there to apologise personally – interesting decision given the state of the restaurant business at the moment and the importance of customer retention. Despite its good food, the place lacked atmosphere overall and, while the service throughout the meal was good, after having had a bad experience on the phone with no apology (although I was informed afterwards that a relatively unflagged intermediate dish was the apology and that had I ordered dessert there was a birthday plate to follow – you couldn't make this stuff up!), we decided to leave. Italian waiter spoke no English so ordering a drink took about ten minutes, before we gave up and asked another person. The table next to us arrived after us but got served before. They asked for the bill after us and got it before (again). Bit annoying. Took 20 minutes to get our bill sorted and even then we had to point out that they'd overcharged us £20 for a bottle of wine we didn't drink. Good food, very lacklustre and inconsistent service. As I say, owner didn't make the effort to be there after the rude phone call on my birthday. Bad decision. We'll now NEVER go back (we would have done had he made the effort). Avoid. Expensive and careless, erratic service.

It’s a pub and it’s got a Michelin star - guess what the prices are like.

Actually, it was a pub. Now, though, it’s a restaurant with accommodation. And what a restaurant too.

The food is absolutely out of this world - delicious, imaginative and of the utmost quality. What’s more, for such a prestigious kitchen, the prices are affordable for us mere humans too.

The decor is simple and elegant, the staff attentive to the nth degree. There is ample parking (the place isn’t that big) and the location is just out of the town centre.

If you fancy a decent meal and don’t want to head into London, then I’d totally recommend a a visit here.

My husband surprised me on my birthday by bringing me here - all he had told me was that we were going to a pub which had a Mitchelin star and stay overnight - I was very excited with anticipation and expectation high… we were shown to our room which was a few doors down from the pub so no noise as people left, our room was called Dexter, it was at the top of some stairs which were quite narrow and had very low joists!!! We were shown in and my first impression was luxury, no expense spared, there was even Teapigs tea bags - my favourite peppermint tea :) there was a coffee machine - but only two coffee pods - fresh milk in the fridge together with a bottle of still and sparkling water but no alcohol - if you fancied a tipple before the meal whilst you were getting ready you just had to ring the pub for your drink to be hot footed to your door. Beautiful deep red silk canopy above the bed, quilt and roman blinds made the room feel cosy and expensive. The bathroom gave us white towels which although not fluffy and soft were huge and there were plenty to go round. The bath was just big enough for two, but it was the small touches, the candles and beams, an old fireplace, whilst not usable had what looked like the original floral victorian tiles.

When we ready we wondered over to the pub and were immediately seated at our table, we ordered champagne cocktails and spent deicious minutes gazing over the menu and weighing up our choices. Once our order had been taken, out came the bread rolls, soda bread, salted butter and white bait together with tartar sauce beautifully presented. Only downside was no gluten free bread. Our starters arrived, Fois gras with brioche and cornish sardines minus the toast with salad, our wine was poured and our main courses of slow cooked oxford braised beef with bone marrow bread pudding and a honeyed carrot and my slow cooked organic salmon with champagne foam and arrived after a suitable period of time, which was eaten slowly, every mouthful enjoyed. My husband thought his portion of beef was on the generous side and struggled slightly to eat it all - it certainly wasn’t going to be left! During our main course the staff were attentive and arrived regularly to top up the wine and to check in with us that everything was to our liking. There was quite a break between main course and dessert, due to my husband ordering a souffle but when they arrived they were wonderfully presented. My husband had the rhubarb souffle with rhubarb crumble, stem ginger anglaise and vanilla ice cream which looked delicious, I had chosed the thyme panna cotta with blueberrys, honeycomb. The first one had to be returned to the chef as he didn’t know that oats were not gluten free!! However, whent he second version arrived it was delicately scented with thyme and the honeycomb crunch was a very well balanced addition. Once our dessert had been delivered we had our second bottle of wine which we poured ourselves as the staff had moved on to other guests, which gave us plenty of time to digress and discuss what we had eaten and thoroughly enjoyed. We had coffee but were not offered petit fours and shortbread….

We went to bed full of delicious food and lots of yummy wine :)

Breakfast is served in same area of the pub as dinner is served, we were greeted by muesli and cornflakes on a table with plenty of milk to sink your cereal :) The breakfast menu is brief but if it was all cooked to perfection like our cooked breakfasts were there is no need for a hugh choice.

The only disappointment was being asked if we wanted freshly squeezed orange juice with our meal, which we both agreed would be lovely, only to be told after a very long time, various discussions between the staff and a phone call to someone which we could overhear that the machine was broken and that there was to be no juice. I wonder what used to happen before the juicing machine was invented. I find a fork in a citrus fruit waggled about works quite well…

Overall a really lovely experience and we would definately go back, only requesting a room without low ceilings and doors as my husband tried really hard to knock himself out !!

Looks like a standard pub but claims to deliver more. Unfortunately I have been consistently disappointed with this place. Having visited with three friends on a Friday night I vowed never to go again!

The service was ok, with the waitress being nice enough; however, she was unable to answer any of my questions with regard to the menu. I also ordered a double vodka and tonic that arrived with out any vodka in it although they did remember to charge me for the vodka. If the food was good then I could have over looked this, but it was not. Out of four main courses only 2 were edible, having sent back ours we were eventually presented with “fresh” ones that were cold. We called a member of staff over and after they took one look they agreed with out prompt that we should not be charged for it. The starters were better but nothing special. Overall we felt ripped off, I would have been unhappy with the food had it be served to me in a cheap pub chain let alone when I paid the best part of £20 for the dish.

Having said that I was fool enough to visit again for their lunch deal of two courses for £10, even at this price the food was not worth it, and I heard other tables complaining about there meal also. Please don’t waste your money.

Ask someone what they think of an idylic British pub. I bet you that perhaps their vivid imagination will pick up some of the great features here at the H&Flowers pub. Its purely British in all its pride, or Scottish! The pure target of the staff at this place is to make good food, and often my decision to come here for an afternoon lunch is money well spent. I’ve never not had a smiling waitress or waiter here, which I think really improves the morale of all the staff, including chefs etc. I haven’t been for a while, but I’ve had some of the best ‘farmhouse’ style food such as Bangers and Mash here, along with the others. Interior great and cosy!

From the outside this place looks like a standard warm and welcoming period type pub and it definitely has that cozy pub feel about it, but it offers so much more. Essentially it is a family run restaurant which has a real homely atmosphere, however you soon realise this is one classy restaurant that delivers first rate food. The place has a Michelin star no less! I would say the menu is British fair with a twist, all the ingredients are fresh and in season and delivered on the plate in a imaginative but unpretentious way. The service is excellent. On the down side for me it is a fair old car journey from where I live but if you fancy a drink and are feeling fairly flush they have the most gorgeous quartet of guest suites (I was lucky enough to be shown them - pics on their website) each one individually styled and oozing style!
I cannot recommend this place enough, I am confident you will not be disappointed.