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David Everitt-Mattias and his wife Helen opened this restaurant in Cheltenham in 1987 with what was supposed to be a three-year trial run.
Rising interest rates and, more importantly, customers who kept coming back meant they stayed for the long haul. What started as creative cooking born from working with tight budgets and foraged ingredients became the restaurant's defining approach rather than a temporary workaround. That inventiveness remains at the heart of what happens in the kitchen today.
The restaurant has climbed to two Michelin stars over its lifetime and currently holds one, making it Gloucestershire's only Michelin-starred establishment. The cooking here genuinely merits that recognition. You'll find it centrally located in Cheltenham's town centre, which makes it a convenient base for exploring the wider area. The Cotswolds radiate outwards from here, so places like Bourton-on-the-Water and Moreton-in-Marsh are within easy reach for day trips. Cheltenham itself is worth spending time in—the Georgian architecture is striking, there are independent shops worth browsing, and plenty of other dining options if you want to eat elsewhere during your stay.
Book as far ahead as you can manage. This is genuinely the kind of place where dinner becomes the focal point of your visit rather than just another meal fitted between other activities.
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