Tom Kerridge's Michelin-starred pub with rooms still delivers after 20 years

Telegraph

17-05-2025

One of the most important parts of a favourite restaurant is a favourite table. For me, that's the furthest on the left outside Ciao Bella on Bloomsbury's Lambs Conduit Street, or the window seat for two on the ground floor of Chez Paul in Paris. These are places where good things have happened – wedding celebrations and birthdays among them.
When I was shown to my table at The Hand and Flowers on a weekday evening recently – halfway through the dining room, with a candle on the window ledge – I had a Sapphire & Steel moment. I'd sat here before, in the second week of March 2020. I remember it well. I'd had the same starter: parsley and lovage soup with smoked eel and apple.
I'd written about the experience five years ago, and raved about that soup, saying the tortellini it came with wasn't so much 'elevated, as rocketed in space… bathed in a soup as vibrant green as a leprechaun'. But you never got to read any of that, because a couple of weeks later… well, you know what happened.
Here I was, back again, as Tom Kerridge celebrates 20 years as custodian of this higgledy-piggledy 18th-century tavern – the first pub in the country to be awarded a Michelin star. It's very much a restaurant with rooms, with suites dotted around various buildings nearby. Last time, I stayed in the Robinswood Hill room. The building it occupies is fairytale-crooked and despite all the 'mind your head' brass plaques, I repeatedly banged into its ceiling beams. It was lovely though.
This time we were in the Penny Bun suite, in Mushroom House, one of the most recent additions to the portfolio of places to stay after dinner. It has twin baths in the basement that are narrow and hobbit-like, inspired by Japanese tubs. We didn't find time to use them but did jump into the hot tub in the garden after dinner.
I loved this suite, with its dark wood and brown leather armchairs, a wonky white gate used as a wall decoration above the bed (on busy red and white wallpaper), and bulbous blown-glass chandeliers that look like bunches of grapes. Many people come to town for a two-night stay, having dinner at the Hand and Flowers first, then the next night at its sibling The Coach. For a foodie splurge an easy train ride from London, it's hard to better.
The food is the thing, of course. Come hungry, leave leaden but happy. This absolutely isn't a date-night location for couples on Ozempic. There's nothing light about the menu, which is devised for the more carnivorous gourmand. I started with the house aged negroni in the bar while perusing the rest of the drinks menu. There's a fancy tea list, which starts with 'Builder's Tea served in a mug', summing up the Kerridge comfort factor perfectly. There's also a specially branded Hand and Flowers sparkling wine by Hattingley Valley in Hampshire that I'd recommend wholeheartedly as an apéritif.
I remember thinking on previous visits that lunch or dinner seemed violently expensive here, even with service included in all the pricing. But with the Classics menu at £95, or the fancier House menu at £175 (both are three courses, the latter with some more frills), it now feels on par with a dinner anywhere high-end back in the capital.
After a repeat of the starter enjoyed years before, I ordered the Devon duck breast and cherry 'pie' with duck liver and marmalade sauce and confit bon bon. This was lush, dark and gory, and utterly delicious – a ring of pastry filled with pink poultry. Foie gras sauce was drizzled over it at the table, next to a meaty croquette with a zing of Sichuan pepper.
My husband had pork, which he thought might have been slightly overcooked, but overall, the verdict was 'spectacular, although way too much food'. Pudding didn't happen. I blame the bread. The revelation of the evening was the Fitapreta Touriga Vai Nua red that I had with my duck. It's a light, cherry-tasting wine made from Portuguese Touriga Nacional grapes, similar to Tempranillo; no oak, plays well with muscular red meats. I sank four glasses.
Which brings me to breakfast. Again, hearty. A continental option of toast and pastries with Greek yogurt and honey is available, but the smoked haddock with poached egg and chive butter sauce seems most popular. I went rogue, ordering poached egg on toast and a single sausage. Simple and excellent, setting me up for a day of what felt like terminal acid reflux, with a few enforced vegetarian days to follow.
Doubles from £325, breakfast included. There are no fully accessible rooms owing to the period architecture.
The Hand and Flowers, 126 West St, Marlow SL7 2BP (01628 482277)