The best restaurants serving British food in Ampthill Central Bedfordshire East of England

To start with, despite my rating I do want to say that the food was absolutely faultless. I would go so far as to say it was the best taster menu I've ever had. Perhaps the best meal I've ever had if I'm honest! Every dish was so expertly put together and each one hit all the right flavour notes. You could tell that Steve has worked hard to ensure everything is perfectly balanced. The dish presentation was elegant and didn't feel pretentious, unlike some other taster menus I've had (costing far more) which seemed more about visual wow factor than actually tasting delicious and leaving you wanting more. The service was also excellent and there was a good atmosphere. The waiter was upbeat and there was a bit of well-judged banter too. Each dish was presented with a brief intro to the ingredients, and a nice touch was that Steve also presented a couple of the dishes himself. If this is all that matters to you, you can stop reading my review now because the rest is nitpicking, but for a premium experience I feel a few tweaks would have made for a knockout evening. The points below are far from dealbreakers, so please do take that into account - they absolutely shouldn't stop you going. - No prices on the drinks menu and no beer on offer. I think the wine list may have had pricing, but we don't drink wine so we were looking at what else was on offer. I assume that people will generally go to Eileen's with a healthy budget, and perhaps not really care what they're going to add on top of the taster menu price (which, for what it is, is very good value). However, it felt really awkward to be asking the waiter for the cost of a G+T - and he didn't come back with an answer so we just ordered anyway, not knowing what we would be billed. We also felt that the drinks menu presentation was poor - it was a set of laminated A4 sheets of paper, which just didn't feel premium. There weren't any beers on the drinks menu either - but given that the sheets were all separate, I just wonder if one was missing as we thought this was odd. - Decor. We were in the downstairs area, and it feels like there's a disparity between the food proposition and the environment. There are some uplighters dotted around which feel quite dated, but the thing that felt very non-premium were the cheap LED rechargeable table lamps. When we were seated, the waiter turned it on and within a few minutes it started flickering which was really distracting so I turned it off, which kind of killed the ambience. I asked for a replacement and that one ran out of power within a couple of minutes. The waiter did spot this, calling them the bane of his life, and replaced with a simple candle which was so much more appropriate anyway. They should honestly throw them all away and stick with candles - keep it simple! I would say that the upstairs area, where the bar is, had a bit more appeal. - Music. While the music choice was absolutely fine (rather upbeat for premium dining, but it worked) the music service was a free one - meaning that every few songs an advert came on, like we were listening to a local radio station. This really cheapened the whole thing, and although it probably went unnoticed by people in deep conversation, once I noticed it once, each time an advert came on it really jarred with me. Like I said, the food was absolutely sensational, the service was great and the things above wouldn't stop us returning. I've only docked a point because at this price point you have certain expectations, and there were a few things about the environment that fell a little short - but so easily fixed.

Only place in Bedfordshire worth going to watch live sport. I live in Bedford and travel over every weekend to watch the football in the engine - that's how good it is.

Took a friend for afternoon tea for her birthday, lovely little tea shop, excellent afternoon tea, would highly recommend

I went to the duchess tea rooms with my sister, niece and my daughter. Right from the helpful lady on the gate we were greeted by smiling helpful staff. The manager of the shop directed us to the tearooms. Our waitress Megan was helpful and...

Attended a wake for my Brother-in-law . The staff were very friendly and helpful with everyone . Food was well presented and good quality . It's a lovely little pub . Highly recommend . Must go back in happier circumstances .

Very small bar area imo. Otherwise very good.

Came for a delicious Sunday roast and it didn’t disappoint. Beef was gorgeous potatoes nice and crispy and not forgetting the massive yorkie. Gravy is to die for!! Thoroughly enjoyed by all thank you to jazmin for getting us a lovely spot in the bar area. Be back on Sunday !! Haha !!

The best in everything they serve! The fish and chips are great , big juicy cod and perfect chips . You cant go wrong with any of the meat kebabs all high quality meat cooked perfectly :-) the ampthill special kebab will feed two hungry people !

Dropped in here today to have a drink & a bit to eat whilst having a debriefing meetin with a colleague, i had a frappe & panini, The staff were friendly & smiling, always a good start, the place is relaxed & clean with ample seating, the frappe & panini were nice, wish they did a bigger frappe but thats my fault as i seem addicted to them during the summer,lol, We were able to talk without disturbing others & unlike some establishments like this they didn’t seat you so your almost on someone else’s table, the table spacing gave you your own personal space,

Had a lovely evening! Great food and our waitress was wonderful! Sadly I didn't catch her name but when I come back I hope she's there. Thanks for the mushroom pasta recommendation!

Heading to a 1970s weekend - stopped here by chance. Food was good and reasonably priced with big portions. Would stop here again if our route took us past.

We were invited to try this pub, and we were not disappointed. Service was in good time and friendly, we didn't feel like we were left waiting but felt like we had enough time to choose what we wanted without feeling rushed. The food we had was very tasty, my wife having the Porchetta and I had the fish and chips, both were very tasty. I gave in to temptation and l had the Apple crumble, this was a lot larger than we had expected. No wonder the waiter brought two spoons! My only critique is that it could have done with more than one small scoop of ice cream. I'm sure if I would have asked I could have had another as it didn't last the crumble. But it didn't ruin a loverly meal and experience. The manager even recommended a trip across the road to the antique store, where my wife managed to find a much searched for Umbrella stand, so thank you for that too.

The cottage bakery made a birthday cake for my daughters 8th Birthday. It was made exactly to my specification with matching cupcakes to go with it. My daughter loved the design and both the cake and cupcakes tasted amazing. Would definitely recommend.