Salisbury - Where to Eat
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Here's a range of
different styles of restaurants that will ensure you don't
go hungry during your time in this charming town.
Part
3 of a 4 part series - click for Parts
One
Two Three
Four |
Whether you're looking for
traditional British fish and chips, or some 'pub grub', or
something more elaborate, there'll be somewhere that will
cheerfully serve you what you're looking for in Salisbury.
The Brasserie @ 206
The Brasserie @ 206 is the name of the
long established restaurant at the Milford
Hall Hotel. This is more a formal ‘white tablecloth’ type dining
room where you feel the need for a suit and tie (indeed they
indicate that this is their ‘preferred’ dress), but the food is
of high quality and so too is the service, and it holds an AA
rosette.
LXIX
LXIX (‘69’) is a modern styled restaurant at 69 New Street with
an associated bistro next to it. It offers a varied cuisine, is
recommended by locals, and has a modern feel to its décor. It is
probably the most expensive restaurant in Salisbury, but we
can’t promise that it is also the best.
Update - they are now
(summer 2008) moving to operate out of the Kings Arms hotel, and
their pricing is no longer quite as high as it formerly had
been.
Grasmere House Hotel
The restaurant at Grasmere House Hotel is very good, especially
for a small hotel. The menu changes daily, and typically
features five or six main courses and a similar number of
appetizers and desserts. Prices range between £3-4.50 for
appetizers, £15-18 for mains, and £4.50 for desserts. There is
usually also a vegetarian main course (less expensive), and the
cuisine is a mixture of traditional (eg Roast Lamb or Roast
Beef) plus also more modern cuisine, with a slight touch of
Indian influence (their chef is Indian) thrown in for good
measure. (01722)338-388
Jade Restaurant
Perhaps you fancy a change of cuisine. The Jade Restaurant at
109a Exeter St offers a good range of Cantonese style food
(mainly fish dishes) and is another place recommended by ‘the
locals’. It has been in business for quite a long
time and continues to consistently please.
 The Old Mill
And for a lovely setting,
combined with ordinary ‘pub grub’, try the beer garden at The Old Mill, just off Mill Road on the Town
Path to Harnham. This restaurant and hotel has parts of its
building (which is indeed an old water mill) dating back to
1135, and provides eleven acceptable quality two star rooms as
well as a ‘pub grub’ type bar and restaurant.
The distinctive feature of this venue – quite apart from the
lovely walk across the fields from the Cathedral to the Old Mill
– is its outdoor beer garden, with the river that powers the
mill a prominent feature. If the weather is good, head to the
Old Mill; lunch 12-2 every day and dinner 7-9 daily except
Sunday. You might even see otters as well as plenty of ducks and
swans in the mill stream.
Strada Restaurant
Now that the La Luna
restaurant is no more, if you are looking for Italian food you
might want to consider the Strada Restaurant at 32 Marketplace.
They are open for lunch and dinner seven days a week.
(01722)321-213.
Anokaa Restaurant
One of the results of the
former British Empire and India's prominent part of that is the
large number of restaurants in Britain with Indian style food.
One such example, in Salisbury, is Anokaa, located at 60
Fisherton St. They provide a good range of Indian style
foods, and are open for lunch and dinner every day.
(01722)414-142.
The Lemon Tree
Situated close to the
cathedral at 92 Crane St, The Lemon Tree has an ambitious menu
with food cooked in 'haute cuisine' style and usually succeed in
their attempts. A nice conservatory and garden make this
more than just a typical room with tables and chairs, and adds
to the ambience on a nice day. Open for lunch and dinner
Mon - Sat, closed on Sunday. (01722)333-471.
Traditional Fish and Chips and
other Takeaways
If your needs are simply for a snack, there is a good takeaway
fish and chip shop almost immediately next to the Tourist
Information Center, and a lovely bakery adjacent.
Consider going further afield -
Romsey
If you're wanting to go for
a day tour out of Salisbury down to Romsey and
Broadlands
(former home of Lord Louis Mountbatten - truly one of the very
greatest soldier/statesmen of the 20th century), then there are
a number of surprising good quality restaurants to enjoy in the
small village of Romsey.
Do please visit the church
in Romsey to honor Mountbatten's unassuming burial site inside
the church.
Haunch of Venison
Lastly, a good example of the danger of relying on out of date
guidebooks can be found if dining at the well known ‘Haunch of
Venison’, located in the center of the city on Minster Street.
For many years this was well regarded, and it served archetypal
English food in a lovely medieval half-timbered building in the
center of the city. Its location and building were probably its
prime claims to fame rather than its cooking, a situation which
has now become even more pronounced.
The owners seem to be
allowing the restaurant to exist on its reputation and location,
and - based on our culinary disappointment - are making little
effort to provide either good food or good service.
For example, my steak, ordered ‘medium-well’, was served very
rare, so I returned it to be cooked some more. Rather than
putting it back under the grill, they just microwaved it!
Indifferent service and unappealing food.
Not recommended.
On the other hand, the
building is interesting, and you might enjoy stopping there for
a drink in one of their several small downstairs bar areas.
They have some refreshing real ales.
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Originally published
15 Apr 2003, last update
30 May 2021
You may freely reproduce or distribute this article for noncommercial purposes as long as you give credit to me as original writer.
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