Chef Sam Brennan's The Braywood offers a modern British gastropub experience with locally sourced, seasonal menus. It's located in a renovated historic pub.
Insights
SteakhouseSeafood
Key Information
Stylish new restaurant; classic cookery with a modern twist; excellent service; picturesque setting; reasonable prices.
BRILLIANT FOOD, BEAUTIFUL SETTING 🌿✨ We had a fantastic meal at The Braywood and came away genuinely impressed. Another Heston Blumenthal concept that gets the fundamentals absolutely right while adding just enough creativity to make it memorable.
Pros 👍
🌿 Beautiful setting – the conversion from a small house into a modern garden restaurant has been done brilliantly. Despite being next to a road, you barely notice it.
🍽️ Exceptional food – every course was excellent and we cleared every plate. The cooking is precise, thoughtful and packed with flavour.
✨ Classic Heston attention to detail – all the basics are executed perfectly, with clever twists that enhance the dishes rather than overwhelm them.
🍸 Fantastic cocktails – beautifully balanced, well-made and every bit as good as you’d expect from a Heston venue.
💷 Great value for the quality – dinner for two with drinks came to around £160–£170, which felt very reasonable given the standard of food and service.
Cons 🤔
🌡️ The indoor dining room isn’t air-conditioned, so I imagine it could get quite warm on hotter summer days. That said, there’s plenty of lovely outdoor seating, which seemed to be the preferred choice for many guests.
Would we return? Absolutely. A beautiful venue, excellent food and drinks, and a very enjoyable dining experience from start to finish. Highly recommended. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Good food, although not quite as good as I hoped for a couple of our choices. Some staff a 5, but I think we got unlucky by not really having a dedicated waiter / waitress. I did receive a bonus treat for my birthday which was a nice touch, but it was plonked down in front of me with a "is it your birthday?" then the same individual was cracking his knuckles right next to my head when I was paying for the meal. Not quite in keeping with the rest of the atmosphere and overall feel of the restaurant. The combination of the slow service and that knocked it down a tad for me, but still an enjoyable meal.
Despite being very quiet as it was 1st week in January lunchtime the experience was wonderful - quality all round and the set menu is tremendous value - congratulations. The atmosphere is very modern Nordic with lots of wood and big windows for lots of light. The wine list is very extensive and innovative - esp the restaurants own English dessert wine. The menu was exquisite with good sized portions and great quality. The staff are very knowledgeable and engaging. I will definitely be coming back to experience this again .
Very nice restaurant with delicious but limited menu. Every dish was well cooked, tasty, and presented. Service was very friendly with a relaxing ambiance.
We recently enjoyed a wonderful evening at The Braywood and overall had an excellent experience. The food was beautifully presented and absolutely delicious throughout, and the ambience struck just the right balance of relaxed yet special. It’s clearly a restaurant that takes pride in both its menu and atmosphere.
Service during most of the evening was attentive and professional. However, after dessert there was a noticeable drop-off in attention, which felt a little disappointing at this level and price point. We weren’t offered coffee or another drink, and after requesting the bill there was quite a delay before it arrived. It seemed as though staffing had reduced towards the end of service.
That said, I mentioned this to Rachel, part of the front of house team, who handled the situation very graciously and apologised sincerely. The sommelier also kindly offered to remove our aperitifs from the bill, which we declined as we simply wanted to mention the issue rather than seek compensation.
We were fortunate that the meal was a gift from our son, and we were more than happy to pay additions to our voucher to experience the fabulous wine. However the expectation is high for the price point and understandably for the service to remain polished through to the end of the evening.
Despite this small glitch, we thoroughly enjoyed our visit and would absolutely return. The quality of the food and overall experience made it a very memorable evening.
