This review is for the restaurant, not the hotel.

My family and I visited The Olive Branch to celebrate my brother’s 18th birthday, and it did not disappoint!

The interior is cosy and rustic, fitting for the English countryside. The staff were attentive and kind. Water was always refilled, etc. We felt well taken care of.

The lunch menu is a combination of classics with some more modern techniques, which is exciting to try and eat! The dishes were flavourful, every element had a purpose and was cooked to perfection.

The desserts were tasty and well presented. The wine list was extensive (not huge like some other places), but certainly had some great options.

If I had to be picky, my only suggestion would be to get some better quality serviettes, the ones we used were slightly thin, and lacked that quality feel.

Would definitely recommend! We will be coming back around Christmas (if we manage to get a table as they are booked months in advance).

– Tatiana Limonova

My favourite restaurant in the East Midlands.

Beautiful food and impeccable service every single time we go. Nothing is too difficult for them either—I’ve recently discovered I can’t eat onions and they had a stock preserved without onions. I couldn’t believe the level of thought and consideration they employ for guests and am so grateful!

It is expensive but worth every penny in my opinion. A wonderful treat.

– Ania L

I visited the restaurant today with my wife, and whilst the food was good, I did not feel it was amazing, and the service was lacking despite the "discretionary" service charge.

We had booked for the Lunch for Less menu, which was a nice way to get us to visit a Michelin starred restaurant. When we arrived we weren't shown to our table so much as told where our table was. This seemed to set the tone for the service.

I ordered the black pudding starter, which looked beautiful and tasted fine, but became quite monotonous – there weren't many options for getting different combinations into one mouthful. We both had the chicken as the main course, which was beatifully tender, with a really rich jus, but again, there were no little additions to the dish so it became quite repetitive, albeit tasty. For dessert we both had the bread and butter pudding, which was a fairly generous portion, but with a very small amount of creme anglaise.

The young waiter serving us gave us a description of each dish, but not until we were paying were we asked how we found the food. Perhaps it was because we ate from the Lunch for Less menu, but I didn't find the food very exciting and the service was lacking despite the service charge.

– Tim Riley