Windsor Dining - Our 3 Top Picks!

Antico
Cuisine ITALIAN
Hours Mon-Fri 12:30-2:30pm; Mon-Sat 7-10:30pm
Address 42 High St
Location Eton, In the Windsor Area
Reservations Reservations strongly recommended
Phone 01753/863977
Prices Main courses £11-£20 ($21-$38); 3-course fixed price lunch menu £13 ($25)
Credit Cards AE, MC, V
Season Closed bank holidays
Eton's finest Italian restaurant, Antico serves Mediterranean food in a formal setting. People have been dining here for 200 years, though not from an Italian menu. On your way to the tiny bar, you pass a cold table, displaying hors d'oeuvres and cold meats. With many fish dishes, such as grilled fresh salmon, Dover sole, or sea bass, and a wide selection of pastas, the food is substantial and filling -- a good value, but rarely exciting.


The Oak Leaf Restaurant at the Oakley Court Hotel
Cuisine INTERNATIONAL
Hours Daily 7-10am, 12:30-2:30pm (no lunch on Sun), and 7-10pm
Location Windsor Rd., Water Oakley, Windsor, In the Windsor Area
Reservations Reservations recommended
Phone 01753/609988
Prices Main courses £17-£30 ($32-$57); table d'hôte lunch and dinner £30 ($57)
Credit Cards AE, DC, MC, V
In the mid-1990s, this chic London restaurant, known for its delectable food and sophisticated clientele, moved from central London to this new setting beside the Thames. Today, under the supervision of chef Damien Bradley, the reincarnated Oak Leaf serves a modern cuisine that may include a parfait of duck livers with a confit of red onions and mandarin oranges, or a pâté of Scottish salmon with creamed leeks served with broad beans and a red-wine shallot sauce.


The Fat Duck
Cuisine MODERN
Hours Tues-Sat noon-1:45pm and 7-9:45pm
Address 1 High St
Location Bray, Nearby Places
Transportation Leave the motorway at Exit 4. On the roundabout, take the exit to Maidenhead (A404M/M4) and follow the dual Carriage Way to the roundabout at the M4. Take the first left exit to Maidenhead Central. At the second roundabout, take the exit to Bray and Windsor (A308). Continue for half a mile and turn left at the sign to Bray Village (B3028). After entering the village, continue past the bottleneck; The Fat Duck is on the right hand side adjacent to the Hinds Head Hotel.
Reservations Reservations required
Phone 01628/580333
Prices Fixed-price lunch £35 ($67); fixed-price dinner £59 ($112) for 2 courses, £65 ($124) for 3 courses
Credit Cards AE, DC, DISC, MC, V
In the post nouvelle cuisine era, the self-taught master chef Heston Blumenthal is pioneering a type of cuisine known as "molecular gastronomy." His results are hailed by many British food critics as the "hottest and most exciting restaurant in the country." Molecular cookery, in Blumenthal's vocabulary, means "understanding the science of cooking and experiencing its varied results." That may not mean a lot to you, but it leads to questioning techniques and theories of cooking known for centuries. Who said, for example, that an ice cream can't be made of crab or that mashed potatoes can't be mixed with lime jelly? The grain mustard ice cream and the red cabbage gazpacho were firsts for us -- and a delight. Don't become unduly alarmed. Not all dishes are this experimental.