Restaurant in Cheltenham, United Kingdom
Serious Anglo-French cooking, Cheltenham prices.
Le Champignon Sauvage has been delivering serious Anglo-French cooking in Cheltenham for over 35 years, with La Liste recognition (82.5pts in 2025) and a wine list priced more generously than comparable London restaurants. The fixed-price format runs Wednesday to Saturday only; book at least three to four weeks ahead. At ££££, it is the strongest case for a destination meal in the Cotswolds.
Le Champignon Sauvage is the right booking for food and wine enthusiasts who want serious Anglo-French cooking outside London at a price point that would be difficult to replicate in the capital. After more than 35 years in Cheltenham's Montpellier district, David and Helen Everitt-Matthias have built something rare: a fixed-price restaurant with genuine technical ambition and a wine list priced to encourage exploration rather than anxiety. If that combination appeals to you, book well ahead — this is not a walk-in venue. If you are after something more casual or simply want Indian food of comparable quality in Cheltenham, Bhoomi Kitchen or Memsahib's Lounge offer strong alternatives at lower price points.
There are restaurants that survive three decades and there are restaurants that earn them. Le Champignon Sauvage, operating from Suffolk Road since the late 1980s, belongs firmly in the second category. The Opinionated About Dining guide has ranked it in its Classical Europe list for consecutive years — #349 in 2024, rising to #423 in 2025 , and La Liste placed it at 82.5 points in 2025 and 80 points in 2026. For a restaurant in a Cotswolds spa town rather than a capital city, that consistency across independent credentialing is the clearest signal available that this is not a legacy institution coasting on reputation.
The dining room itself signals intent without theatrics. Sandy and stony tones carry the space, offset by contemporary art that gives it visual interest without turning the room into a gallery distraction. The layout reads as spacious rather than intimate, which makes it work for occasions where conversation matters as much as the food. It is not the hushed reverence of a two-Michelin room in London , think CORE by Clare Smyth or The Fat Duck in Bray for that register , but it is a considered, grown-up space that suits anniversary dinners, serious food conversations, and guests arriving with curiosity rather than a checklist.
The cooking sits at the intersection of French technique and British produce, and the menu rotates with what the season makes available. This is where the PEA-R-09 angle matters practically: what you eat in August will differ materially from what you eat in winter, and that is by design rather than accident. Autumn visits tend to surface girolles, game, and the kind of earthy combinations that French technique handles well. Summer produces lighter expressions , think lemongrass bisque, poached stone fruit, yoghurt sorbet. Spring brings the lamb, peas, and green herbs that anchor the classic repertoire. Desserts are consistently a high point regardless of season: the chocolate délice with pistachio ice cream has drawn repeated notice in independent reviews, and the cheese selection runs to approximately two dozen options for those who want to extend the meal in that direction.
Fixed-price format applies at both lunch and dinner, which has practical implications. Lunch runs from 12:30 PM to 1:15 PM , a tight window , and dinner from 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM, similarly compressed. These are not leisurely open-ended sittings; last orders are early by metropolitan standards. The kitchen's approach to flavour is characteristically French in its range: some combinations arrive fully formed and direct, others develop slowly across the plate. The repertoire is technically demanding , combinations like pigeon with black pudding, chocolate ganache, cherries and radicchio are only possible in a kitchen with the confidence to hold them together. The bread basket and petits fours frame the meal at both ends, and reviewers consistently note the petits fours as a signal of how seriously the kitchen takes finishing work.
Wine list deserves its own paragraph because it changes the value calculation. House Chardonnay and Pinot Noir open at £28 a bottle (£8 a glass), and markups across the list are consistently more generous than comparable London restaurants. An extensive half-bottle selection makes it possible to match wines course-by-course without committing to full bottles throughout. For wine-focused guests, this is a more thoughtful offering than you will find at most ££££ restaurants at this price tier. Compare this to L'Enclume in Cartmel or Moor Hall in Aughton, where wine programmes are equally serious but markups reflect the full destination premium. Le Champignon Sauvage is more accessible on the wine side without sacrificing depth.
For context on the broader category, contemporary French cooking at this technical level is comparatively rare in England outside London. Gidleigh Park in Chagford and Hand and Flowers in Marlow operate in adjacent territory. In France itself, the register sits closest to restaurants like Flocons de Sel in Megève or Kei in Paris , serious kitchens with French foundations and enough creative latitude to avoid feeling museum-like. Le Champignon Sauvage has operated in this space for over 35 years without losing the energy that reviewers note specifically: this is a kitchen that still commits.
The Google rating of 4.6 across 281 reviews reflects a consistent guest experience rather than viral moments. That is the right kind of rating for a restaurant at this level: not a spike driven by social media attention, but sustained satisfaction from guests who booked deliberately and came with informed expectations.
Book as far ahead as possible , ideally several weeks in advance for dinner, and at least two to three weeks for weekend lunch. The operating window is Wednesday to Saturday only, with last orders at 1:15 PM for lunch and 8:30 PM for dinner. There is no walk-in culture here: the format is timed sittings with fixed-price menus. Check the restaurant's website directly for current availability. For the wider Cheltenham dining picture, see our full Cheltenham restaurants guide.
It works for a solo diner if you are the kind of guest who treats a serious meal as an event in itself. The dining room is spacious rather than intimate, so you will not feel crowded or conspicuous. The fixed-price format means there are no awkward a-la-carte decisions, and the wine list's half-bottle selection is genuinely useful when dining alone. That said, the timed sitting format and the price point at ££££ make more sense when the occasion warrants it. If you are in Cheltenham solo and want something lighter and more flexible, Purslane at £££ offers modern British cooking with less scheduling pressure.
At minimum, two to three weeks out for any sitting. For dinner Friday or Saturday, expect that to stretch to four to six weeks during busy periods, including race weeks and summer. The restaurant operates only Wednesday to Saturday with narrow last-orders windows, which concentrates demand into a small number of covers each week. Booking difficulty is rated Hard: do not plan a Cheltenham trip around this restaurant without confirming the reservation first. Compare this to Lumière, which operates at a similar price tier in Cheltenham and requires comparable forward planning.
Yes, at the ££££ price point, it delivers value that is difficult to find at this technical level outside London. The fixed-price menu, wine list markups more generous than comparable city restaurants, and the consistency across 35-plus years of independent recognition all support the price. La Liste has placed it at 82.5 points (2025) and OAD has ranked it consecutively in its Classical Europe list. For Anglo-French cooking at this standard, you would pay significantly more at CORE by Clare Smyth or The Fat Duck. Within Cheltenham, nothing else in the same cuisine territory competes at this level.
The fixed-price format is the only format available at Le Champignon Sauvage, so the question is really whether the menu as a whole justifies the spend. Based on independent review data: yes. The cooking is technically demanding, the extras (creative nibbles through to petits fours) are substantive rather than decorative, and desserts in particular are a consistent high point. The kitchen's approach to seasonal produce means the menu changes meaningfully across the year, so a return visit in a different season is a genuinely different experience. If you are comparing against other destination fixed-price experiences in England, L'Enclume sits above it in ambition and price; Le Champignon Sauvage offers comparable technical seriousness at a more accessible total cost.
Lunch is the better entry point if you are visiting for the first time or want to manage costs. Fixed-price lunch menus at serious Anglo-French restaurants typically run at a lower price than dinner, and the Wednesday-to-Saturday lunch window (12:30 PM–1:15 PM) is easier to book than weekend dinner slots. The trade-off is the tight last-orders time: 1:15 PM means you need to arrive close to opening. Dinner offers the fuller occasion, and the evening sitting suits the cooking's register more naturally. For an anniversary or celebration meal, dinner is the right call. For a first visit or a more relaxed afternoon in the Cotswolds, book lunch and plan your afternoon around it. See our Cheltenham experiences guide for afternoon options nearby.
| Venue | Price | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Le Champignon Sauvage | ££££ | Hard | — |
| Lumière | ££££ | Unknown | — |
| Bhoomi Kitchen | ££ | Unknown | — |
| Memsahib's Lounge | £££ | Unknown | — |
| Purslane | £££ | Unknown | — |
| JOURNEY | Unknown | — |
Comparing your options in Cheltenham for this tier.
It works well for solo diners. The fixed-price format at both lunch and dinner means there are no awkward ordering decisions, and the dining room's understated tone suits focused, unhurried eating. Given the narrow service windows — lunch runs just 45 minutes, dinner under an hour — it's a format that rewards full attention to the food rather than conversation-heavy group meals.
Book several weeks ahead for dinner and at least two to three weeks out for weekend lunch. The restaurant opens only four days a week — Wednesday through Saturday — with a single lunch sitting and a single dinner sitting each day, which means available slots are genuinely limited. Don't treat this as a walk-in option.
At ££££ in Cheltenham rather than London, the value case is strong. The fixed-price menus are repeatedly cited for being well-priced relative to the cooking standard, and the wine list — with house options starting at £28 a bottle — has markups that city diners will find notably fair. For technically precise Anglo-French cooking with over 35 years of consistency and a La Liste ranking, this is one of the clearer value arguments at this price tier outside the capital.
The fixed-price format here runs across both lunch and dinner, and the cooking builds across the full sequence — from a strong bread basket through to desserts that are consistently flagged as a kitchen strength. If you're booking, go for the full progression rather than editing it. The dessert course alone, whether a chocolate délice or cheesecake, is worth holding room for.
Lunch is the sharper value play — the fixed-price format runs at both services, but midday lets you extend the afternoon in the Montpellier area without a late finish. Dinner gives you the full evening ritual and more time with the wine list, which has genuine depth and an extensive half-bottle selection. If it's your first visit, lunch is the lower-risk entry point; if wine is central to the occasion, dinner is the better fit.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
