Restaurant in Kenilworth, United Kingdom
Michelin-starred value outside the city circuit.
The Cross is Kenilworth's Michelin-starred case for why the Midlands deserves more attention from serious diners. At £80 for three courses, chef Adam Bennett's classically grounded cooking with local sourcing delivers strong value against London equivalents. Book four to six weeks ahead for a weekend table — this is not a walk-in restaurant.
The Cross in Kenilworth is the right restaurant for a food-focused couple or small group who wants a Michelin-starred meal without the formality of a big-city dining room. At £80 for three courses or £105 for the six-course tasting menu, it competes directly with London's mid-tier starred restaurants on quality — and beats them on atmosphere and value. If you are planning a special lunch in the Midlands, a weekend anniversary dinner, or simply want to understand why chef Adam Bennett has earned the descriptor 'a real chef's chef' from his peers, this is the booking to make. If you need something with a lighter price tag or a more casual feel, La Griglia Seafood Grill & Wine Bar is the obvious Kenilworth alternative. For everything else in town, see our full Kenilworth restaurants guide.
The Cross occupies a 19th-century Grade II listed inn on New Street, and the building's different rooms give you meaningfully different experiences. The front bar is a direct pub , worn-in, warm, good for a beer before your table is called. The rear terrace is foliage-enclosed and, on a summer lunch, genuinely one of the more pleasant outdoor eating spots in the county. For dinner, the choice is between the back room, where a kitchen-facing pass lets you watch the brigade at work, and a bright former classroom fitted with hand bell-shaped wall lamps. The classroom room is airier and better lit; the back room is more intimate. Both are a long way from the clinical white-tablecloth rooms that dominate Michelin dining at this level. The layout is a practical consideration: if you are bringing someone who finds formal restaurant settings uncomfortable, The Cross is a low-anxiety choice for a star-rated kitchen.
Cross opens for lunch Wednesday through Sunday, but the weekend service deserves particular attention. Saturday lunch runs until 2:30 PM, giving you a longer window than the 2 PM weekday cutoff, and Sunday extends to 3 PM , one of the more generous Sunday lunch formats at this level in the region. The terrace is the strongest argument for a summer Saturday booking: it is the kind of setting where a three-course lunch at £80 per head feels like a considered treat rather than a financial stretch. Sunday lunch at a Michelin-starred venue in a market town is a specific genre of British dining that The Cross executes well. If weekend dining in relaxed surroundings with serious cooking is your target, this is a better use of a Saturday afternoon than the commute to Birmingham for Opheem, though Opheem is worth the trip for an evening format. For broader weekend planning in the area, our Kenilworth hotels guide, bars guide, and experiences guide are useful starting points.
Bennett's cooking is described in the Michelin record as bold and classically based, with local produce as the anchor. The sourcing is specific: cucumber comes from the nearby Mill Piece market garden, a no-dig operation that supplies the kitchen directly. The approach across the menu is to let strong ingredients hold the plate rather than layer technique for its own sake. Pre-meal snacks , described in the Michelin citation as including cheese croquettes and house sourdough with Ampersand butter , arrive without being on the menu price, which is a meaningful gesture at the £80 three-course level. The tasting menu at £105 is where you see the full range of the kitchen, and the Michelin reviewers note it as the recommended format for a first visit. The wine list, organised by grape variety rather than region, has a bias toward Burgundian Pinot Noir but includes less-expected options: a Polish Hill Riesling from Grosset in Australia's Clare Valley and a minimal-intervention Touriga Nacional from Langhorne Creek are cited as standouts. If wine matters to your decision, this list is more considered than most venues at this price point.
The Cross holds a Michelin star and has a Google rating of 4.7 across 608 reviews , a combination that makes it one of the most in-demand tables in Warwickshire. It is closed Monday and Tuesday, which compresses the available booking slots to five service days per week. Weekend lunch and Friday and Saturday dinner book out weeks in advance. The practical advice is to plan a minimum of four to six weeks out for a weekend slot; midweek lunch (Wednesday through Friday, noon to 2 PM) is your leading chance of a shorter lead time. Dinner runs 6:30 PM to 9 PM across Wednesday through Saturday. If you are comparing the booking difficulty to other regional starred restaurants, The Cross sits in the same bracket as Moor Hall in Aughton and hide and fox in Saltwood , achievable with planning, but not a walk-in proposition.
If The Cross is fully booked or you are building a longer food trip through England's less-travelled starred dining circuit, consider Midsummer House in Cambridge, Gidleigh Park in Chagford, Hand and Flowers in Marlow, or L'Enclume in Cartmel for a more northern itinerary. For British-contemporary cooking outside the UK, Jaan by Kirk Westaway in Singapore is a notable comparison point. For something more rural and informal in a similar vein, Dog and Gun Inn in Skelton is worth a look. Explore Kenilworth's wineries if you are extending the trip. See also The Fat Duck in Bray if you want to compare against England's most technically ambitious kitchens.
| Venue | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|
| The Cross | £££ | — |
| CORE by Clare Smyth | ££££ | — |
| Restaurant Gordon Ramsay | ££££ | — |
| Sketch, The Lecture Room and Library | ££££ | — |
| The Ledbury | ££££ | — |
| Dinner by Heston Blumenthal | ££££ | — |
Comparing your options in Kenilworth for this tier.
The venue data does not specify a formal dietary policy, but a Michelin-starred kitchen running a tasting menu format at £105 per head should be contacted directly ahead of your booking. The cooking is classically based with a strong local produce focus, so substitutions may be possible but are worth confirming before you arrive. Call or email ahead rather than assuming flexibility on the night.
Yes, and it's one of the more practical Michelin-starred options in the Midlands for exactly that use case. The three-course carte at £80 and the six-course tasting menu at £105 sit well below London comparables, and the room choices — counter views of the kitchen pass, leather banquettes, or the foliage-enclosed terrace — let you dial the atmosphere up or down depending on the occasion. For a birthday or anniversary dinner, book the back dining room for the kitchen view.
The Cross occupies a Grade II listed 19th-century inn with a working front bar, which sets a tone that is smart but not stiff. The venue data describes dark red button-back leather banquettes alongside a terrace with flowering pots — more country-inn-with-ambition than white-tablecloth formality. Smart casual fits the setting; there is no documented dress code.
Lunch on the foliage-enclosed terrace on a warm day is the specific call-out in the Michelin record, and Saturday's extended service until 2:30 PM gives it a more relaxed pace than the weekday two-hour lunch window. Dinner in the back room, watching the kitchen team work the pass, is the higher-engagement format. If the weather holds, Saturday lunch on the terrace is the occasion; if you want the full tasting menu experience, book a weekday or Saturday evening.
At £80 for three courses and £105 for the six-course tasting menu, The Cross is priced well below what a comparable Michelin-starred meal costs in London — where the same format typically runs £130–£180 or more. Chef Adam Bennett holds a 2024 Michelin star and a 4.7 Google rating across over 600 reviews, and the sourcing (local market garden produce, quality British ingredients) supports the price point. For a food-focused meal in the Midlands, the value case is strong.
Book at least four to six weeks out for weekend dinner and Saturday lunch, and three to four weeks for midweek slots. The Cross holds a Michelin star in a town of limited fine dining competition, which concentrates demand significantly. Wednesday and Thursday lunch services offer the best chance of a shorter lead time, but don't assume walk-in availability at any session.
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