Restaurant in Preston, United Kingdom
Preston's best case for serious fine dining.
Preston's most technically serious restaurant, Aven holds a Michelin Plate for 2024 and 2025 and delivers Modern British set-menu cooking across just seven tables in a sharply designed room near Avenham Park. At the £££ price point, it undercuts the county's most decorated addresses while matching them on ambition. Book two to four weeks ahead for evenings.
Aven is the most compelling reason to seek out fine dining in Preston right now. Holding a Michelin Plate in both 2024 and 2025, this seven-table Modern British room delivers technically precise, ingredient-led cooking at the £££ price point — a relative rarity outside Lancashire's established circuit of Moor Hall and L'Enclume. If you're already planning a visit to the county for the food, Aven belongs on the itinerary. If you're in Preston for other reasons and wondering whether dinner here is worth rearranging your evening around, the answer is yes — provided you're comfortable with set menus and a small, intimate room.
The physical experience at Aven starts with the space itself, and it sets the tone for everything that follows. Seven tables occupy a compact room dressed in dark olive panelling, with brilliant white door frames cutting clean lines across the walls. Glass panels partition the space without closing it off entirely, lending the room a sense of considered structure rather than squeeze. Menus arrive in small envelopes printed with the name of the booking , a detail that signals the level of care applied throughout the meal. At this scale, seating is the format: there is no bar dining, no drop-in option, no large group arrangement that doesn't consume most of the room. What you get instead is a dinner that feels deliberately contained, and that intimacy is core to why the room works. For solo diners or couples who want focused attention in a quiet setting, this is the format; for groups of four or more, it's worth checking availability carefully, since a party that size represents a meaningful share of the room's capacity on any given service.
Aven opened in October 2023, making 2025 the end of its second full year of operation , a milestone worth noting because the kitchen appears to be finding its range. The set four-course menu is the weekday workhorse, while the evening tasting format adds two more courses for those who want the fuller expression of what chef-director Oli Martin (formerly of Northcote, among others) is building here. A vegetarian alternative runs in parallel, which is practical for mixed-party bookings.
On a first visit, the structure of the meal rewards attention. The opening soup , fermented mushroom, Jersey Royals, maitake, peas, braised radishes, smoked eel and chicken skin , is a dish dense enough in technique and flavour to recalibrate expectations for what follows. The fish course, a sliver of monkfish in brown butter finished with baby leek and pickled magnolia petal, demonstrates that the kitchen is willing to reach beyond safe pairings. The chicken breast main , braised and puréed turnips, wild garlic pesto, strong chicken jus , has drawn the most attention for good reason: it is a clean, precise execution of a dish that lesser kitchens make ordinary. Dessert is the one course where presentation has drawn mixed responses, with its components clustered at the edge of an oversized platter, though the individual elements (honeycomb, apple-peel tuile, cultured cream, pine parfait) are well-made.
On a second visit, the tasting menu is the logical progression. The extra two courses allow the kitchen to work through a wider range of the seasonal larder, and the wine pairing list , which opens with small-glass recommendations from £8 , is designed specifically to accompany that extended format. The list is modest in size but curated for pairing depth rather than breadth, which suits the room's focused approach. For a third visit, arriving at a different point in the season is the leading strategy: Martin's sourcing is rooted in the Lancashire and northern English produce calendar, which means the menu shifts meaningfully across the year. A spring visit centred around wild garlic and Jersey Royals reads differently from an autumn meal anchored in game and root vegetables.
At seven tables, Aven books up faster than its low profile in the national conversation might suggest. Booking two to three weeks ahead is a sensible baseline; for weekend evenings, extend that to a month, particularly as the restaurant's Michelin recognition continues to draw diners from beyond Preston. The address is 10 Camden Place, PR1 3JL, in a backstreet close to Avenham Park , not a high-street location, so factor in the navigation. Service is described as slick and professional, which at this price point is the expected standard, and the room delivers on it. The £££ pricing puts Aven meaningfully below the ££££ tier occupied by the county's most decorated tables, and for what the kitchen is currently producing, that gap represents genuine value. For the full picture on dining options in the city, see our full Preston restaurants guide. If you're building a wider Lancashire trip, our Preston hotels guide, bars guide, and experiences guide cover the surrounding picture.
Aven sits comfortably alongside other Michelin-recognised Modern British rooms at the £££ tier. For context on where the cooking style places it nationally, CORE by Clare Smyth, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, and The Ritz Restaurant represent the upper tier of the same broad tradition in London, all operating at ££££. Within the north of England, Moor Hall in Aughton and L'Enclume in Cartmel are the region's benchmark addresses , both more decorated and more expensive, with Moor Hall holding multiple Michelin stars. Aven is a tier below in recognition terms, but at the current price point it represents a more accessible entry into serious northern cooking, and it is demonstrably building. For regional comparison further afield, Midsummer House in Cambridge and Opheem in Birmingham occupy a similar position in their respective cities: Michelin-recognised rooms with strong creative programmes that haven't yet fully crossed over into national consciousness. Aven is worth booking before that changes.
Yes, at the £££ price point and with two consecutive Michelin Plate recognitions (2024 and 2025), Aven delivers enough technical precision to justify the spend. It sits well below the ££££ tier of the north's most decorated addresses , Moor Hall and L'Enclume , and for what the kitchen is currently producing, the value gap is real. If Modern British set-menu dining is your format, this is a good use of the price point.
For a first visit, the four-course set menu is the logical choice , it covers the kitchen's range without overcommitting. The extended tasting menu (which adds two courses to the evening format) makes more sense on a return visit, when you're already oriented to the style and want to see where the kitchen pushes further. The wine pairing list, starting from £8 by the small glass, is designed to accompany the longer format and adds genuine coherence to the meal.
Two to three weeks ahead covers most midweek evenings. For weekend dinners, book a month out, especially now that consecutive Michelin Plate recognition has broadened the restaurant's draw beyond Preston. At seven tables, the room fills quickly and there is no meaningful walk-in option.
Yes , the format is built for it. Menus arrive in envelopes printed with the booking name, the room is intimate, and the service standard is consistently described as slick and professional. At £££, it sits at a price point that reads as a treat without reaching the ££££ tier. Couples and small groups work well here; larger parties should check capacity carefully, since four people at a seven-table room is a significant footprint.
With only seven tables, large groups are structurally difficult. A party of four occupies a meaningful share of the room's capacity on any given service. There is no private dining room information available, so contact the restaurant directly to discuss options if you're booking for five or more. The set menu format does simplify group logistics , everyone eats from the same structure.
No. Aven is a small set-menu room with seven tables and no bar seating option. The format is sit-down dining from a fixed menu structure, and the room's design , dark panelling, glass partitions, table-only layout , is built entirely around that experience. If you want a more informal entry point, the four-course set menu is the lighter commitment compared to the full evening tasting format.
Preston's fine dining scene is thin at Aven's level, which is part of what makes it notable. For serious Modern British cooking elsewhere in Lancashire, Moor Hall in Aughton is the county's most decorated address (multiple Michelin stars, ££££) and worth the short drive if budget allows. L'Enclume in Cartmel is further afield but remains the region's reference point for produce-led cooking. Within the city itself, Aven has no direct equivalent at the same level , see our full Preston restaurants guide for the wider picture.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aven | Modern British | £££ | While Lancashire has long since ensconced itself on the northern culinary map, its administrative centre (a full-fledged city for over 20 years, after all) has awaited its moment in the spotlight. Step forward Aven, which opened in an odd backstreet site in the vicinity of its near-namesake Avenham Park in October 2023. Under the eagle executive eye of Lancashire-born chef-director Oli Martin (ex-Northcote et al), this city-centre venue is a tiny room (seven tables) done out in impeccable decorative style, with dark olive panelling offsetting brilliant white door frames, glass panels partitioning the space, and menus presented in little envelopes bearing the name of the booking. Set four-course menus are the mainstay, with an evening taster adding another two courses, as well as a vegetarian alternative. An opening soup of fermented mushrooms is piled with diced Jersey Royals, maitake, peas, braised radishes and bites of smoked eel, under ruffles of tasty chicken skin. To follow, a commendably imaginative fish course offers a sliver of opalescent monkfish in brown butter, topped with soft baby leek and pickled magnolia petal. The star dish at our meal was a piece of splendid chicken breast with braised and puréed turnips, wild garlic pesto and a strong chicken jus – an object-lesson in the savoury arts. The bemusing presentation of dessert saw its elements marooned in a little cluster at one edge of a huge platter, as though awaiting rescue: fine honeycomb, apple-peel tuile, cultured cream, surprisingly delicate pine parfait. That said, there is enough creative energy here to make Aven one to watch. Slick professional service adds to the gloss, while a modestly proportioned wine list is big on pairings, opening with recommendations by the small glass from £8.; Michelin Plate (2025); Michelin Plate (2024) | Moderate | — |
| Restaurant Gordon Ramsay | Contemporary European, French | ££££ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| CORE by Clare Smyth | Modern British | ££££ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| The Ledbury | Modern European, Modern Cuisine | ££££ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Sketch, The Lecture Room and Library | Modern French | ££££ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Dinner by Heston Blumenthal | Modern British, Traditional British | ££££ | Michelin 2 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
How Aven stacks up against the competition.
Aven is a seven-table room with no bar seating referenced in any available information about the venue. At this scale, the experience is built around the set menu at table — there is no walk-in counter format here. If bar-seat dining is your preference, this is not the format for you.
Seven tables make Aven a tight fit for larger parties. It is well-suited to twos and fours, but groups of six or more would likely occupy a significant share of the room's capacity. check the venue's official channels before assuming a large booking is possible — at this scale, availability for groups is genuinely limited.
Two to three weeks ahead is a sensible minimum, and further in advance for Friday or Saturday evenings. With only seven tables and a Michelin Plate in both 2024 and 2025, Aven books faster than its low national profile might suggest. Do not treat this as a same-week decision.
If you are already committing to a £££ set menu at Aven, the extended evening tasting adds two more courses to the four-course baseline and is the fuller expression of what the kitchen is doing. The core four-course format is the accessible entry point, but the longer menu makes more sense if you are travelling specifically for the meal rather than fitting it into a local evening out.
At £££ with a Michelin Plate in consecutive years, Aven sits in a tier where the cooking needs to justify the spend — and the kitchen's technical ambition and sourcing (fermented mushrooms, maitake, monkfish in brown butter, pickled magnolia petal) suggest it is delivering at that level. Compared to Michelin-recognised rooms in London at the same price point, Aven offers substantially easier booking and a more personal room. For Preston specifically, it is the clearest argument that serious cooking is happening here.
Within Lancashire, Northcote in Langho (where Aven's chef-director Oli Martin previously cooked) holds a Michelin Star and operates at a higher price point with an on-site hotel — a natural step up if budget allows. For comparable Modern British cooking at the £££ tier elsewhere in the north, Moor Hall in Aughton and The White Swan at Fence are worth considering. There is no direct competitor in Preston itself at Aven's level.
Yes — the format is built for it. Menus arrive in personalised envelopes bearing the guest's booking name, the room seats only seven tables, and the service is described as slick and professional. At £££ with a Michelin Plate (2025), Aven offers the kind of considered occasion dining that Preston has lacked until recently. Book early and specify the occasion when reserving.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
