Restaurant in Stoke Holy Cross, United Kingdom
Set lunch is the clear booking case.
A Michelin Plate-recognised restaurant inside a 700-year-old watermill south of Norwich, Stoke Mill makes its strongest case at the set lunch: three courses, wine, and coffee for £38. The classically grounded bistro cooking is technically reliable, the historical setting is genuine, and the front-of-house service is warmer than most restaurants at this price point. Book ahead for weekends.
The set lunch at Stoke Mill is one of the more direct value decisions in Norfolk dining: three courses, a glass of house wine, and coffee for £38. For a Michelin Plate-recognised restaurant operating inside a 700-year-old watermill, that is competitive pricing. The à la carte experience sits at £££, which puts it above casual Norwich dining but well short of the destination-restaurant tier. Whether you are driving out from the city for a weekend lunch or planning a special occasion dinner, the price-to-setting ratio here is hard to argue with.
Stoke Mill has been milling on the River Tas for around 700 years. The specific footnote that matters for food enthusiasts: the adjoining building is where Jeremiah Colman began producing his famous mustard in 1814, making this site a genuine piece of British culinary history. That context is not merely decorative. The kitchen honours it directly — braised beef cheek served with Colman's mustard mash appears on the menu, a dish that rewards the historically curious diner as much as it does the hungry one.
The mill itself is a white weatherboarded building set over the River Tas, and the interior has been opened up into a contemporary, airy dining room. The industrial past has been largely cleared away in favour of light and space, with monochrome photographs of Victorian-era bearded men providing the only significant nod to the Colman years. The river still runs through below. For food and travel enthusiasts who want a setting with documented provenance rather than manufactured atmosphere, this is the real thing.
Chef and co-owner Andy Rudd runs a bistro-style kitchen that prioritises clear flavours and strong local sourcing over technical showmanship. Meals begin with complimentary canapés and warm home-baked bread , a detail that signals hospitality intent before the first course arrives. The cooking across the menu is classically grounded: a twice-baked soufflé with smoked Norfolk Dapple cheese and spinach; local asparagus with fried quail's egg and hollandaise; monkfish with Thai-influenced flavours; sea bass with crab croquette and warm tartare sauce. Desserts follow the same logic , a lemon posset layered with passion-fruit foam, sorbet, blueberries, and meringue, with the set cream underneath providing the payoff.
None of this is radical cooking, and it is not trying to be. The Michelin Plate recognition (awarded in both 2024 and 2025) signals consistent technical competence in classical-leaning cuisine rather than creative risk-taking. If you are looking for a tasting menu with experimental technique, Stoke Mill is not your venue. If you want well-executed bistro cooking in a setting with genuine character, served by front-of-house staff described as warm and welcoming, it is a strong option within an hour of Norwich.
The set lunch at £38 for three courses, a glass of wine, and coffee is where Stoke Mill makes its clearest case. For context, comparable Michelin Plate restaurants in English market town and village settings typically price set lunches between £35 and £55, making Stoke Mill's offer sit at the accessible end of that range. This is the format to prioritise if you are visiting as an explorer of regional British restaurant cooking: you get the full kitchen in a lower-pressure environment, with the historical setting working in your favour on a bright afternoon when the river and the weatherboarded exterior are at their most appealing.
Dinner is the fuller occasion, and the right choice for a celebration or anniversary dinner. The front-of-house team's reputation for warmth makes the room feel less stiff than comparable destination restaurants, which matters if you are bringing guests who are not regular fine-dining visitors.
Stoke Mill is located at Mill Road, Stoke Holy Cross, Norwich NR14 8PA. The village is a short drive south of Norwich city centre. Reservations: Moderate booking difficulty , book ahead, particularly for weekend lunch and dinner, but not weeks in advance for a midweek table. Budget: Set lunch £38 (three courses, wine, coffee); à la carte dining at £££. Dress: Smart casual is appropriate given the setting and price point. Groups: The restaurant draws a steady dining crowd; contact the venue directly to confirm group booking arrangements. Getting there: Car is the practical choice; the village is not easily reached by public transport from Norwich.
See the full comparison section below for peer context.
For other dining in Stoke Holy Cross, Wildebeest is the other name worth knowing locally. For a broader view of what the village and surroundings offer, our full Stoke Holy Cross restaurants guide covers the category in detail, alongside our hotels, bars, wineries, and experiences guides for the area.
If Stoke Mill's traditional, classically grounded cooking style appeals and you want to explore comparable restaurants elsewhere in England, the following are worth your time: Hand and Flowers in Marlow operates at a similar register of ambitious-but-grounded British cooking with a pub setting; hide and fox in Saltwood offers another regional British kitchen with Michelin recognition; Midsummer House in Cambridge is a step up in formality and price if you want to benchmark against a higher tier. For destination restaurants further afield, Gidleigh Park in Chagford and Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons in Great Milton occupy the country-house restaurant category at the leading of the price range. Moor Hall in Aughton, L'Enclume in Cartmel, and The Fat Duck in Bray represent the experimental end of the British dining spectrum if you want a point of contrast. For traditional cuisine equivalents on the Continent, Cave à Vin & à Manger - Maison Saint-Crescent in Narbonne and Auberge Grand'Maison in Mûr-de-Bretagne offer useful reference points.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Booking Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stoke Mill | Traditional Cuisine | £££ | Moderate |
| CORE by Clare Smyth | Modern British | ££££ | Unknown |
| Restaurant Gordon Ramsay | Contemporary European, French | ££££ | Unknown |
| Sketch, The Lecture Room and Library | Modern French | ££££ | Unknown |
| The Ledbury | Modern European, Modern Cuisine | ££££ | Unknown |
| Dinner by Heston Blumenthal | Modern British, Traditional British | ££££ | Unknown |
A quick look at how Stoke Mill measures up.
Book at least 2–3 weeks ahead for weekends; the set lunch sittings fill faster than you might expect for a village restaurant. The £38 set lunch format draws repeat visitors from Norwich, which keeps midweek slots tighter than the location suggests. Contact via their booking channel rather than walking in.
At the £££ price point, the set lunch — three courses, a glass of house wine, and coffee for £38 — is straightforward value for a Michelin Plate-recognised kitchen. For context, comparable Michelin Plate restaurants in the region charge similar figures without the wine inclusion. À la carte will cost more, but the cooking is classically grounded with strong local sourcing, which justifies the spend if that format suits you.
The mill building is characterful but not large, so groups of six or more should check the venue's official channels to confirm availability and seating arrangements. There is no group booking policy documented in available venue data, but the front-of-house is noted for being warm and accommodating, which is a reasonable basis for a direct enquiry.
Stoke Mill's strength is its classically based bistro cooking rather than an extended tasting format — the set lunch is the format that delivers the clearest value here. If a multi-course tasting progression is what you want, the set lunch's three-course structure gives you a meaningful read on the kitchen without the commitment of a longer menu.
Wildebeest is the other name worth knowing locally in Stoke Holy Cross. For a wider field, Norwich city centre has more options at varying price points, but Stoke Mill's Michelin Plate recognition and the 700-year-old mill setting are not replicated elsewhere in the immediate area.
There is no bar-dining option documented for Stoke Mill. The restaurant operates as a seated dining venue, and the set lunch and à la carte formats are table-based. If bar seating is important to you, this is not the right format.
Yes — the combination of a 700-year-old mill on the River Tas, Michelin Plate-recognised cooking, and a front-of-house team described as warm and welcoming makes it a credible choice for a birthday, anniversary, or celebratory lunch. The historical footnote that the adjoining building is where Colman's Mustard was first produced in 1814 gives the setting a conversation point that most occasion restaurants lack.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
