The story
Sir Charles Napier, in High Wycombe, is a modern British restaurant at Sprigg's Alley, Chinnor OX39 4BX, and it holds 3 AA Rosettes for culinary excellence (2026). The former pub sits in the Chilterns, where its kitchen serves a short modern British menu alongside a beamed bar, a leafy terrace and a lawned beer garden.
Head chef Andrew Lewis works from a small set of menus with eclectic Anglo-European flavours, a approach The Good Food Guide singles out in its 2026 Good rating. The weekday set lunch and dinner is offered at two courses for £35 or three for £40, with a 12.5% suggested service charge on top.
One inspection meal included sherry-glazed pork neck with thinly sliced peach and peach ketchup, and monkfish served with a vine leaf stuffed with cuttlefish. The current à la carte lists lobster agnolotti with lobster bisque and garden peas, and Scotsgrove lamb rack with sweetbreads and cacio pepe. For dessert, the menu includes a strawberry soufflé with crème fraîche sorbet.
The beamed bar has sofas, and the dining areas use unclothed tables and upholstered wooden chairs. The private room opens onto the terrace and seats up to 40, or up to 120 under an awning for weddings and larger parties. The wine list is large and arranged by region, with the Old World dominating, according to The Good Food Guide.
Recognition
Ambience
Details
History
Given its location in a Chilterns hamlet, this comely old pub-turned-restaurant needs to attract custom from afar – and it has long been successful, establishing a covetable reputation for high-quality food. Chef Andrew Lewis is keeping the kitchen on track, nudging the operation forward with a range of concise menus suffused with eclectic Anglo-European flavours. Appetisers – perhaps a delicate, creamy broccoli and Stilton tart – are served to guests seated on sofas in the venerable beamed bar. Beyond, is a choice of smart dining areas furnished with unclothed tables and upholstered wooden chairs, plus a leafy terrace and capacious lawned beer garden. Even early in the evening, there’s a romantic feel to the place: art on the walls, candles on tables, smoochy jazz on the sound-system and curvaceous sculptures of wildlife dotted around. Beautifully presented dishes add to the allure: a large piece of sherry-glazed pork neck arrives with thinly sliced peach and dabs of peach ‘ketchup’, the ensemble boosted substantially by a little mound of pâté-like pesto. An inspection meal continued with a compendium of piscine flavours: a large chunk of accurately cooked monkfish sharing a plate with a dolma (the vine leaf stuffed with cuttlefish and flavoured with thyme), a dollop of mustard and dulse relish, half a preserved lemon, hazelnut pâté and a creamy smoked-eel sauce. Puddings, too, show technical skill, with a perfectly risen blackberry soufflé complemented by a tangy blackberry sorbet; only a thin crème anglaise missed the mark. The voluminous wine list seems old-fashioned by comparison, with the Old World dominating an unannotated line-up arranged by region. Service, from the kindly proprietress and her young staff, is obliging and swift.
3 Rosette Award for Culinary Excellence
Location
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