The Waterside Inn, located in

Bray, Berkshire Bray, occasionally Bray on Thames, is a large suburban village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire. It sits on the banks of the River Thames, to the southeast of Maidenhead of which it is a suburb. The village is mentioned in th ...

, England, is a restaurant founded by the brothers

Michel Michel may refer to: * Michel (name), a given name or surname of French origin (and list of people with the name) * Míchel (nickname), a nickname (a list of people with the nickname, mainly Spanish footballers) * Míchel (footballer, born 1963), ...

and

Albert Roux Albert Henri Roux (8 October 1935 – 4 January 2021) was a French-British restaurateur and chef. He and his brother Michel operated Le Gavroche in London's Mayfair, the first restaurant in the UK to gain three Michelin stars. He helped trai ...

after the success of

Le Gavroche Le Gavroche (''The Urchin'') is a restaurant at 43 Upper Brook Street in Mayfair, London. It was opened in 1967 by Michel and Albert Roux at 61 Lower Sloane Street, its premises until 1981. Albert's son Michel Roux Jr is the current chef pat ...

. It is currently run by Michel's son, Alain. The restaurant has three

Michelin stars The Michelin Guides ( ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The Guide awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The acquisition or loss of a ...

, and in 2010 it became the first restaurant outside France to retain all three stars for twenty-five years.

Description

The Waterside Inn opened in 1972, following the Roux brothers' success at

Pierre Koffmann Pierre Koffmann (born 21 August 1948) is a French professional chef. He was one of a handful of chefs in the United Kingdom to have been awarded the coveted three Michelin stars at his restaurant La Tante Claire in London. Until December 2016 he ...

was made the first head chef, having worked for

and

at Le Gavroche. Koffmann remained as head chef until 1977 when he left to open his own restaurant,

La Tante Claire La Tante Claire (''The Aunt Claire'') was a restaurant in Chelsea, London, which opened in 1977 and 1998. Owned and operated by Pierre Koffmann, it gained three Michelin stars in 1983, and held all three until the restaurant moved premises in 199 ...

. Michel Roux took over as head chef at the restaurant, slowly handing the reins over during the 2010s to his son and the current chef-patron, Alain Roux. Michel spoke of the handover, "The Waterside Inn has been my life but now my son runs it. What could be better? I am very proud of him. After all his name is above the door." Alain has added his own menu items to the restaurant while keeping Roux family classics like soufflé suissesse and tronçonnette de homard. Diego Masciaga has been the restaurant manager since 1988, and speaks of the two chefs highly, "Mr Michel was always there in the kitchen – morning, afternoon, night – with his big voice. Now it is the turn of Alain. Alain is a great man, too, but in his own way." In addition to being a restaurant, the Waterside Inn has been slowly expanding the number of rooms available for overnight stays since 1992. The interiors were designed individually in a French style by Michel Roux's wife, Robyn. In 2010, the Waterside Inn became the only restaurant outside France to retain three Michelin stars for 25 years. To celebrate, a party was held for which every Michelin starred chef in the UK was invited; 116 chefs attended. In addition, an offer was extended to local residents for lunch at 1985 prices, at a cost of £14.50 each instead of the normal £56.

Reception

Matthew Fort Matthew Fort (born 29 January 1947) is a British food writer and critic. Matthew Fort is the son of the Conservative MP Richard Fort, who died when he was 12. His brother is the writer Tom Fort. He attended Eton College, and later Lancaster Un ...

reviewed The Waterside Inn for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' in 2002, giving the restaurant a rating of eighteen out of twenty, and stated that the price of the meal was "money very well spent". Matthew Norman, reviewing the Waterside Inn for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' in 2010, praised the setting and the attentive service but criticised the value for money of the food served; he gave it a total of six out of ten, but described the cheese trolley as "spectacular". Also in 2010, John Walsh for ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' visited the Waterside Inn shortly after it celebrated 25 years with three Michelin stars. While he also criticised the cost of some of the courses, saying "I knew it was expensive. Everybody knows that," he celebrated the quality of the food, describing his main course as "ambrosial" and "fabulous". He gave the restaurant four out of five each for food and ambiance, and five out of five for service. The Waterside Inn placed eighteenth in ''

The Good Food Guide ''The Good Food Guide'' has been reviewing the best restaurants, pubs and cafés in Great Britain since 1951. In October 2021, Adam Hyman purchased ''The Good Food Guide'' for an undisclosed sum from Waitrose & Partners. The ''Guide'' is being r ...

''s top 60 restaurants in the UK for 2011.

Heston Blumenthal Heston Marc Blumenthal (; born 27 May 1966) is a British celebrity chef, TV personality and food writer. Blumenthal is regarded as a pioneer of multi-sensory cooking, food pairing and flavour encapsulation. He came to public attention with un ...

's nearby Bray based restaurant

The Fat Duck The Fat Duck is a fine dining restaurant in Bray, Berkshire, England. It is run by celebrity chef proprietor Heston Blumenthal. Housed in a 16th-century building that had previously been the site of the Bell pub, the Fat Duck opened on 16 Aug ...

placed first, while

placed fifteenth. The Waterside Inn was placed first for both food and service in the

Zagat The ''Zagat Survey'', commonly referred to as Zagat (stylized in all caps; , ) and established by Tim and Nina Zagat in 1979, is an organization which collects and correlates the ratings of restaurants by diners. For their first guide, covering ...

survey on restaurants in London and

Southeast England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, ...

References

External links

Official websiteOfficial introduction video, hosted on YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Waterside Inn Michelin Guide starred restaurants in the United Kingdom Restaurants in Berkshire Buildings and structures in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Bray, Berkshire Restaurants established in 1972 1972 establishments in England Roux family