Places to eat in Chippenham

For tasty food in an easy going restaurant make your way to The Garden, just across the river from the High Street. It’s stylish and contemporary with a cosy atmosphere. The menu changes from breakfast through to dinner, but The Garden is best known for its gourmet grill food. The burgers are big, taste brilliant and offer serious bang for your buck. The skewers are equally sublime. These gurus of the grill use lovely local produce for their guilty pleasures. You can expect full flavours, a warm welcome and great service.

If you’d prefer a taste of the Mediterranean then make your way a few doors down to Athena, Chippenham’s authentic Greek restaurant, and its marvellous menu of meze platters and meaty mains. The kleftiko fell off the bone and won our hearts, the baklava’s beautiful, and don’t even get us started on the octopus starter. The restaurant is large and airy, making for a great spot to enjoy an evening’s meal.

Craving a carbonara or a calzone? La Passione is our pick of Chippenham’s Italian restaurants. You’ll find it on the roundabout at the end of New Road. The menu is full of fantastic options. The veal’s good, the pizzas are big and tasty, but our fave is the tagliatelle puttanesca – it’s fantastic. The wine list is impressive, and the staff are great with recommendations to compliment your meal. La Passione ticks so many boxes, and best of all it’s great value for money.

Last up is arguably the pick of the bunch when it comes to restaurants near Chippenham. You’ll find La Flambe in the pretty countryside village of Sutton Benger. It’s less than a ten-minute drive from our Chippenham hotel and well worth the journey for some truly sublime eating. The restaurant is housed underneath an 18th-century chocolatiers, in what looks like an old wine cellar. The menu is primarily French, but with flourishes and culinary nods to Spain and Italy, which is another way of saying the food is fantastic. The prices are reasonable considering the quality of meal on offer, the drinks selection is excellent, and the high standards are maintained in terms of service too.

If you’re looking for somewhere to grab a bite to eat during the day then you can’t go wrong with a visit to Cafe Grounded. It’s a lovely airy cafe on Bath Road which overlooks the River Avon and serves up a tasty menu featuring stone-baked pizzas and one of our favourite full English breakfasts in Chippenham. In the winter it’s a nice place off the High Street to warm yourself with a coffee, while in the summer you can make the most of the south-facing riverside seating area. There’s also the added bonus that Cafe Grounded is fully licensed, so you can skip the caffeine and jump on the cocktails.

Giving it a good run for its money on the breakfast front is Jolly’s Irish Cafe across town in the Market Place. It’s a proper café with absolutely zero nonsense. The food is made fresh to order, and there’s no skimping on ingredients here; expect nice thick bacon, homemade soda bread, some seriously good bubble and squeak, and homemade white pudding. Prices are good, and portions are big. There are few better ways to start your day than a breakfast from Jolly’s Irish Cafe.

Last but not least is Folly Row Cafe. It’s a little way into the countryside, but it’s worth hunting down, especially if you’re visiting the nearby Castle Combe, one of our favourite activities in Chippenham. Folly Row is a simple cafe where you’ll be greeted with a warm welcome and served some of our favourite homemade cakes in the county. The Bakewell tarts? My word. And the cheese scones! The staff couldn’t be friendlier. If you’re staying in Chippenham on your own, the cafe also has a ‘ChatTable’ where anyone can sit and have a chat with whoever joins them.