The Knowhere Guide

Eating and Drinking in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire*

Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire Pubs, Cafes, Coffee Shops and Restaurants

Food

• If you like Indian food, then Stony Stratford is well worth a visit. There are four excellent restaurants all within walking distance of each other - The Moghul Palace, The Bekash & The Darjeeling are in the High Street, and The Akber is round the corner in Wolverton Road. In my view, the best food is in The Akber (try the Chicken Khaiberi - charcoal grilled pieces of chichen in a thick red sauce), while for decor, it would be hard to beat The Moghul Palace (look at their web site on www.themughulpalace.co.uk to see what I mean).
• Elements in the brilliant Theatre District - excellent Chuinese restaurant. In fact the Theatre district is very good for restaurants and pubs altogether.
• Best take away in MK???? It has to be THE SULTAN in Newport Pagnell
• Maccie D's never fials me.
• New eating places now open in the new Milton Keynes Theatre District: TGI Fridays, Bella Pasta, Metros, Dealto, Yates Wine Lodge, Lloyds No 1 Cafe Bar and - best of all - Elements Oriental Buffet (Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Malaysian etc - eat as much as you can for a fixed price, cheaper at lunch time - drinks extra. Better vegitarian selection in the evenings)
• MK Theatre District now opening up - TGI Fridays, Bella Pasta and Di Altos now open. In same area Lloyds No1 Cafe Bar and Hogshead Pub.
• Chiquitos, Pizza Hut, Pizza Express, Marcellos, Metros MILLIONS!!! All we do is eat...(the trendy restaurants are in the office areas)
• *If you're ever hungry coming back from the clubs on Fridays or Saturdays I suggest you visit the area outside Empire and Hereos Sports bar. There are always some fast food vans loitering with the intent of selling their wares. * There's a drive in McDonalds & Burger King near one of the junctions of the A505
• Parkside Hotel at Woughton has an excellent restaurant.
• The food court is opp. the shopping ctr. and at each four corners of MK has a 'retail park' with a supermarket on each!
• The Jaipur - next to MK railway station. Indian. Outstanding. The Rose of India - Duncombe St. Beltchley. Indian. Excellent. The Mysore - Newport Pagnell. Indian. Good buffet on Sundays. Chiquito's - CMK near Wetherspoons. Mexcican. Good food. Noisy sometimes. Fatty Arbuckles - Food Hall next to the shopping centre.
• One of the best places to eat for good quality, not extortionate food is "The Bell" in Aspley Guise, near Woburn Sands. It's only a pub, but a nice one, and the restaurant menu is fantastic - beats a lot of top London eateries. The owner Tony is Italian and excellent at warmly welcoming his guests.
• Not all Kebab vans are dodgy - I like my local one (Oldbrook) - good value Doners (with chips now if you want them).
• Winter Gardens, Restaurants around offices, like Chiquitos.
• Takeaway indian at Waitrose - magic!
• A couple of wine-bar/restaurant places have opened up between the Winter Gardens & the Station. Look impressive.
• If you are around Bletchley (in the south of the city) and NEED a curry after closing time, try the Golden Curry in Duncombe Street (near the railway). Reasonable prices and fairly quick service.
• Four McDonalds, three Burger Kings, Pizza Hut, numerous dodgy kebab vans, and more dial-a-pizza than you can shake a stick at.

Pubs

• Bar central next to Waitrose in the Food Centre is great- a perfect escape from all the geezers who usually invade MK. Great music, especially on Monday nights, and the people there are a nice, friendly indie crowd (from what I've seen of the place anyway).
• Yates's and Rat and Parrot are pretty class on Friday and Saturday nights before about 10.30 when everyone moves down to Empire/Heroes. There is a bus that goes from Yates's to the Empire on Friday and Saturday nights which only costs £2 and will get u into Empire as well (they usually charge ridiculous prices). The Moon Under Water in the Xscape building has no music but is always busy on Fri/Sat because it sells cheap alcohol!!! eg. 4 Smirnoff Ice/ Reef/ Breezer for a fiver...bargainuous!
• Oasis in The Point is really good especially on a Wednesday and Sunday evening with the Karioke.
• Stony Stratford is the place you should go for drinking in Milton Keynes, The White Horse is a good place for watching sporting events on thier LARGE T.V. The Forrestors Arms is a livly place on a Sunday Night with Kariokee. The Cock Hotel is the only place with a late license and often (at weekends) has public parties that go on till 1am! Worth phoning first to check on that. Stay clear of the old Goerge unless you have a fat wallet (RIP OFF!), the Crown is a dive and now full of underage drinkers.
• Wishing Well, Whaddon Way, Bletchley, good house set Saturdays
• New pubs now open in the new Milton Keynes Theatre District - Hogshead, Rat & Parrot (due to open mid-December)
• Wetherspoons reminds me of an American bar. Very nice.
• Squares is the best in town, but it needs a late night licence. Great looking blokes work there!!
• The Square and another pub have opened up nearby Staples ( you'll notice Staples if you come off teh A505 where the CMK begins). Apparently they play dance music there.
• Dig into some of the smaller older villages like Middleton (MK Village) to find some old English pubs... The town ctr has weatherspoons at off midsummer boulevard
• The Barge Inn - Woolstone. Excellent food, too. The Cock and The Bull - Stony Stratford (that's the cock and bull of the "cock and bull" story).
• "The Square" opened last Summer at the station end of Midsummer Boulevard, next to Cafe Rouge and isn't bad for a trendy bar type place with good cocktails. They also do quite nice lunches, but its very busy on weekend nights. Stony Stratford is the place to go on a pub crawl. It's a fairly attractive old town within modern M.K., and is packed with lively, traditional pubs
• Nags Head in Great Linford
• Fans of Withnail and I should go to the Crown in Stony Stratford as the bit where they go in to a pub in the lake district is filmed there. Why not try the Black Horse in Great Linford, eh?
• A Wetherspoon's pub opened up some months ago on the West side of town between the shopping centre and the station. Well worth a visit if you're a Real Ale lover 'out of Ale' in MK like I was.
• Walking out of Wolverton, you're in the country in five minutes. There's the Galleon on Wolverton Road by the Grand Union Canal (a pleasant walk in itself) - nothing to offer in the way of beer, but a good start for a Sunday afternoon walk. Up the canal, just beyond Castlethorpe, is the Navigation, another nice canalside pub with a decent beer selection - it's just a long way back on unlit roads on a dark night.
  True used to be a good boozer but under new management it's now plastic flowers and piano bars. The geriatrics seem to like it for their Sunday lunch though. The other ones you mention are about right & generally pretty good. One I'd mention is 'the Vault' in Stony Stratford. Small, real fires, good beer and heaving on a Saturday night.
• City centre is pretty crap for pubs, although The Barn near the garden centre is good for Saturday afternoon piss ups when you're doing your shopping. You need to head out to the estates and the older villages within the city boundary to find anything decent. Try the Countryman on Bradwell Common for real ale (near to city centre). The Swan in Milton Keynes village is a nice old fashioned one. There are loads of 'new' pubs that try to look authentic. Can be quite good, and a lot of them do good food - you just have to cruise around and look for them!

Cafes and Coffee Shops

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Last updated: 2007-12-17