Stoke Park, the grand Buckinghamshire country estate with a history stretching back over a millennium (and film cameos in Goldfinger and Bridget Jones's Diary), is slowly waking up from a major restoration. Its dining comeback starts with The Penn, a flagship restaurant from Tom Sellers, the chef behind London's two-Michelin-starred Story.
Sellers has been busy. After Story earned its first star just five months after opening (and a second in 2021), he added Parisian-inspired Story Cellar in 2023, a private events company that pops up at Wimbledon and with Rolls-Royce, and MOR at Cornwall's Carbis Bay Estate earlier this year. Now comes his biggest canvas yet: six dining venues across a 300-acre estate that was closed to hotel guests for much of 2026 while renovation work carried on around its golf course and events.
The Penn, named for former owner John Penn, opened on October 28 as the first of the batch. Designed by Studio Shayne Brady, the 48-cover room leans into contemporary country-house drama: architectural columns, grand lanterns, pastoral-style tiling, and a bespoke frieze of local flora and fauna running above the diners. There's a private dining room for eight reached through a wine corridor, complete with a wall-to-wall fish tank. Later additions include the Bond-flavoured Piano Bar with its deep-red marble counter, a Tea Room, the informal Clubhouse, and the Terrace & Glasshouse, which opens to public bookings in spring 2027.
The cooking follows the same British-meets-French brief, built on seasonal produce and classical technique. Much of the harvest comes from the estate's own Kitchen Garden, run by Kate Nannery, formerly of Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons. Standouts from an early preview include a scallop-and-mussel raviolo topped with spiced pear, smoked foie gras with a foamed coco bean and hazelnut sauce, dry-aged pork with vegetable gratin and golden kiwi, and a saffron-spiced rice pudding to finish. Service details are already polished - mains kept warm under silver cloches, allergens flagged unprompted, and a 'Smokers' Cocktail' delivered on a silver platter for guests stepping outside into the cold.
Why it matters: The Penn is currently the only real way to experience the new Stoke Park. The hotel, spa, wellness programme and racquet facilities are still to come, so for now this is a dinner destination rather than a full country-house stay - about an hour's drive from London, or a committed detour for anyone chasing the latest Michelin-adjacent cooking in England. If Sellers' track record holds, it's worth getting in before the rest of the estate reopens and the reservations get harder to find.
Review and details via Elite Traveler.
