The Barn at Berryfields Review






Sitting in the Warwickshire countryside not far from Coventry, The Barn at Berryfields is an established restaurant promising 'home-grown and local fresh food with mouth-watering flavours', according to the website anyway. Having been awarded two AA Rosettes in July 2024, it seemed an ideal place to visit for a family friendly meal whilst in the area, so I duly rocked up for lunch with my wife and two young children, on a drizzly February Saturday.
After a long drive, we were pleased to see a large car park on arrival although it was already fairly full when we arrived (we managed to squeeze in though). The barn is a large wooden clad building housing a farm shop, a cafe-by-day-bar-by-night on the ground floor with the restaurant upstairs. It's worth noting that the restaurant serves breakfast, as well as lunch and dinner (and why not) which explains the car park busyness.
The welcome on arrival was perfectly warm; we'd been allocated a seat next to the large window at the front of the restaurant with lovely views out over the nearby fields (definitely the best spot) and overall I liked the feel of the dining area, it's a nice modern space and a perfectly comfortable spot to enjoy a quality lunch.
On offer at lunch is a sizeable three course menu (plus a number of additional main course specials) and there's also a decent two course children's menu, which is always appreciated when eating with young children. Drinks wise the selection is impressive, including a sizeable cocktail list and a lot of non-alcoholic options too; we enjoyed a couple of thoroughly decent mocktails during our meal.
Lunch began for me with the wild mushroom and tarragon rillette, served with beetroot, celeriac, sourdough croute and pickled hon shimeji mushrooms, amongst many other elements. This was an OK dish as a whole, although the rillette was a bit under seasoned and didn't carry the flavour I'd been hoping for. My wife went for the winter Waldorf salad, with ham, apple, walnuts and blue cheese which was perfectly tasty. My daughter had the children's cheese burger from the kids menu which she enjoyed, and it was a decent size for a kids meal, whilst my young son was happy with just a portion of chunky chips.
We were waiting quite a long time for the mains to arrive which was unexpected, as although there were a few tables in for lunch, the restaurant definitely wasn't packed. My stuffed pork belly with pomme anna, a dollop of beetroot, apple and onion marmalade and a dollop of broccoli puree was a pretty agricultural looking dish, but it tasted fine. My wife wasn't particularly impressed with the flavours of her undercooked celeriac fondant with salt baked carrots, but it was nicely presented.
One positive I will say is the portion sizes here are large, but of course there was little chance of us leaving without dessert regardless. My dessert was listed on the menu as a black forest gateau; it was a sort of deconstructed version but the main slice of cake was very thin and really dry; it was edible but probably the weakest version of this dessert I can recall eating for a long time. My wife had better luck this time with a tasty bowl of iced nougat parfait served with flavour packed confit kumquats. Both kids went for ice cream and sorbet which was fine.
And so after a couple of hours, a curious lunch came to an end. Overall, we did enjoy our visit here, it's a nice venue and the service on the whole was very good too and the staff all very pleasant - the only issue with service came right at the end of the meal; we asked for the bill as our dessert plates were cleared but after a good few minutes waiting, there was no sign of it so we had to ask another waitress.
The food however was disappointing; whilst there were some decent ideas and some competent cooking on show in places, what we ate as a whole was a long way away from the level I'd been expecting, albeit that's more the fault of a certain restaurant guide than the restaurant itself. I would say though that the pricing reflected that expected higher level, even though the food didn't. Although I wish the team here all the best and I'm sure the restaurant will continue to be popular, it's not a venue I'm likely to venture back to any time soon.
Dress Code
None, but I would imagine some people make a bit of an effort for dinner.
Top Tip
Guide Ratings
The way the AA have been throwing out two rosette plates recently really baffles me; the level of cooking here was significantly below many one rosette restaurants I've visited in the not too distant past. I do think there's just about enough on show here to warrant one rosette though.
Ratings | Michelin Guide | AA Guide |
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At time of review | - | ![]() ![]() |
Our view | - | ![]() |
Group size: 2 adults & 2 children. Total bill (including service): £159.
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