Canal Restaurant Boats and Canalside Dining

What's in this hub

This page covers two related things: dedicated restaurant boats (you eat on board, the boat cruises while you dine) and notable canalside pubs and restaurants where you arrive on foot, by car or by boat. Restaurant boats sit in the gap between a trip-boat ticket and a private skippered charter — you book a seat at a published menu and price.

Restaurant boats — how they work

A typical restaurant cruise is 2.5–3.5 hours, with a fixed menu (usually a choice of two or three options per course) served while the boat cruises a quiet stretch of canal or river. Lunch cruises tend to be lighter and shorter; dinner cruises are the main event, often with two sittings on a Friday or Saturday night.

Operators run on a small number of evenings per week — most are not nightly — so book ahead, especially for milestone occasions. Dietary requirements should be flagged a week or more in advance; most kitchens are small and need notice.

Restaurant-boat operators

Birmingham and the Midlands

• Sherborne Wharf — central Birmingham dinner and special-occasion cruises.
• Calypso Caribbean Restaurant — themed canal-side dining.
• Stoke Bruerne — occasional dinner cruises run alongside the trip-boat operation.

London and the South East

• London Waterbus Company — afternoon-tea and seasonal special cruises on Regent's Canal.
• Jason's Trips — themed evening sailings from Little Venice.
• French Brothers — Thames lunch and dinner cruises (Windsor / Runnymede).
• Hobbs of Henley — Thames lunch and dinner cruises.
• Thames Clippers and Thames River Cruises — large-vessel dinner cruises across central London.

North West

• Manchester River Cruises and City Centre Cruises — Manchester dining cruises on the Bridgewater / Irwell.
• Bridgewater Cruises — pre-booked group dining.

Norfolk Broads

• Broads Tours dining packages.

Scotland

• Lochrin Belle Canal Boat (Edinburgh) — themed canal cruises with food packages.

Canalside dining — notable canalside pubs and restaurants

The UK has hundreds of pubs immediately on the towpath; the following are widely cited as worth the diversion. All can be reached on foot or by boat with mooring nearby, and most welcome boater customers.

Llangollen Canal

• The Sun Trevor (Llangollen, near Pontcysyllte).
• Bryn Howel Hotel (canalside, Llangollen).
• The Dusty Miller (Wrenbury) — full restaurant with mooring.
• The Poachers Pocket (Chirk).
• Willeymoor Lock Tavern — towpath-side at Willeymoor Lock.

Trent & Mersey

• The Cheshire Ring Hotel.
• Shroppie Fly (Audlem — Shropshire Union, but close).
• Anchor Inn — multiple canalside pubs of this name.

Shropshire Union

• Shroppie Fly (Audlem) — towpath-side at the bottom of Audlem Locks.
• Bridge Inn (multiple).
• The Cheshire Cat (Christleton).

Grand Union

• The Cape of Good Hope (Warwick).
• The Two Boats Inn (Long Itchington).
• The Old Swan at Cheddington.
• Stoke Bruerne village inns — The Boat Inn, the Navigation.

Worcester & Birmingham / Stratford / Avon

• The Camp House Inn (River Severn near Worcester).
• The Hampstall Inn.
• The Fleur de Lys (Lowsonford, Stratford Canal).

Mon & Brec

• The Castle of Brecon Hotel.
• Ty Croeso Hotel & Restaurant.
• Goytre Wharf canalside dining.

Kennet & Avon

• Honey Street Mill Cafe and the Barge Inn (Honey Street).
• The Lock Inn Cafe (Bradford-on-Avon).
• The Cross Guns (Avoncliff Aqueduct — Bath area).

Thames

• Riverside pubs in extraordinary density — The Trout (Wolvercote), The Perch (Binsey), The Bull's Head (Sonning), and many more.

Norfolk Broads

• Numerous staithe-side pubs: The Lion at Thurne, The Ferry Inn (Horning), the Bridge Inn (Acle).

Related

• Canal trip boats
• Skippered trips and boat charters
• Hotel boats