The Griffin

Broadway Regulars: What the Griffin's Midweek Crowd Tells You

Amersham's Broadway carries more than its share of polished hostelries, each competing for a slice of the affluent Chilterns dining market. The fact that The Griffin, a coaching inn occupying a substantial position at 12 The Broadway, fills its tables with regulars on midweek lunchtimes — work colleagues, young families, people who plainly didn't need an occasion — is the most honest signal of what this place actually delivers. Destination restaurants attract visitors once; neighbourhood institutions attract locals repeatedly. The Griffin, by that measure, sits firmly in the second category, and the distinction matters when you're deciding where to spend an afternoon.

The building itself frames the experience before you've ordered anything. Wooden floorboards and ancient beams run throughout the rambling interior, which divides into several distinct dining areas rather than a single open room. Green-velvet chairs sit alongside that aged timber, and a bar area punctuated with fake greenery opens onto a small terrace garden. It's a particular kind of English pub comfort: old bones, contemporary dressing, nothing that demands your attention or exhausts it. For a broader picture of what Amersham's dining scene offers across formats and price points, see our full Amersham restaurants guide.

In-House Bread, Local Ales, and the Sourcing Logic Behind the Menu

Across the British pub-dining tier, sourcing decisions tend to reveal ambition more clearly than menu descriptions do. The Griffin's most concrete signal in that direction is the on-site bakery it operates under the name Ourdough, which supplies the bread served at each sitting. Warm, fresh bread from a house bakery is one of those details that separates a kitchen with genuine investment in its ingredients from one that orders in and plates up. The accompanying butter, chipotle and maple, has drawn some debate among readers about whether the flavour profile complements rather than competes, which is precisely the kind of edge-case decision a kitchen only makes if it's thinking carefully about the opening moments of a meal.

The drinks list follows a similar philosophy of local grounding paired with wider reach. Local real ales sit alongside fine wines and cocktails, a range that has drawn specific praise in readers' reports. The Chilterns has a genuine ale tradition, and a pub on Amersham Broadway that doesn't honour it would be missing the obvious. That the Griffin extends the list credibly into wine and cocktail territory without abandoning the cask side means it functions equally well as a drinking venue and a dining one.

The cooking runs across lunch and dinner on a broadly similar repertoire, with minor seasonal adjustments reflecting what's available. That structure, one menu with gentle seasonal movement rather than a dramatic split between a lunchtime carte and an evening tasting format, matches the neighbourhood's expectations. The Churchill towns that ring the Chilterns, from Amersham out toward Marlow and beyond, have plenty of reference points for ambitious cooking: Hand and Flowers in Marlow operates at a different register entirely, with two Michelin stars and a tasting-led approach. The Griffin isn't competing in that tier, nor does it try to.

The Menu: Modern Pub Cooking with Specific Ambitions

Menu's character is described consistently as modern pub food, but that phrase covers a wider range than it once did. At The Griffin, a pig's cheek croquette served with celeriac rémoulade and black-garlic ketchup signals technique and sourcing specificity, not just a willingness to do something other than fish and chips. The Baron Bigod pie, a reader favourite that has survived multiple kitchen changes to remain on the menu, now positioned as a starter, indicates something about institutional memory, the dishes a restaurant keeps because the regulars won't let them go. Baron Bigod itself is a well-documented Suffolk raw-milk brie-style cheese with a named producer, so its presence in a pie on a Chilterns pub menu reflects a sourcing decision, not just a flavour one.

Sunday roasts at The Griffin have generated some of the most consistent reader responses, with suckling pig alongside chorizo cited as a standout. The detail matters: suckling pig requires sourcing decisions made days in advance, and pairing it with chorizo introduces a cured-meat element that shifts the flavour profile away from the standard British roast template. Plates cleared across the table is the reader shorthand for it working.

The kitchen underwent a significant change in 2024 when Tomas Topolar joined from the now-defunct Mash Inn in Radnage, a pub-restaurant that had earned a following in the Chilterns before closing. That lineage connects The Griffin to the Mash Inn's approach to sourcing and seasonal cooking. Topolar has since moved on to head the kitchen at the Barn Restaurant at Oxmoor Farm in Great Hampden, Buckinghamshire, which means the kitchen is in transition. The menu's identity and its most-praised elements have proven durable through previous changes, which is worth noting before a visit.

Where The Griffin Sits in the Wider Chilterns Picture

The Chilterns dining scene operates in the shadow of some significant nearby reference points. Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons in Great Milton and Waterside Inn in Bray anchor the regional fine-dining ceiling at a level far above pub cooking; Artichoke in Amersham handles the serious Modern British tier within the town itself. The Griffin operates below those registers and is more useful for it, the kind of address that handles a casual Thursday lunch, a family Sunday, or a drink that extends into dinner without requiring a decision about whether the occasion justifies the spend.

For further context on what Amersham offers across accommodation, bars, and local wineries, our full Amersham hotels guide, bars guide, and wineries guide cover the wider picture. For those planning a wider regional trip, our Amersham experiences guide maps further options in the area.

The restaurant tier that The Griffin occupies nationally, confident pub cooking with specific sourcing commitments, a house bakery, and a genuine local following, sits several steps below destination venues like The Ledbury in London, Moor Hall in Aughton, or L'Enclume in Cartmel. That comparison isn't a criticism, it's a calibration. The venues that draw visitors from three counties away serve a different function from the ones that make a town's everyday dining life work.

Planning a Visit

The Griffin is at 12 The Broadway, Amersham HP7 0HP, a short walk from Amersham station on the Metropolitan line, which makes it accessible from London without a car. The kitchen serves lunch and dinner across a broadly similar menu, with Sunday roasts among the most praised formats according to readers. Given the kitchen leadership is currently in transition following Tomas Topolar's departure, it is worth checking the current menu direction before booking. The service has received praise for warmth, though readers have occasionally noted lapses in attentiveness, so midweek lunch tends to be the more reliable window for a quieter experience. The terrace garden, accessed through the bar, adds a useful outdoor option in warmer months.