“There was a breathless hush as Sean Raggett’s header floated towards goal. An excruciating  few seconds as the technology calculated  whether it had crossed the line. Then – finally – a whistle and a raised arm. And then pandemonium.”

Jonathan Liew, The Sunday Telegraph

Lincoln has suddenly shot into the headlines for its excellence in football. Last week its team, Imps, beat Burnley to become the first non-league side to reach the FA Cup quarter finals since 1914.

But Lincoln also has a certain excellence in food as well as footie.

The following eateries have been recommended to Saucy Dressings by a knowing local.

Restaurant guide to Lincoln

In Lincoln

• The Old Bakery – family run restaurant-with-rooms.  – they also run cookery lessons
• Olé Olé  – Spanish tapas restaurant
• Wig and Mitre – traditional British food, located just by the cathedral on Steep Hill. I’ve had the twice-baked soufflé here a couple of times and it’s very good
• Brown’s Pie Shop…. Also on Steep Hill… doesn’t only do pies
• The Bronze Pig, restaurant-with-rooms run by an eclectic mix of an Irishman and a Sicilian. This may have closed.
• Tequilas, also near the cathedral. Casual Mexican food.
• The Electric bar at the Hilton Brayford hotel in Lincoln.  for bar snacks; and the Marco Pierre White Steakhouse, in the same hotel. Good view from the fifth floor.

Outside Lincoln

A couple of suggestions for where to eat outside Lincoln

• The Bell At Coleby, – gastropub relaunched in 2011 by Chef-patron, Paul Vidic.
• Doddington Hall farm shop and café – excellent restaurant and cafe and also fabulous farm shop
• Abbey Lodge is a real dip into the past – a traditional, old-fashioned British pub.

Where to stay in Lincoln

Some of the restaurants in the list above also have rooms, or are hotels. I have two other suggestions:

• For staying very centrally in Lincoln, try Cathedral View guesthouse – what it says on the tin.

• For staying outside Lincoln, (minimum two day stay out of season, and a week in season) there is the home-from-home Manor House Stables.    They offer two flats – we stayed in The Hayloft – photographs below. If you ask they will bring over a very welcome meal of Lincolnshire sausages and home-grown vegetables, followed by a superb apple crumble on the evening you arrive. Highly recommended.

Ideas for things to do in and around Lincoln

• The cathedral is truly magnificent – a must. It contains one of the four copies of Magna Carta
• Lincoln Castle – also with a copy of Magna Carta, the castle was refurbished and reopened in 2015 to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the signing of this important charter. It also includes a Victorian prison.
• Lincoln is twinned with Neustadt in Germany, and through this friendship came to introduce the first Christmas market into the UK – originally with just eleven stalls in Castle Square, the market has now expanded to cover most of the old part of Lincoln. Book your hotel well ahead of time….Lincoln is heaving for the market.
• There is a good antique emporium on Steep Hill. Hemswell is not far away, and also worth visiting if you like antiques
• There are farmers’ markets in Lincoln:
  • In the city square on the first Friday of the month
  • In the high street on the second Wednesday of the month
  • In the castle square on the third Saturday of the month

• The Kinema in the Woods is a real dive into the past. Originally a sports pavilion, this building was converted into a cinema in 1922. In the interval the original organ rises up through the floor and is played.
• If you’re interested in flying there is both the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Visitor Centre and the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Society where you can see Lancasters. The Heritage Society also offers taxi rides in their Lancaster, Just Jane (not cheap) and in May they hold 1940s dances in the shadow of the wings of this great plane.
• The Heckington Windmill
• The Lincolnshire wolds have some superb walking and cycling. There is the Lincolnshire Wolds Railway for the less energetic.
• and the coast is spectacular and relatively tourist-free. If you’re feeling lazy you can see it from the Cleethorpes Light Railway.

Other posts you may find interesting

For a post on how to make Lincolnshire chine, go here.

For a post about Lincolnshire Poacher cheese, go here.

For a post about Fat Rascals and Lincolnshire Red cheese, go here.

This post is dedicated to Rob Norris.

Clip to watch

Sean Raggett’s incredible goal