Within the grounds of Hever Castle you will find the Moat Restaurant, situated next to the Hever shop, with views overlooking the castle and the Guthrie Pavilion, situated by the Rose Garden and near the boating lake.

Our food is prepared on the estate and our focus is on seasonal and local produce wherever possible. Our cakes are all baked in the castle kitchens.

Les Woolven
Head Chef 

Les Woolven has been at Hever Castle for three years with Levy Restaurants. Les is responsible for creating and implementing the established standards of food quality, customer and employee satisfaction with in his team across the Hever estate. He has been instrumental in driving forward the quality of our food offers in the Day Visitor restaurants and in the Conference and Banqueting.

In his new role, Les brings to bear the experiences he has learned from his extensive background within Compass Group. Les joined Compass Group in 1997 and worked in Payne and Gunter special events division where he was Head Chef working at multiple venues around London and the UK where he also won the award for ‘Best Culinary Performance at the Compass Academy awards in 2003. He moved to the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich as Head Chef in 2003 and for six years oversaw numerous functions for up to 500 covers in the stunning Painted Hall. In 2009 he moved to his present position and oversees the entire food operation for functions of up to 300 in a marquee on the Wintergarden lawns down to private dinners for 10 in the Astor Wing.

Prior to joining Compass Les was Senior Sous Chef at Simpson’s on the Strand and Head Chef at the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Media. His skills were learnt at the South East London Technical College followed by his first job at Claridges for the Savoy Group as a commis chef.