Purslane Restaurant.

Purslane

The chef who owns this basement spent a year and a half cooking for Marco Pierre White in Manchester, and calls it his career highlight.2

Why go

Paul Gunning is head chef and proprietor, and in 2013 he told the trade paper that the restaurant's suppliers were mostly based in Stockbridge itself, which is the same street the room sits on.2 The 2026 MICHELIN guide lists the kitchen as selected, which is its listing rung rather than a star or a Bib Gourmand.4 There are two ways in: a set lunch of two or three courses, or a five or seven course tasting menu in the evening.1 Gunning is also executive chef behind Duthchas in Leith, which opened in 2024 in the former Aurora site.3

What locals & experts say

• Harden's reporters, across survey editions, on the room and the bill: it is Small and unassuming and a top-end Stockbridge basement with a relaxed fine dining approach, where whichever menu you take it's all 'very, very good' and prices have remained reasonable.1 These are edited survey quotes rather than one critic's verdict.
• Paul Gunning, to SLTN (2013), naming his own career highlight: It would have to be working for Marco Pierre White in Manchester for a year and a half.2

Good to know

• Price: Harden's survey reports GBP 87 and its reporters say prices have stayed reasonable. That is a survey figure, not a printed menu price.1
• Booking: nothing published on policy, and a small basement running tasting menus is one to book.
• Hours: nobody publishes current hours for this room.
• Getting there: 33A St Stephen Street, in Stockbridge, below street level.
• Hygiene: Food Hygiene Information Scheme Pass, inspected 20 November 2024, FHRSID 72713. Twenty and a half months old, just past the eighteen-month bound.5
• Not to be confused: SKUA at 49 St Stephen Street holds an Improvement Required from 27 May 2026. Different premises, different operator.

Verdict

should-visit — A small Stockbridge basement in the 2026 MICHELIN guide at selected standing, run by the chef who owns it. Paul Gunning told the trade paper in 2013 that his career highlight was a year and a half working for Marco Pierre White in Manchester, and that his suppliers were mostly in Stockbridge itself, which is a buying decision rather than a slogan. Harden's reporters describe the format across editions: small and unassuming, top-end but relaxed, either a set lunch of two or three courses or a five or seven course tasting menu in the evening, all of it very good and the prices holding reasonable. He now runs Duthchas in Leith as well, which is the second room from the same kitchen brain. Go for the set lunch if you want the cooking without the tasting-menu commitment. What keeps it off must-visit is the shape of the evidence: guide standing without a star, survey text rather than a scored critic review, and a hygiene pass now twenty months old.