Eat and drink · The Cotswold Edge
StarBistro
The restaurant at National Star college in Ullenwood, above Cheltenham, where students with disabilities serve breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea on weekdays, on the line of the Cotswold Way's 2026 diversion.
Walker-friendly · Family-friendly
A weekday lunch stop between Leckhampton Hill and Crickley Hill, run as a training restaurant by National Star, a college for young people with disabilities. Come Monday to Friday; at weekends only the grab-and-go fridge is open.
- Good: Breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea, Monday to Friday
- Good: Students of National Star serve, as work experience
- Good: Grab-and-go fridge open at weekends, 10am to 3pm
- Good: Visitor car park with EV charging
- Worth knowing: Restaurant closed at weekends
- Worth knowing: Afternoon tea must be booked ahead
About
StarBistro is the restaurant at National Star, a college for young people with physical and learning disabilities, at Ullenwood on the hill south of Cheltenham. Students serve the customers as work experience, and the college runs the bistro as a social enterprise. It is on the Cotswold Way section from Leckhampton Hill to Birdlip, by Ullenwood Manor Lane, and the National Trail's 2026 diversion round the A417 works uses a permissive path through the college grounds.
It opens Monday to Friday from 9am to 4pm. Breakfast runs to 11am, lighter lunches from noon to 2.30pm, a children's menu to 2.30pm and afternoon tea from 2pm, which has to be booked. The festive menu runs from 30 November to 18 December 2026. Book online through National Star's website, by phone or by email.
The restaurant is closed at weekends, but a grab-and-go fridge sells takeaway food on Saturdays and Sundays from 10am to 3pm, as well as during the week. There is a visitor car park with EV charging, and Lego kits to hire for children, from £2.50 (2026). It sits about halfway between Leckhampton Hill and Crickley Hill, where the country park has a café.
Opening hours and season
Closed, opens Mon 9, 09:00
| Mon | Opening | Breakfast | Shop |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 09:00 to 16:00 | 09:00 to 11:00 | 09:00 to 16:00 |
| Tuesday | 09:00 to 16:00 | 09:00 to 11:00 | 09:00 to 16:00 |
| Wednesday | 09:00 to 16:00 | 09:00 to 11:00 | 09:00 to 16:00 |
| Thursday | 09:00 to 16:00 | 09:00 to 11:00 | 09:00 to 16:00 |
| Friday | 09:00 to 16:00 | 09:00 to 11:00 | 09:00 to 16:00 |
| Saturday | Closed | Closed | 10:00 to 15:00 |
| Sunday | Closed | Closed | 10:00 to 15:00 |
Shop: The grab-and-go fridge, takeaway only
Breakfast 9am to 11am, lighter lunches noon to 2.30pm, afternoon tea from 2pm (book ahead). Festive menu 30 November to 18 December 2026.
The details
- Food
- Café food · Modern British
- Serving
- Breakfast · Lunch · Afternoon tea
- Dietary
- Children's menu
- Booking a table
- Booking recommended
- Features
- Restaurant · Café · Parking
- Parking
- Visitor car park at National Star, with EV charging points in the last bays as you enter.
Location
Places to stay nearby
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The Royal George Hotel
Pubs · The Cotswold Edge
An eighteenth-century inn in Birdlip, run by Greene King Inns, with a bar and restaurant of pub classics, a large beer garden and 34 bedrooms, where the Cotswold Way sections from Leckhampton Hill and to Painswick meet.
Dog-friendly · Walker-friendly · Family-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
-
Woody's Cottage
Self-catering · Sheepscombe
A National Trust holiday cottage for four in the beechwoods half a mile from Sheepscombe, built in the 19th century for the Ebworth estate, with a garden room looking down the valley.
Dog-friendly · Family-friendly · Walker-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
-
Miserden Estate holiday lets
Self-catering · Miserden
Two holiday lets on the Miserden estate: a one-bedroom flat in the Grade II* house at Miserden Park, with free entry to the garden, and the Old Rectory in the village, sleeping 13.
Walker-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
Nearby walks, places and things to do
- Crickley Hill café 1.5 km away
- The Royal George Hotel 3.0 km away
- The Wheatsheaf, Leckhampton 3.0 km away
- The Fox, Dowdeswell 5.1 km away
Sights nearby
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Crickley Hill
Sight · Common or park · The Cotswold Edge
Crickley Hill is a Cotswold Edge promontory near Birdlip, cared for by Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust and the National Trust, where 25 years of digging found a Neolithic settlement destroyed in battle and an Iron Age hillfort. Grassland, beech wood, a café and views to Wales.
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Leckhampton Hill and Charlton Kings Common
Sight · Nature reserve · The Cotswold Edge
Leckhampton Hill and Charlton Kings Common: 60 hectares of old quarries, limestone grassland on the Cotswold Edge above Cheltenham, with an Iron Age hillfort and the Devil's Chimney. Opened to the public in 1929 after the riots of 1902; a National Nature Reserve from 2026.
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The Devil's Chimney, Leckhampton
Sight · Monument · The Cotswold Edge
The Devil's Chimney is a pillar of limestone standing below the scarp edge of Leckhampton Hill above Cheltenham, most likely left isolated when quarrymen cut an incline to the top and shaped by the weather since. Folklore says the Devil built it. Climbing it is forbidden.
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Leckhampton Camp
Sight · Hill fort or barrow · The Cotswold Edge
Leckhampton Camp is the Iron Age hillfort on the summit of Leckhampton Hill above Cheltenham: one rampart and a rock-cut ditch, an inturned entrance with two guard chambers and, to the east, a rare round barrow inside a square enclosure. Scheduled; the trig point is on its bank.