Calzone

Calzone Essential sits at Dickinson Quay beside Apsley Lock on the Grand Union Canal, offering one of the most distinctive settings of any restaurant in Hemel Hempstead. The sixty-cover dining room looks out over the narrowboat marina, and the kitchen specialises in stone-baked calzones — the folded-pizza format that gives the restaurant its name — alongside pizzas, pasta and a seafood platter. Gluten-free bases are available. Meals are made fresh to order. The towpath access draws walkers and cyclists alongside neighbourhood diners. Open most days through the afternoon and into the evening, closed Sundays. An independent Italian with a waterfront setting that no other Hemel Hempstead restaurant can match.