Eastbourne Restaurant Guide

2023 Review: “Great pizza menu served by lovely people” remains the verdict on this award-winning pizza-stop, whose numerous accolades and certifications promise a Neapolitan experience through and through: your selection is cooked at 400 degrees and will be ready in 90 seconds!

Marcus Bennett’s fifteenth-century village gastroboozer – a regular on ‘best’ UK gastropubs lists, and a consistent scorer in our annual diners’ poll – is a “very dependable” sort of spot, offering “beautifully presented food, especially game in season”; there was the odd quibble this year (“are prices higher” now?) but it still makes for “a good all-round treat now and again”.

2021 Review: Set in 200 acres of North Yorkshire, this informal bar/brasserie is an “interesting conversion of stables attached to the main house” (there is also a posher dining option here, ‘The Forge’). An all-day operation, it offers food that’s “reliable and well presented” from a series of menus, including breakfast, afternoon tea and dinner (with the focus on Mediterranean char grills).

Since its debut in 2009, James Close has put this Grade-II-listed former pub firmly on the UK’s foodie map, despite its out-of-the-way location in the County Durham countryside, not far from Darlington. Once a real ale boozer, in its converted state it has maintained two Michelin stars since 2016 and is one of the culinary flag-bearers for the Northeast with its extensive tasting menu – £195 per person for over 10 courses (or you can eat at the chef’s table for £300 per person). Compared with some other places of gastronomic pilgrimage, it didn’t attract a huge volume of feedback in our annual diners’ poll this year. But there were none of last year’s critiques, and all acclaimed “an excellent dining experience” that’s “outstanding all-round”, so we’ve maintained its ratings.

2023 Review: “It’s still as good as ever at Eugene and Barbara McCoy’s country pub” say fans of this destination, ten minutes from Middlesbrough. “It’s one of the few places that still hold a traditional Beaujolais Day in November and has a waiting list of people wanting to come!”

An offshoot of the time-capsule tearoom chain offering (once you get past the queues) genteel service, plus afternoon tea, sandwiches and other things more substantial. Fans claim that it’s “great for brunch with very professional staff”, although it’s perhaps not the pick of the Bettys bunch, and there was the odd caveat this year over rising prices and shrinking portions.