Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Tenterden
Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best Tenterden restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 20 restaurants in Tenterden and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Tenterden restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Tenterden Restaurants
1. The Garden Room Restaurant & Bar
British, Modern restaurant in Hythe
Port Lympne Hotel & Reserve, Aldington Road - CT21
The Garden Room Restaurant & Bar is nestled within 15 acres of landscaped gardens at the historic Port Lympne Hotel, and surrounded by 600 acres of wilderness, dotted with some of the world’s most rare and endangered animals.Designed by The Aspinall ...
2. The West House Restaurant with Rooms
British, Modern restaurant in Biddenden
28 High St - TN27
Former rock drummer Graham Garrett’s quirky 16th century restaurant-with-rooms in a “lovely village” in the Kent Weald has been beating off the competition since back in 2002. The set menus showcase some “very good cooking” based on “top-quality ingredients” – and while “just a few tables can mean there is a certain formality to it all”, it’s “none the worse for that”.
3. The Three Chimneys
British, Modern restaurant in Biddenden
Hareplain Rd - TN27
This “delightful country pub” has a characterful fifteenth-century setting and five modern bedrooms in a converted nuttery above the gardens; it won praise this year for its “interesting and well-executed” locally sourced cuisine – served across five different dining areas – and even one reporter who had an off-visit rated it “very good”.
4. The Milk House
British Modern restaurant in Cranbrook
The Street - TN17
2023 Review: This former coaching inn “offers a good range of well-cooked dishes in its small dining room” – “pre-booking is advisable as it’s close to Sissinghurst Castle and Gardens”. In the summer, “a pop-up pizza hut is open in the garden for a more casual dining experience”.
5. Tillingham
British, Modern restaurant in Peasmarsh
Dew Farm, Dew Lane - TN31
On a 70-acre estate with views to Rye and the Romney salt marshes, Gusbourne CEO Ben Walgate’s farmhouse winery-with-rooms (and tents in the grounds if preferred) enjoys a “superb setting” and “the space itself is fabulous”. New chef Brendan Eades worked at zero-waste pioneer Silo, so a field-to-fork ethos prevails (already winning them a Green Michelin star); despite limited opening hours (lunch Fri-Sun, a 6-course tasting menu by night) it garners a large volume of positive reports – as does the “perfectly good” sourdough pizzeria in the barn opposite.
6. The Globe Inn Marsh
British, Modern restaurant in Rye
10 Military Road - TN31
2023 Review: “If only every pub was like this!” – “a quirky place” a short walk from the town centre which makes the most of its olde-worlde decor. The food is “competent and innovative”, and there’s a “good range of drinks”.
7. Landgate Bistro
British, Modern restaurant in Rye
5 - 6 Landgate - TN31
This “really lovely small restaurant”, housed in interlinked Georgian shops, has “been excellent for years” owing to its “short, interesting menu” of locally sourced British food (some foraged) and its “charming and efficient service” too.
8. Webbe's at The Fish Cafe
Fish & seafood restaurant in Rye
17 Tower Street - TN31
“If you like fish, come here” – chorus the many fans of Paul Webbe’s “reliable” spot, which serves some of “the freshest seafood ever” at “good VFM” prices – such as a “stonking portion of sprats with super-light batter for under a fiver” and “scallops which melt in the mouth”. “Acoustic panels have been fitted to the ceiling to absorb noise” but the setting can still appear a little bare.
9. Mermaid
British, Modern restaurant in Rye
Mermaid St - TN31
The “historic location” (a 600-year-old building with mullioned windows and many a beam) certainly adds to the charms of this old smugglers’ inn – “a little old-school, but that’s all part of the experience”. It’s been under the same owners for three decades, and while it’s not the main draw, the “lovely food” also has its fans.
10. The Gallivant
British, Modern restaurant in Camber
New Lydd Rd - TN31
“You wonder what’s in store when you driving up to The Gallivant” – built in the 1960s as a beachfront motel by Camber Sands – but “you enter an oasis of calm, with a light and airy restaurant” serving “outstanding and interesting food” from MasterChef contestant Nico Fitzgerald. The venue operates as a wellness retreat, whose “friendly and knowledgeable team” provide a “truly relaxed environment”.
11. The Small Holding
British, Modern restaurant in Kilndown
Ranters Lane - TN17
A visit to this “lovely restaurant way out in the country” is “like a trip to the theatre only better – with amazing cooking” on “a top-value tasting menu”. “Dishes are often surprising – I love that much of the produce is from the garden or nearby”, in line with Kent-born chef-patron Will Devlin’s ultra-local and sustainable ethos. He also runs Birchwood, a daytime venue in the nearby Flimwell Park sustainable woodland development, but was forced to close The Curlew in Bodiam due to rising costs in late 2022.
12. Brasserie at the Manor
British, Modern restaurant in Boughton Lees
Eastwell Manor, Eastwell Court - TN25
2021 Review: Afternoon tea at this deluxe Elizabethan country house hotel can be a “great experience in beautiful surroundings”. Other aspects of the trip, however, “don’t always live up to the ambience”.
13. The Wild Mushroom
British, Modern restaurant in Westfield
Woodgate House, Westfield Lane - TN35
This “pleasantly traditional and old-fashioned restaurant” “has been a favourite for years” – and is these days “serving a more modern style of food” without losing any of its attractions. It was chef-patron Paul Webbe’s first opening more than 25 years ago, and has been followed by his fish specialist venues in Hastings and Rye.
14. The Poet
British, Traditional restaurant in Matfield
Maidstone Rd - TN12
“The service and food are simply sublime” at this “lovely pub” – named in honour of the First World War poet Siegfried Sassoon, who lived nearby – which has served “the most accomplished food” for some years. South African-born chef-patron Petrus Madutlela, who has masterminded the venue’s gastronomic rise since 2015, departed in early 2023 and is replaced by Lee Adams, who worked for the late Gary Rhodes and returns to his native Kent after a decade running kitchens in Dubai and Hong Kong. Early reports suggest standards remain very high under the new regime, although consistency may be an issue.
15. Fish on the Green
Fish & seafood restaurant in Bearsted
Church Ln - ME14
2023 Review: A “great selection of well-presented fish” is the reason to visit this seafood restaurant on the village green (originally part of the neighbouring inn, which houses their sister restaurant, Oak on the Green).
16. Water Lane
British, Modern restaurant in Hawkhurst
Water Lane - TN18
2023 Review: “A super-charming setting for some imaginative cooking” – this funky project on the Kent/Sussex borders combines the restoration of a bucolic walled garden with vinery, Victorian glasshouses, restaurant and shop. Eat from breakfast onwards, either outside in summer or under the tented awning, or in the glasshouses during the winter.
17. The White Dog Inn
restaurant in Ewhurst Green
Village Street - TN32
2023 Review: This “brilliant country gastropub” (with rooms) offers a “wide range of modern-British style food” – with many dishes making reference to local provenance. “Views of Bodiam Castle” and the option of glamping in a 5-person teepee on the grounds add to the considerable appeal.
18. Tatner's Street Kitchen
International restaurant in Rye
24 Wish Street - TN31
2023 Review: “The most intensely tasty, well executed and imaginative street food outside of Shoreditch”, say fans of this new permanent home for a popular food truck familiar to visitors to Camber Sands: “great service and reasonable prices complete one of the best places for proper eats in this gorgeous little gem of a town”. Top Menu Tip – “the chilli brisket or buttermilk chicken burger with maple bacon and satay mayo will transport you into raptures to say nothing of the spicy chips with scotch bonnet jam that always remain crispy no matter the additions piled on!”.
19. The Cove
British, Modern restaurant in Fairlight
53 Waites Lane - TN35
Opened on April Fool’s Day 2022, but set on a site which has seen many incarnations (it was converted into a hotel from a cowshed back in the 1920s), this “wonderful” new arrival from husband-and-wife team Olivia and Henry is already a local hit. Chef Nick Hales oversees the “unfussy and well-executed” menu – “defo more restaurant than pub” in quality – with the “catch of the day supplied by a local fishmonger” and greens grown 400 yards away. Bonus points for the staff (“nothing was too much trouble”).
20. White Hart
restaurant in Wadhurst
High Street - TN5
In a cute market town in prime English wine country on the Kent-Sussex border, this wine-focused pub from Sam Maynard (ex-Hotel du Vin) opened three boutique bedrooms in 2023. The 30-cover restaurant offers local seasonal dishes from chef Adam Sear alongside a list of 80 English wines (and there’s also a more conventional bar menu). Too little feedback for a rating as yet, but such as we have is ‘all good’.
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