Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Manningtree
Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best Manningtree restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 14 restaurants in Manningtree and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Manningtree restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Manningtree Restaurants
1. Hintlesham Hall
British, Modern restaurant in Hintlesham
Hintlesham - IP8
This “impressive” Grade I listed country house in Suffolk dates from the reign of Henry IV and is a “glorious hotel to stay in”. It is sometimes said to be “uninspiring given the pricing”, but the majority of accounts this year were upbeat, hailing cuisine “worthy of its late owner, Robert Carrier” – who was a famous TV chef in the 1970s – “but up-to-date and interesting”. Dip your toe in the water one afternoon, for the “large tea, with excellent scones, served in a lovely old hall”.
2. The Mistley Thorn Restaurant & Rooms
British, Modern restaurant in Mistley
High St - CO11
Californian Sherri Singleton’s “marvelous neighbourhood restaurant” occupies a 1723 coaching inn, with great views of the River Stour, and bedrooms set above the pub or on top of kitchen shop and cookery school. The “consistent” and “sophisticated seafood menu” (but not just) ensures that it’s “always popular”, and there was praise this year for the “good-value set menu” (two courses £24.95 or three courses £27.95 per person).
3. The Sun Inn
British, Modern restaurant in Dedham
High St - CO7
“An excellent” stopping-off point in the heart of Constable Country, this centuries-old coaching inn has all the beams and wood panelling you’d hope for – as well as “very tasty meals with nice accompaniments”. There are “lots of tourists”, of course, but it’s a “fun” and “reliable” operation under the same independent ownership for 21 years.
4. Milsoms
Mediterranean restaurant in Dedham
Stratford Rd - CO7
This attractive hotel in Constable Country is “a very pleasant place to eat”, owing to its terraced gardens and “good basic bistro food” (“plus it’s always open”, which doesn’t hurt). Service is not always a highpoint though, and can be “slow”.
5. Le Talbooth
British, Modern restaurant in Dedham
Gun Hill - CO7
“The delightful setting in Constable Country” makes this famous landmark – opened in 1925 – ideal for “special occasions and memorable meals”, and the beamed interiors are almost a match for the dreamy Dedham Vale location. But the pricey food has too often been judged “average” over many years – critics feel it “doesn’t live up to its reputation or ideal surroundings”.
6. The Crown
British, Modern restaurant in Stoke-by-Nayland
Park Street - CO6
2023 Review: In the heart of Constable Country, this gastropub with rooms is “a busy venue with a good atmosphere and friendly service”. Foodwise, it’s praised for cooking that’s “outstanding” at the “very reasonable price”; and wine lovers are well-catered for too, with 250 bins (they also run their own merchants).
7. The Angel Inn
British, Traditional restaurant in Stoke-by-Nayland
Polstead St - CO6
“At last Suffolk has somewhere very special again” – this “relatively new, upmarket” outfit is set in a five-hundred-year-old country inn that has long had a culinary reputation. Fans say it’s “the best-looking restaurant for miles around”, and is “trying hard” – they’re “obviously chasing a star” in the kitchen, which is praised for its “great tasting menu” (the only option by night).
8. Trongs
Chinese restaurant in Ipswich
23 St Nicholas St - IP1
Foo Trong and his family “always meet expectations” at the “traditional high street Chinese” – always one of the more commented-on restaurants in these parts. They have established the place as a local institution over 26 years, serving “delicious, generous and thoughtfully spiced food” using “high quality of ingredients” in a “warm and relaxing ambience”.
9. 1900 Mariners
French restaurant in Ipswich
Neptune Quay - IP4
2021 Review: “Quirky, quaint and stylish, with excellent food” – Julien & Karine Jourdain took over this antique Belgian gunboat in October 2018 from the Crépy family, and it’s “one of the best Ipswich has to offer”. Permanently moored in the marina, near the city-centre, its modern European menu options vary by the day.
10. The Pier at Harwich
Fish & seafood restaurant in Harwich
The Quay - CO12
“Another from the Milsoms’ stable” (whose flagship is The Talbooth at Dedham), this delightful small hotel dating from 1860 has a dining room that is “fish-focused to reflect the setting”, on the historic Harwich waterfront.
11. The Bildeston Crown
British, Modern restaurant in Bildeston
104 High St - IP7
2023 Review: This half-timbered fifteenth-century former coaching inn is a “reliable venue for good food”, with a menu that ticks boxes all the way from basic cheeseburger or beer-battered hake ’n’ chips to more original offerings such as goat cheese doughnut with beetroot sugar and a flexible selection of dishes available in two sizes – as either starters or mains. Top Tip – “the great lobster Caesar salad”.
12. The Company Shed
Fish & seafood restaurant in West Mersea
129 Coast Road - CO5
“No frills” it may be (you must “BYO wine and bread”), but the “great seafood” – including the “freshest platters around”, plus hot options – at this very “quirky establishment” (basically a clapboard shack) mean that a visit is “always great fun”.
13. The Table
British, Modern restaurant in Woodbridge
Quay St - IP12
2022 Review: Having initially announced its closure, in summer 2021 Vernon Blackmore re-launched this long-established property with a firmer emphasis on South East Asian-accented cuisine, and new ‘Spice Bar’ branding. Typical of the menu: curry from Malaysia, Indian BBQ ribs, or white fish katsu with a Japanese pickled salad.
14. Kintsu
restaurant in Colchester
11a North Hill - CO1
This “lovely local restaurant” with a “cool London vibe in a hard-to-find location off the High Street” showcases chef-patron Paul Wendholt’s “just fantastic” modern British cooking. It’s a “tiny place”, so “sitting at the bar overlooking the open kitchen is really interactive”. The venue changed its name and direction two years ago – “I loved when it was Grain, and I’m so glad the new name and menu live up to expectations”.
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