Saxmundham Restaurant Guide

2022 Review: “Great pork dishes” are the highlight of landlord Garry Cook’s menus at this fifteenth-century tavern, using meat from his wife Teresa’s smallholding, where she has bred prize-winning pigs and other animals since moving into the pub 15 years ago. Snape Maltings concert hall is just five minutes away, so the dining room is “well attended”.

2021 Review: This comfortable old inn between Southwold and Aldeburgh has generated all-round enthusiasm since joining East Anglia’s Chestnut Group a couple of years ago: the food is well rated and “friendly staff make a meal here a real pleasure”.

“Always reliable”; “always a cheery welcome”; “always fun”; “always something new to try”… “and moreover, they charge reasonable prices!” These are some of the prime virtues of Sam & Maxine Hayes’s local stalwart which remains the most commented-on venue in this seaside town even after almost three decades in service, thanks to its “dependable” delivery of “simple, honest fare”. “The fisherman was carrying his catch through the restaurant and my wife spotted skate… 15 minutes later it was served to her!”

“My favourite restaurant in Aldeburgh” – this long-running operation from twins Alex (FOH) and Oliver (chef) Burnside, also behind local haunts The Plough & Sail and The Golden Key, “specialises in fish and seafood, but the meat dishes are also impressive”.

There’s “always a long queue” at this well-known and much-commented-on fixture – “but it’s worth the wait” for “great fish ’n’ chips to eat on the beach” while trying to “avoid the seagulls” poised to pounce on your meal. Owner Peter Cooney was 11 when his parents bought the business in 1967, and he’s still frying. Top Tip – “grab a pint of excellent Adnams from next door while you wait”.

2022 Review: “You could almost be in Kerala” at this “excellent and imaginative Indian” on the seafront, noted for its “delicious spicing”… almost, were it not for the mismatched modern hotel setting; attractive booth-style seating and an impressive list of specialist beers are added motives for a visit.

This red-brick hotel with rooms was formerly owned by TV ‘Hotel Inspector’ Ruth Watson, but is nowadays under local group The Hotel Folk; “the menu is seasonal and consistent” and features “lots of lovely fish” landed in Orford, as well as locally reared meats, with “professional” service thrown into the mix.

The Pinney family’s fishy institution “hasn’t changed for 40 years, apart from the odd tweak to the menu – and why not, when it’s as perfect as this?” A “simple setting” doesn’t detract from its charms – including the fact that “it was doing local before it became a trendy buzzword, with fish (both fresh and smoked) and oysters from down the road”; “after you’ve eaten, you can wander through this impossibly picturesque village to their shop to take more home”.

“Difficult to find better”, say the many fans of this “stylish” gastropub (est. 2015), whose ‘Britalian’ food “nails the authenticity” of its influences, be it arancini; “leftfield but delicious lavender and honey custard tart”; or “simply great seafood” (not to mention the beloved ‘Be Unruly’ tasting menu, yours for a discounted £49 per person on Thursdays). Admittedly, it’s “well-hyped” these days – having garnered ‘best gastropub’ awards from many a national authority – and where there’s hype, there are inevitably skeptics, for whom it’s generally “far from cheap” and in a rather “unspectacular” roadside location too (albeit one handy for the A12, though). Top Tip – good for a business lunch.

2023 Review: This attractive Arts & Crafts pub-with-rooms and an acre of land is a “good place to stay on the Suffolk coast”, with “friendly service” and “good pub grub” which puts an emphasis on local seafood and produce – including beers from champion local brewer Adnams. Mark & Sophie Dorber (formerly of the White Horse in Parsons Green, aka the Sloaney Pony) have owned and run it for 19 years.

A fire in May 2023 engulfed this beloved clapboard-shack-style venue with town-centre spin-off, as well as its quayside neighbours, but they were already up and running as a takeaway the following month, with plans to re-open the restaurant (for now there’s limited outdoor seating). Despite the setback, it continues to win raves for “fish ‘n’ chips as good as it gets”, featuring “crispy batter” and “crunchy/soft” chips, “all cooked in umami-packed beef dripping”; add in “a dollop or two of mushy peas as contrasting texture…and who could ask for more?”

Back in the day, this characterful, Adnams-owned Georgian tavern in the heart of the town was an easy entry in London-based journos’ round-ups of day-escapes from the capital. For many years now, however, it’s been a less commented-on and less reliable attraction: for the majority, “still a favourite in Southwold after forty-something years” and some would say “back on form”; but there is still the odd disastrous trip reported here.

“Excellent fish” is the highlight of the “imaginative” menu at this “delightful restaurant”, which is “probably the best place for dinner in Southwold”. The ancient building dates from 1455 and has been run for 15 years (10 as owners) by Kinga & Andy Rudd – the latter “a fun host who really cares about making sure everything goes very well”. Al-fresco dining is available in semi-private outdoor timber ‘pods’.

On the market place, the Adnams brewery’s grand seventeenth century hotel attracted some positive reviews this year for its “good food” and “warm, buzzy atmosphere”, but also critics in equal measure, for whom the food is “OK, nothing special” – contributing to a lingering sense that “it was far better before the botched refurbishment” back in 2017, which added fancier design cred and fancier prices to go with it. Top Tip – for a cheaper meal, head to the Tap Room, not the main dining room.

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.

“Well worth a detour from the coast” for “delicious food and an interesting menu”: Paul & Sarah Yaxley’s “exceptional” venue – a beamed former guildhall – is “an oasis in the middle of East Anglia”. “I’ve been coming here since I was a teenager 45 years ago, and despite many changes over that time it still never disappoints”.

This “must be the ultimate transport caff for foodies”, say fans of this artisan bakery on the A12 – part of founder Rebecca Bishop’s nine-strong East Anglian group – which draws more than just passing trade with its “lovely bread and lovely baked stuff”.

This “very good pub” (with rooms and a “lovely garden”) attracts a good amount of feedback and is “actually more of a restaurant now as the entire place is used for dining”, but that’s all to the good given its “cooking of a calibre expected in this upscale resort”. The owners also run a sister pub, The Parrot in Aldringham.

“Really exceptional and genuinely Italian food, beautifully prepared, cooked and presented with brio”, makes this three-year-old from Ruth Watson, TV’s ‘Hotel Inspector’, her husband Dave and Rob Walpole “a very special place”. With its “airy, light interior” and “exemplary service”, it’s “everything a neighbourhood restaurant should be” – and “not what you expect to find in a Suffolk town”.

With its “great fish dishes – we had a whole brill for two served at the table with chips and hollandaise sauce, which was… ’bril’ (geddit?)” – this yearling from George Pell, formerly of L’Escargot in Soho, “has ambitions to be the new east coast superstar. Another year will tell whether they have made it”. Locally born head chef Tom Payne, 25, certainly made a good start, mightily impressing Observer critic Jay Rayner a week after his promotion to run the kitchen, with a ‘menu that is certain of its mission’. It’s certainly “a welcome addition locally – a treat”, and the “nice new bedrooms” and “well-made cocktails are a plus”. (It’s one of the few good legacies from Covid, as the team from L’Escargot shifted here during the pandemic).