Stowmarket, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

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”.

“Old fashioned, with understated service and great ambience” – this impressive Grade I listed property dates from 1440 and was once the HQ to 1970s TV chef Robert Carrier, who restored it in the early 1970s. There’s a wide range of à la carte, tasting and afternoon tea menus, all in a traditional mould and all at relatively affordable prices.

“What a great find in the middle of Suffolk” – one reporter who visited this “welcoming” outfit in a 400-year-old converted barn amidst the vineyards of the estate “expected an average farm shop experience” only to be “very pleasantly surprised with excellent cooking and a wonderful environment”. The dining room offers modern, locally sourced European cooking – “the set menu is certainly worth a try” and of course “they have their own wines” too (the site’s viticultural history dating back to Roman times). The self-branded ‘creative community’ (indeed, no mere farm shop) also includes a more casual café that was revived in 2024, and a rather beautiful boutique stocking homewares, specialist books and more.

“A fantastic find. A great welcome. A lovely restaurant”. Zack Deakins’s townhouse is “just outside the main town area” and “with so much excellent competition in the area this is often the only good restaurant with any availability at short notice”. All reports are a hymn of praise to its “prompt and personable” service, its “spacious and comfortable” interior, but most particularly to its “accomplished cuisine”: “inventive combinations of flavours, are skilfully and imaginatively executed and presented elegantly but not over-elaborately”. “Loved it!”

In the “foodie wonderland” that is Bury St Edmunds, an “intimate” and “curiously named” restaurant opened by Justin Sharp and FOH wife Jurga, and specialising in Moorish (should that be more-ish?) cuisine. There was the odd sceptic this year, for whom it “lacks the ‘wow’ factor that one might expect from a Michelin-starred restaurant” (Suffolk’s only star, in fact, which they’ve held onto for five years now), but they were vastly outweighed by fans, who proclaim the venue for “interesting and rather eclectic” food that “reaches out to all the senses” and “never fails to delight”. Top Menu Tip – “a venison moussaka, with venison loin and delica pumpkin. Amazing!”

This “very popular gastropub/hotel in a pretty village” was taken over and lavishly revamped by new owners a few years ago, and “the conversion of an old building is very well done (down to the super WCs!)”, making it a most “attractive” spot for a meal. Chef Matthew Hurry oversees the French-ish cooking, which ranges from fish Fridays to “outstanding” desserts. Reflecting comments in previous surveys, there was praise this year for the “very reasonably priced set menu – £26 for two courses, £34 for three – considering the quality”.

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).

“Small-but-perfectly-formed restaurant serving small but perfectly formed dishes that are completely sensational” – James & Sophia Carn serve an “always changing seasonal menu” at their two-year-old venue in the town centre, which “improves every time you visit”. Their “small but passionate team” combines “interesting and exquisite food” with “great service” and a real sense of “fun – it would be hard to get more ambience in such a tiny place”. Concerns? – The “smallish” menu can seem limiting and the prices of all those little plates can tot up.