Thorpeness Restaurant Guide

“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.

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”.

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.

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).

2023 Review: This black-painted shack opposite Aldeburgh’s Moot Hall sells “seriously brilliant smoked fish right on the beach”. The seafood is either hot- or cold-smoked on site, using a light smoke to enhance flavour rather than the more commercial heavy smoke used as a preservative. Top Tip – “noon tarts to die for”.