Worthing Restaurant Guide

“If you love fish you’ll love CrabShack”, say fans of this “rustic” family-owned spot “right on the seafront”, with a “short and consistent menu”. It’s “a bit crowded, a bit noisy, but if you don’t mind that, just relax and enjoy fish tacos, crab cakes, crispy squid and more – it’s all gorgeous”.

2021 Review: “The food is decent” (particularly the fish) and the “service friendly” at this driftwood-themed Thomas Heatherwick construction – “but what a location! The children can play outside on the beach while you wait for the grub to arrive, and then you can all stroll by the sea afterwards... just choose a sunny day!”.

“A favourite restaurant” (and one of GQ magazine’s Top 10 UK pubs) – this outpost of a much-liked and four-strong local chain, near the Hove seafront, is an “always-dependable” choice for its “brilliant food and service” (the latter consisting of gastroboozer fare plus fancier options like vegetarian tasting plates).

2021 Review: “Utterly consistent and fabulous” – chef Lee Williams “never lets you down” at his restaurant-with-rooms in a Regency house looking out over Arundel Castle. Its talking-point is the “beautiful gold-leaf ceiling” in the dining room, which was made in Florence in the sixteenth century. Local seafood is the star on a “delicious” menu (“especially when fresh lobster is in season”).

“Exceptional food, wonderful service and great ambience” combine to provide an “amazing special-event evening” at MasterChef: The Professionals winner Steven Edwards’s conversion of a former Hove bank, now with a basement ‘speakeasy’ bar. There’s a selection of tasting menus: from five courses for £70 per person to nine courses for £120. “If Etch was in London, it would cost three times as much”, agree local fans of its “always interesting menus”. “A very good selection of English wines is a bonus”.

Launched in 2015 after a stellar career (Claridge’s, Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons, many a high-end Canadian hotel), Lee (& FOH wife Liz) Parsons’ small indie is a real local “favourite” that inspires many comments in our annual diners’ poll (booking is thus essential) focussing on “exquisite fresh ingredients whose combinations tantalise the tastebuds”. The “great-value set lunch” merits investigation, and “fish is the outstanding choice” as always.

“A shellfish gastropub? Yes, exactly” – the winning formula at this much commented-on corner boozer with a “quirky dining area”. By all accounts the grub is “fabulous” (“simply and expertly cooked”) and “the homebrewed beer adds an additional dimension which makes it really good to visit”.

Eat “surrounded by bottles in this friendly and informal bistro”, which also doubles as a wine bar and shop. Reporters love the “inventive small-plates food and excellent wine list” – especially the set menu, which is “full of more adventurous things you might not normally order à la carte”.

Well established as “a real favourite” since launching in 2019, “what it does – modern British cooking in a relaxed bistro setting – it does brilliantly”, while “the wine list brings it a cut above many other locals. Rob (Maynard, co-founder with James & Faye Thomson) seems to find amazing different things to drink”. Top Menu Tip – “don’t miss out on side orders: blue cheese and leek gratin and pommes Anna are both amazing”.

This “charmingly higgledy-piggledy venue” may look like it springs from medieval times, but was in fact created in 1927, when a member of the Guinness brewing family commissioned it from an antiquarian and architect. Nowadays it sprawls over thirty acres leading to the coastline, replete with numerous houses and cottages offering accommodation, a hotel and spa, and a dining room with tapestry-hung walls, where diners can enjoy a solid menu based on Sussex produce.

“What a spot!” – working solo, chef Duncan Ray “turns out five-star dishes, each one meticulously thought out, beautiful and tasty”, to just 20 guests at a sitting in this “hidden away” seafood specialist in Hove. With a big reputation after 10 years in business, it’s now “hard to actually get a table in such a small venue” – but “well worth trying” for the “sublime experience”.

This “little gem of a side-street restaurant, just up from the sea front” delivers “tastes that go Wow!”. The first in chef Ben McKellar & his wife Pamela’s successful local group, it has maintained “the same standards as ever” for more than 25 years now. Top Menu Tip – “there’s always a delicious soufflé for pudding!”.

Former Great British Menu winner Michael Bremner’s “fish specialist” – a “not too expensive” all-day diner that’s more casual than his Lanes flagship 64 Degrees; it sits in a magical location under The Arches overlooking the West Pier (and is thus “best on a summer evening” when you can dine outside).

2023 Review: “If you are happy with a food hall for your meal, then this is a good (but very popular) option” – this year-old venue has a “great location” on the seafront and features seven street-food concepts at a time. In her July 2022 visit, The Guardian’s Grace Dent was also wowed: “The food, with each delivery by a chipper server, continued to be far better than a food hall ever tends to be… we left Shelter Hall jubilant, £60 down for lunch for three people with drinks”.

This “great traditional seafood restaurant on the seafront” has been “very popular for decades” (some nine decades in fact) owing to its “always good” victuals, which range from “basic fish ’n’ chips to lobster” plus Champagne-fuelled platters.