Fairlight Restaurant Guide

“There’s no better place to enjoy wonderful English fish ’n’ chips”, say devotees of this outfit “in the historic area close to the fishing boat beach and famous net huts”, from wild food expert Paul Webbe, praised for its “superb cuts of fish fried in a crisp, non-greasy batter that seals in the succulent flesh”. (“If you’re dining on the outside tables you need to keep guard against the thieving seagulls…”). If you want to perfect your own skills, the venue also hosts a fish cookery school.

“Flaky firm cod, tempura-like batter and a pale ale to wash it down” – this wooden shack down by the Hastings beach-launched fishing fleet serves some of “the best fish ’n’ chips you’ll find”, sourced “straight from the local fishermen” and in “really generous portions”. Now in its third decade, it was founded by Margaret Banfield and is still run by her family.

A “totally unpretentious” venture serving “lovely, simple seafood, cooked well and at a decent price, in a little shack of a dining room down on the Hastings seafront”, and where the catch is, reassuringly, “landed on the beach just opposite”. Add in “lovely relaxed service” and is a “really enjoyable” formula all-round.

“Paul Webbe’s original restaurant is still a pleasure to visit” almost three decades after opening, the farmhouse venue having since spawned a clutch of fish-centric spin-offs alongside a cookery school in Hastings. “Reliably old-fashioned (in the best possible way)”, it combines “superb service and some first-rate cooking” which, as per the name, is focussed on foraging, including “a marvellous set luncheon with a very large choice for each course at a reasonable price in this day and age”. For several reporters this is a place to “go back to on special occasions as the quality is very good”.

This “satisfying haunt” – a smartly renovated Victorian hotel opposite the station – attracts a “relaxed regular clientele” with a “solid-if-limited menu on weekday lunchtimes, but more varied and flavourful choice in the evening”.

2022 Review: Owners Alan McNally and Steve Morrish (who have collectively worked in some of London's trendier spots: Crispin, Leroy, Lyle’s and The Clove Club) run this tapas, eatery and deli with the aim of creating a “Balearic vibe”. No feedback as yet, but on paper it looks well worth a try.

Former Le Caprice chef Nick Hales this year celebrates 21 years at his townhouse restaurant, where he showcases the daily catch provided by Europe’s largest beach-launched fishing fleet at Hastings – “there are meat dishes, but the fish and seafood is what you should come here for (and I’m not a great fish-eater!)”. All reports suggest its “on top form” currently.

This black-painted wooden pub, reminiscent of one of the net huts in nearby Hastings, had lived many lives (cowshed, hotel, potential care home) before couple Olivia & Henry took it over in 2022. The kitchen turns out “lovely food that’s more than just pub grub”, taking the seasonal route and giving it a Sussex spin.

“Wonderful pizzas served in a tiny little space in Hastings” make it “always a joy to visit” this family-run spot, which is full of “Puglian delights” – “they say the mother yeast for the sourdough dates from 1923”, thanks to chef Frankie Ruffolo’s Nonna Emma from Mendicino, a village in Calabria.

Unlikely but promising something spectacular – that’s the potential of this brave newcomer: the passion project of chef Jack Lury and his wife, Issy Cianchi, set in a small, 10-seat basement that’s a stone’s throw from this not-so-lovely portion of the British seafront. It’s a dream that started life as a delivery business during Covid, and opened here in Spring 2025 – rather late for feedback in our annual diners’ poll. But in her June 2025 visit, The Times’s Charlotte Ivers went wild for cooking that showed “an extraordinary level of ambition”. Drawing on Jack’s British and Burgher (European-meets-Sri Lankan) heritage he creates fusion dishes of huge imagination and variety, and according to Charlotte, “If this is not quite yet a five-star restaurant… it will be soon”. She concludes: “Who creates a ten-course menu for their first permanent restaurant? A madman, that’s who. But one of quite clearly astonishing creativity and talent”.

Taking over the former King’s Road Antiques site in July 2023, this modern European neighbourhood restaurant was co-founded by Ruby Boglione, whose parents run Richmond lifestyle brand Petersham Nurseries. Given that filiation, there’s a decidedly “boho atmosphere” (lots of trees, madcap art and bare plaster walls), while an open-fire grill fuels chef Joshua Dickinson’s Britalian farm-to-table cooking, which makes much of “great-quality, locally sourced ingredients” and is “always interesting”. Pasta dishes dominate on Mondays, and there’s also a casual café-style menu of focaccia sandwiches.

“An amazing small restaurant in quirky premises” that span an “historic cinema” (the Kino, which dates back to 1913) and the “interesting” Baker-Mamonova Gallery, which showcases 20th-century Russian art. The dining area has had a few different iterations over the years, and is currently run in-house, focussing on crowd-pleasing mains (the “mussels are amazing”), “great coffee” and breakfasts, plus a long list of cocktails. Given the location, it’s particularly “good for a pre-Kino dinner”.

2023 Review: No feedback as yet on this August 2020 arrival in this ever-more fashionable seaside town, but it’s a July 2022 tip from Giles Coren writing in The Times and awarding it 23/30. “I probably shouldn’t have been as surprised as I was by the low, low prices on the menu” achieved with “unfashionable fish – mussels, sea trout, plaice, mackerel – and plenty of pasta.”