Felixstowe Restaurant Guide

This small mid-Victorian hotel on the historic Harwich waterfront, overlooking the twin estuaries of the Stour and Orwell, wins solid ratings for its seafood-focused restaurant. It is part of the regional Milsoms’ group (flagship: The Talbooth at Dedham).

Brendan Padfield’s “fantastic restaurant/pub” has topped Estrella Damm’s Top 50 UK Gastropubs list three times in four years (2022, ’24, ’25), and most reporters agree that “it’s No.1 for a reason”: “I’m lucky enough to have been half a dozen times, and it’s outstanding”; “the best gastropub we’ve experienced, and it really is still a pub!”. The Guardian’s Grace Dent concurred with this view in her January 2025 review, heaping praise on imaginative chef Dave Wall’s ‘go-hard or go-home’ food, perfect for the adventurous diner. But a possibly surprising number of naysayers insist it’s “not quite as good as it thinks it is” – or worse, that it “always manages to disappoint” (“the judges of various awards clearly see something in this fairly ordinary gastropub which I don’t. Having eaten here many times I have been neither disappointed nor impressed”).

“Consistent in every way and always a favourite” – the Trong family’s traditional Chinese venture has been a culinary mainstay of the town for nigh on three decades. “It is worth asking them to bring you some dishes without looking at the menu! It’s never disappointing!”

“Utterly reliable”, with “a great choice of fish and seafood cooked in a variety of ways” – “this is a go-to restaurant, and there’s nothing like it close by”, say fans of Californian chef Sherri Singleton’s former village coaching inn (with rooms), which she has run for more than two decades. She also has a cooking school on site and an Italian restaurant, Enoteca Lucca, in nearby Manningtree.

Handy for a visit to the “interesting Orford Castle”, this “laidback” coastal restaurant-with-rooms offers some “delicious” cooking from a “menu that changes regularly and they always use excellent local produce, e.g., Pinney’s smoked salmon, Blythburgh pork, Pump House Bakery bread”. While the odd naysayer feels that “this place has declined in the hands of the local Hotel Folk group” (who took it over from ‘Hotel Inspector’ Ruth Watson), the majority verdict is much more buoyant, and “if you are staying then they serve the best breakfast – again all local produce”. Note that they “no longer open for lunch”, except for the “very good” Sunday roast.

“Still the freshest fish, cooked simply but with absolute care and attention… thankfully, standards are still maintained...” – “it is always a joy to take friends to this venue, run by the Pinney family” for over 50 years “where you are never disappointed” and whose stock comes from the family’s own two fishing boats and nearby smokehouses. “They serve posher bread nowadays, otherwise it’s very much the same as ever”. After lunch, you can stock up in their shop on the quay.

“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.

“Next door to the Alma Inn, a great new place in Old Harwich offering a monthly changing small tasting menu at exceptionally good value prices”. That’s an early verdict (too limited feedback, though, as yet for a rating) on this early 2024 newcomer, where you sample an unhurried, six-course tasting menu of flame-grilled fish and meat for £55 per person.