Hastings 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.

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.

“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”.

The “delightful dining room” with “friendly service” at former Gusbourne boss Ben Walgate’s biodynamic wine estate is just the place for a “truly memorable special occasion”, whether it’s a “superb relaxed lunch” or a “delicious celebratory dinner” (“we went on my wife’s birthday”) – while you’re there, you can “enjoy an entertaining wine tour” or stay overnight in “a really lovely room”.

2024 Review: The “historic location” (a 600-year-old building with mullioned windows and many a beam) certainly adds to the charms of this old smugglers’ inn – “a little old-school, but that’s all part of the experience”. It’s been under the same owners for three decades, and while it’s not the main draw, the “lovely food” also has its fans.

“Consistently good fish at fair prices” wins very high popularity in our annual diners’ poll for this “somewhat cavernous” venue (with a cookery school upstairs) from chef Paul Webbe, who has championed Sussex produce for more than 25 years; “loved the amazing six-course menu during the Scallop Festival week”.

Set in a row of Georgian shops, Martin Peacock’s neighbourhood bistro (est. 2010) has become a real beacon for locals and visitors alike (“our trips to Rye are worked round whether we can get a table here”). On the menu, local Romney Marsh lamb or “super-fresh” fish landed a few hundred metres away (including the gurnard which lends its tail to their logo) are cooked in a pleasingly unfussy way, all at “reasonable prices”.

2023 Review: “If only every pub was like this!” – “a quirky place” a short walk from the town centre which makes the most of its olde-worlde decor. The food is “competent and innovative”, and there’s a “good range of drinks”.

This increasingly fashionable adults-only wellness retreat in a converted 1960s motel behind Camber Sands serves ambitious and “interesting” menus from MasterChef contestant Nico Fitzgerald, accompanied by what is said to be the biggest selection of English wines in the country.

Dining amid the Edwardian “time-warp” splendour of the Grand Hotel is “always a wonderful experience” according to traditionalist fans of this seafront landmark, which “continues to sail along offering well spaced tables, attentive silver service”. One or two reports regret that in moving with the times it’s become “sadly less stylish than in times past, with no serving cloche or pianist on the night visited”, but all acknowledge it’s “still a lovely room”, with “imaginative cuisine” from chef Alex Burtenshaw – cooking that all reports acknowledged as consistent this year.

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”.

“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.

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.”