Haverhill Restaurant Guide

Village pub near Sudbury relaunched in 2023 after an arty makeover of the interior, with “excellent, unusual burgers” – “some of the best around” – from a trio of friends who developed their ‘Divine’ burger menu at The Vine in Great Bardfield, Essex. They also serve a Yorkshire pudding ‘wrap’ filled with roast beef and pickles.

2024 Review: “Consistently solid gastropub food” earns ratings to match at this well-presented inn from the East Anglian Chestnut Collection of pubs.

“A smartly refurbished inn with dependable, if pricey food and delightful, welcoming staff” – a representative review of this updated pub-with-rooms on the village green: part of the East Anglia-based Chestnut Group.

This gastropub from the local Cambscuisine group, in an affluent commuter village south of Cambridge, is “worth a detour for its lovely garden and good-quality food from friendly waiting staff”. (The pub is named for its flamboyant owner from the 1970s, ‘Squire Kim Joseph Hollick De La Taste Tickell’).

2022 Review: Carl & Beth Shillingford operate out of these converted former stables nowadays (having moved from art venue, The Quay in Sudbury, a few years ago). Food is served from breakfast and then deli-style throughout the day. On certain weekend evenings they bring back the full ‘Shillingford’s’ experience – providing a seasonal menu with many foraged ingredients. Limited but upbeat feedback – “a rustic-feeling place with good, rustic food”.

2024 Review: “An unexpected delight in Sudbury” – a “lovely old house” with beams plays host to Stéphane Chapotot and Alain Jacq’s “excellent French eatery”, long a local light (and veggie-friendly too); post-pandemic, it has fused with the formerly separate café, and now serves “very well-sourced and presented” breakfasts and lunches, plus more gastronomic dinners on Fri/Sat.

2022 Review: Jamie Oliver’s parents Trevor & Sally retired from this sixteenth-century village gastropub after 44 years in November 2020, so it has recently changed hands: it’s now a part of the 12-strong Chestnut group of pubs. The Olivers always ran the Cricketers well, but regulars say “(even in the tepee) the food is possibly up a notch”.

2023 Review: Limited but positive feedback on this successful vegan, which shifted to this new location in a new development near the station in 2021. Worth remembering if you are catching a train and a place of pilgrimage for those who eat meat-free. It’s a rare Cambridge eatery that has spawned openings in the capital (see also).

Still known locally for the now-defunct Alimentum in central Cambridge, this new restaurant with rooms – three miles outside the city – opened in July 2025 (too late for our annual diners’ poll) and which replaces Mark’s former venture here, MJP @ The Shepherds. It’s in partnership with locals Gareth & Emma John, nearby residents for over 20 years. Menus come in options of three (£35 per person), five (£55 per person) or seven courses (£85 per person) each including bread, snacks and amuse bouche. Having recently won a Michelin star for his Norwich restaurant, Mark Poynton at Caistor Hall, Mark will lead the kitchen alongside his new right hand man Chris Lee whose experience includes holding 3 AA rosettes for over a decade at multiple places around Suffolk including the Bildeston Crown.

“Great breakfasts, perfect pizzas and enough changes to keep it interesting” – the winning mix at Scott Holden’s bright and airy twelve-year-old on indie-minded Mill Road; it’s a real neighbourhood favourite, where the pies come thin-crust, Neapolitan-style, and vie for diners’ favours with the decadent ‘Bottomless Brunch’.