Long Melford Restaurant Guide

“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.

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: 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”.

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.