Norfolk Restaurant Guide

Richard & Katja Bainbridge’s comfortable yet simply decorated dining room is often recommended as the best restaurant in Norwich and is well-rated in all diner feedback this year. There are a variety of menus, although they are in a “fixed ‘tasting menu’ style these days” which some diners feel “can be a little overwhelming at lunchtime”. Even such doubters, however, say “but it’s always a lovely experience, and so reliably good”. The entry level offering at dinner is an eight course ingredient-led selection for £65 per person.

“An excellent gastropub” on the edge of Norwich run for 10 years by chef-patron Daniel Smith, who also owns the Ingham Swan (the memorable name is left over from its 1990s incarnation as an African-themed pub). A couple of long-term fans had their best meals of the year here, but ratings were held in the middle ground by one or two double-edged reports (“well cooked and presented, but more bucks than bang for what is essentially gastropub fare…”; “excellent Sunday lunch, but it says something about this fine city that it was the highlight!”).

“Goes from strength to strength – an absolute treat” – Greg Anderson & Rebecca Williams’s simply but tastefully converted Georgian townhouse provides “exceptional service and attention to detail in calm, and beautiful surroundings”. The cuisine is “exquisite” too (“the food stands comparison with any of the top restaurants we’ve eaten in the world over”). At dinner, there’s a ten-course tasting menu for £150 per person (a cheaper four-course menu for £85 is also available earlier in the week, and on Saturday lunchtimes): “it’s good that the chefs themselves bring the food to the table and give an introduction” and “each course has many ingredient combinations, blending into a perfect composite and displayed with great artistry”. Top Tip – “Stay in one of their three rooms if you can, and take advantage of Rebecca’s wine expertise”.

With its “wonderful food, great art (Lucian Freud, Tracey Emin), brilliant ambience and lovely setting in a deer park”, this very “English-eccentric gastropub” is “simply the best place for a memorable experience”. Launched 15 years ago by art dealer Ivor Braka and run by ex-Hix duo Stuart & Simone Tattersall, it excels for “meat cooked to perfection over a roaring fire in a slightly surreal setting”; “just perfect on a cold winter’s day”.

This boozer-with-rooms prospecting the village green was taken over by the Chestnut Group in 2022 and its general success is reflected by the good volume of feedback it inspires. Reports remain a little split on its virtues though. Most accounts do proclaim some “very decent” and “interesting” pub food, along with the “friendly welcome”. Its ratings are held back, though, by a minority who find the menu style restrictive, or who feel it’s “not as good as it was”.

“An unpretentious, well-run pub: long may it never change!” – “informal, laid-back but efficient staff”, “good gastropub food” and a “cosy ambience” make a meal here “a thoroughly relaxing and enjoyable experience”, with “the option for outside eating overlooking the salt marshes in better weather”.

“The star dishes are all about locally sourced seafood, which is superbly presented” and goes “beyond run-of-the-mill choices” at this consistently well-regarded outfit – a “very good example of the quality of restaurants on the North Norfolk coast”. As one of its band of fans puts it, founder “Angela Long and her late husband Richard developed a loyal following” who, even to this day, “love the care and attention that’s given to each dish”.

“Top-drawer fish ’n’ chips with great sea views” are the attractive offer at this clifftop venue from prominent Norfolk chef Galton Blackiston – a more casual spin-off from his upmarket Morston Hall flagship. Choose between the downstairs café and a menu of more refined fish and seafood in the upstairs restaurant.

“Fish is always a winner” at this “first-rate gastropub”, which remains “deservedly very popular” under the direction of chef Jeremy Parke and his sommelier wife Rachael, who took over the 300-year-old inn in 2023 – “the menu has a great selection, supported by a good wine list”.

“Wonderfully situated restaurant on the Holkham Estate”, with “lovely views over the marshes” and “excellent local produce” on the menu – much of it grown on the estate itself. The Vic is regularly listed as one of the UK’s favourite boutique hotels, and last year added four shepherd’s huts to its accommodation options. “If you’re dining here you do have to like dogs – after all this is in the depths of rural Norfolk, and there are sometimes a good number of them”. No-one has harsh critiques of the cooking, nor for that matter grand claims. Top Menu Tip – “a favourite from the lunch plats du jour is salmon and prawn pie with sauteed greens”.

Launched in 2020 by Frenchman Thomas Aubrit, son of a cook and nephew of a butcher, and English wife Gemma (FOH), this “very small” but very good Gallic outfit in Norwich Lanes has cemented its popularity with “simple good food” from a short menu featuring all the expected classics (e.g., onion soup, boeuf bourguignon). Thanks to the “very attentive” hosts, a “warm atmosphere” pervades both the miniscule downstairs bar and the 20-seat upstairs dining room.

2024 Review: “A fresh and vibrant menu with a fusion of local foods and inspired cooking” inspires enthusiastic (if limited) feedback on Jimmy Preston’s funky two-year-old, which started as a pop-up and went permanent in late 2021. In early 2023, The Observer’s Jay Rayner also raved over its “face-slapping flavours” and “cheeky, magpie-like romp across Asia” (including XO seasoning which includes Frazzles, Scampi Fries and Monster Munch).

“Inventive Italian dishes” are “delivered brilliantly” at this popular trattoria from locally born Oli Boon, a former head chef of Roux at the Landau and MasterChef: The Professionals finalist. There’s a relatively compact menu with a focus on handmade pasta, but it changes frequently to entice regular visitors. Top Menu Tips – “the parmesan croquettes are a must and if the agnolotti carbonara is on... have it!”.

“Exceptional food and service with chefs coming out to announce the dishes and even serve wine sometimes” again helps inspire very high levels of satisfaction with this ex-Alimentum chef’s “attentive and charming” dining room in a country house hotel near Norwich (which carried off a Michelin star from the tyre co’s 2025 awards). There’s an eight-course tasting menu for £95 per person, and at lunch a six-course version for £75 per person. Top Menu Tip – “Loved the homemade bread so much that they gave me a loaf to take home with me!”

This conversion of an 18th-century watermill is owned by sisters Siobhan and Caitriona (whose brother, Oliver Peyton, is the figurehead of the family’s London catering business). Reports are not super-numerous but all positive, praising its “lovely food” and – in his July 2025 review – The Times’s Giles Coren came out as a big fan, having enjoyed a setting so idyllic that “you wouldn’t have to serve such good food if you didn’t want to. You could just charge people to stand here”, but whose food more than lived up to the setting, and included a juicy pork rib eye and roasted peaches that “sounds a bit suburban, a bit 1980s, but it works beautifully”.

“Great tapas in a beautiful location” is the promise at this twin venue to the famous Gunton Arms, a mile away, from art dealer Ivor Branka – “the quality of the Hispanic cuisine is consistent and the staff are fantastic”, while the abiding memory for most visitors is the striking modern art on the walls.

Handsome Edwardian pub-with-rooms overlooking Cleys saltmarshes, which makes the most of a “nice local atmosphere” and a dining room that offers “good basics with some nice surprises”, at “a very reasonable price”. Top Menu Tip – “one of the best pub burgers in Norfolk”.

With a “lovely setting at any time of the day”, this quayside hotel and restaurant has sweeping views across the estuary and salt marshes to the National Trust-owned Blakeney Point. “Non-residents are welcome at the restaurant”, whose “very relaxed” atmosphere backdrops some “delicious” food, be it a hearty English breakfast or the daily table d’hôte. It’s particularly “good for a quiet mid-week lunch out of season when there are not too many guests around”.