Tower Hamlets, British, Modern - Restaurant Guide

“Lovely food in a very relaxed environment” has earned a glowing reputation for Chris Hicks & Alex Bagner’s revamped boozer. “Service is informal but professional”, and “the dishes well executed, with touches of originality in flavour combinations made for taste rather than curiosity”. Top Menu Tip – “desserts of freshly made light olive cake with poached apple and blackberry and raspberry millefeuille with very light pastry and creme anglaise, both to a high standard”.

“Third return to this venue… from its opening one Michelin star, then now with two stars in 2025! – the food sophistication has developed brilliantly” – regulars say that the dazzling recognition by the tyre men is “well deserved” for chef Allister Barsby and manager Alice Bussi’s “exceptional venue”, which is celebrating its sixth year. Set in a former village shop, it is spectacularly humbly situated for somewhere with such an accolade. The choice is of a five-course or eight-course tasting menu for £100 or £130 per person respectively, providing dishes that are “beautifully presented and with superb flavour profiles”. “Huge waiting list! But worth it every time!”.

“Definitely worth the drive… always delicious and great to stay over afterwards” – The Bridgen family’s pub with rooms sits in a “lovely village” halfway between Canterbury and Sandwich and wins very consistent praise as “a favorite Kent bolt hole”. There’s a variety of eating options, from à la carte – which incorporates pub classics but where the focus is on more interesting fare – to an eight-course tasting menu for £75 per person – all “innovative dishes, well-prepared and served by the efficient service”. Top Tip – “Their £200 DB&B for two midweek special is exceptional value – as are their Monthly Celebration Dinners”.

2025 Review: This manor house link in the Pig chain, three miles south of Canterbury, continues to elicit notably solid feedback; the dining room (which has the airs of a potting shed, courtesy of its preserve-lined walls) follows the locally sourced ‘25-mile’ menu of the rest of the litter, making the most of the Kentish produce; there were reports this year of some “exceptional” dishes which were also “very good value”. It’s possible to opt for more casual wood-fired snacks in the Garden Oven, while there’s more foodie goodness on offer if you stay overnight in one of their idiosyncratic rooms (“dunno where they get their breakfast pastries from, but wow!”).

This “atmospheric” former coaching inn just south of Canterbury changed hands after our annual diners’ poll was completed in summer 2025, with chef-owners Dan & Tasha Smith of the Fordwich Arms passing the lease to their friend Elliot Hewitt (a former Fordwich manager). He promised to take the menu in a more ‘casual’ direction, but with ex-Sportsman chef David Gadd running the kitchen the cooking standard should remain high.

2025 Review: This “lovely gastropub in a pretty Kent village” with “well-kept beer and very good food” – including “unusual dishes such as a celeriac and truffle tart” – is part of Saga heir Josh De Haan’s Pickled Egg group. Top Tip – “enjoyed a drink in front of the log fire while looking at the menu”.

A “beautiful old pub on the river” which boasts a large “wisteria-clad” terrace by the water and big garden. Daniel (chef) & Natasha (pastry chef) Smith have run it since 2017 and successfully established it as one of the culinary beacons in the locality: a haven of “all round loveliness, with cosy surroundings, warm staff and delivering excellence on the plate”. (The Smiths also used to run the nearby Bridge Arms, but stepped back from it this year in order to focus their energies here). Numerous best meals of the year were reported here by its dedicated fan club: “it’s on the pricey side but worth it to taste such flavours. While not an extensve menu, every dish is well presented and well thought out. Gripes? From a good number of reports, all acknowledge exemplary cuisine, and the most critical feedback says: “the food, what there is of it, is fantastic. But we found the portions ridiculously small”. Top Menu Tip – “Trout and quail starters, pork and venison main courses”.

“Exciting fusion cooking using adventurous ingredients” continues to draw a high amount of more-than-local attention to Dev Biswal’s fine dining venue near the Cathedral, which promotes an ‘Odia dining experience’ based on the cuisine of Odisha in East India. Previously part of a group called ‘Ambrette’, some reporters have followed it for ages on its journey to Canterbury (“we are lucky to live close to this imaginative Indian restaurant which we have been going to since its Margate days. The food is always interesting and delicious and service is friendly and efficient”).

2024 Review: A “real bright light in an otherwise scrappy pedestrian high street”, this polished and “very well-run” hotel dining room takes the original name of the hotel that stood here back in 1892 and brings a rare fine dining option to the centre of Canterbury; add in “wonderful” cocktails, and it’s “a treat” for its many local fans.

Ruth Leigh and her husband, chef Oli Brown worked together at Ruth’s famous father Rowley Leigh’s Café Anglais in Bayswater and their 17th-century farmstead-turned-hotel and restaurant enjoys a “lovely rural setting” where they are acclaimed as "brilliant hosts” – you dine amid vines in the conservatory at the bottom of the garden. By most accounts, the fire-grilled fare is “excellent” too, the prelude to a meal being a “nice cocktail to start in the main house”. There was, however, the odd report of wobbly service this year but they received a big boost in July 2025, when The Telegraph’s William Sitwell found gastronomic bliss at what he dubbed a “magical” countryside restaurant-with-rooms, created by a couple who he said, “believe me, will go down in history as one of the great marital duos of British restaurants”.