Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Arundel
Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best Arundel restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 27 restaurants in Arundel and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Arundel restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Arundel Restaurants
1. E Street Bar & Grill
British, Modern restaurant in Petworth
New Street - GU28
“Looks can deceive at this understated venue” – a stylish haunt with numerous characterful spaces, whose rather metropolitan style is somewhat at odds with this antique-dealer-infested town. The upscale brasserie menu majors in seafood selections and steaks – fans tip the “well-priced three-course set lunch and affordable wine list”.
2. The Lamb at Angmering
British, Modern restaurant in Angmering
The Square - BN16
Next to the South Downs, this Georgian pub (with rooms) has been owned by the Newbon family since 2011. The menu mixes ‘classics’ (burger, fish ’n’ chips, steak) with more brasserie-style items. It was highlighted this year for its “good-value set lunch and pleasant service”.
3. The Star & Garter
British, Modern restaurant in East Dean
2023 Review: In the heart of the Goodwood Estate, this attractive looking inn benefits from a “large garden” and serves an menu of “imaginative” pub grub (although the “menu descriptions tend to the obscure!”).
4. Lickfold Inn
British, Modern restaurant in Lickfold
Highstead Ln - GU28
2021 Review: It’s all change again at this out-of-the-way old country pub, north of Petworth. DJ Chris Evans owned it about five years ago, then Tom Sellers ran it, but that came to an end last year, and as of August 30 2019, it has a new management team and a less ‘fine dining’ approach than under the chef of London’s Restaurant Story. Reports please!
5. The Town House
British, Modern restaurant in Arundel
65 High Street - BN18
2021 Review: “Utterly consistent and fabulous” – chef Lee Williams “never lets you down” at his restaurant-with-rooms in a Regency house looking out over Arundel Castle. Its talking-point is the “beautiful gold-leaf ceiling” in the dining room, which was made in Florence in the sixteenth century. Local seafood is the star on a “delicious” menu (“especially when fresh lobster is in season”).
6. The Parsons Table
British, Modern restaurant in Arundel
2 & 8 Castle Mews, Tarrant Street - BN18
Launched in 2015 after a stellar career (Claridge’s, Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons, many a high-end Canadian hotel), Lee (& FOH wife Liz) Parsons’ small indie is a real local “favourite” that inspires many comments in our annual diners’ poll (booking is thus essential) focussing on “exquisite fresh ingredients whose combinations tantalise the tastebuds”. The “great-value set lunch” merits investigation, and “fish is the outstanding choice” as always.
7. The Pig in the South Downs
British, Modern restaurant in Arundel
Madehurst - BN18
“What a lovely setting” – on a hilltop in the South Downs National Park – for a “very typical ‘Pig’”: Robin Hutson’s well-known litter of shabby-chic hotels (now sold to private equity). At almost two acres, the kitchen garden enables “a good exhibition of farm-to-fork”, although the most critical diners feel “the cooking is not particularly interesting or exciting (possibly because it has been replicated by so many)”. There’s a “great list of Sussex and Kent wines”, soon to be joined by bottles from the estate’s own vines – a ‘Pig’ first – and a herd of South Downs sheep.
8. East Beach Cafe
British, Modern restaurant in Littlehampton
Sea Road - BN17
2021 Review: “The food is decent” (particularly the fish) and the “service friendly” at this driftwood-themed Thomas Heatherwick construction – “but what a location! The children can play outside on the beach while you wait for the grub to arrive, and then you can all stroll by the sea afterwards... just choose a sunny day!”.
9. Amberley Castle
British, Modern restaurant in Amberley
This luxury hotel restaurant in a semi-ruined medieval castle (complete with portcullis) is part of the Andrew Brownsword group, and certainly makes for a “wonderfully romantic” destination. “The dining room is situated upstairs in the castle” – replete with a rare barrel-vaulted ceiling – so may not be good for the mobility-impaired, “but the staff are obliging” and the food “good” (if not exceptional).
10. Bailiffscourt Hotel
British, Modern restaurant in Climping
Climping St - BN17
This “charmingly higgledy-piggledy venue” may look like it springs from medieval times, but was in fact created in 1927, when a member of the Guinness brewing family commissioned it from an antiquarian and architect. Nowadays it sprawls over thirty acres leading to the coastline, replete with numerous houses and cottages offering accommodation, a hotel and spa, and a dining room with tapestry-hung walls, where diners can enjoy a solid menu based on Sussex produce.
11. Cassons Restaurant & Bar
British, Modern restaurant in Chichester
Arundel Road, Tangmere - PO18
It’s “a little old-fashioned”, but that does little to dent the appeal of Viv Casson’s “lovely” restaurant, a short drive from the Goodwood Estate; the venue celebrated its twentieth anniversary in 2023, and whether you go for the Sunday lunch or regular themed dinners, it “delivers on efficiency and solidly good food”.
12. The Richmond Arms
British, Modern restaurant in Chichester
Mill Road, West Ashling - PO18
2021 Review: “A definite must-visit” – “an amazing small gastropub next to a beautiful pond”, on the Goodwood Estate, and with a line in “tasty and flavoursome” victuals (including game).
13. Farmer, Butcher, Chef
British, Modern restaurant in Chichester
Goodwood Estate - PO18
2022 Review: “The food is excellent, and you’re made to feel welcome” at this showcase for the produce of the Goodwood Estate, an early convert to organic farming (although Lord March, the Duke of Richmond, is better known as a petrol-head). “They’ve turned the courtyard into a lovely space”, and the highlight of the menu is the ‘butcher’s board’ sharing selection of various meat cuts.
14. CrabShack
Fish & seafood restaurant in Worthing
2 Marine Parade - BN11
“If you love fish you’ll love CrabShack”, say fans of this “rustic” family-owned spot “right on the seafront”, with a “short and consistent menu”. It’s “a bit crowded, a bit noisy, but if you don’t mind that, just relax and enjoy fish tacos, crab cakes, crispy squid and more – it’s all gorgeous”.
15. The Royal Oak
British, Modern restaurant in East Lavant
Pook Ln - PO18
This 200-year-old local pub at the foot of the South Downs is “well run and popular”, with a “well-executed and great-value menu” of superior gastropub fare.
16. The Horse Guards Inn
British, Traditional restaurant in Tillington
Upperton Rd - GU28
“If only more pubs were like this” – a “perfect local”, on the edge of the Petworth estates, where “the food is largely locally sourced and much better than standard pub grub” (indeed, the “innovative daily changing menu” comes “from a chef who obviously cares”). Bonus points for the appealing garden, and there’s a “good atmosphere inside too, unless you’re in the overflow room”.
17. The Earl of March
British, Traditional restaurant in Lavant
Lavant Rd - P018
2023 Review: The view (towards Goodwood) from the window is said to have inspired William Blake’s anthem, Jerusalem, in 1803, but the current future is uncertain at this eighteenth-century coaching inn, which shut its doors in early October 2022. We await news of the new incarnation of this vantagepoint over ‘England’s green and pleasant land’.
18. The Half Moon
British, Modern restaurant in Kirdford
Glasshouse Lane - RH14
2021 Review: Celeb MasterChef contestant Jodie Kidd (better known as a 1990s supermodel) has proved the cynics wrong at this fifteenth century venue, which she relaunched in summer 2017; the worst anyone has to say is that it’s “nice enough but nothing to rush back for”, while fans had a “most enjoyable experience at this village pub”.
19. The White Horse
British, Modern restaurant in Chilgrove
1 High St - PO18
2022 Review: Current owners The Epicurean Collection – behind a string of boutique pubs and inns – have a hit on their hands with this award-winning venture: a “worthy addition to an area generously supplied with high-quality country pubs”. The rolling South Downs beyond the windows inform much of the “imaginative menu”, with a particular accent on introducing non-shooting folk to game (the latter courtesy of the local Goodwood Estate).
20. The Duke Of Cumberland
British, Modern restaurant in Henley
2021 Review: “Fabulous country food” (hefty and satisfying) is the order of the day at chef-patron Simon Goodman’s hillside sixteenth century boozer, which these days profits from a proper dining area and, as ever, an “amazing garden” overlooking Leith Hill, the highest point in Surrey.
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