Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Lewes
Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best Lewes restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 65 restaurants in Lewes and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Lewes restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Lewes Restaurants
1. The Set
British, Modern restaurant in Brighton
50 Preston Road - BN1
In June 2021, Dan Kenny found a new home for his project in Café Rust, not far from Preston park and underneath the viaduct. It’s a small place, with a two-person team in the kitchen aiming for big, umami flavours from a fixed 14-20 course tasting menu over two-and-a-half hours, and though it inspires somewhat limited feedback, fans say results are “just flawless”.
2. Terre à Terre
Vegetarian restaurant in Brighton
71 East St - BN1
“So many dimensions of flavour on each plate, each excellently balanced” and service with “just the right balance of the professional and the friendly” mean this veteran of The Lanes remains, for most reporters, “a revelation of how pleasing a vegetarian restaurant can be (and I am an omnivore!)” thanks to its “complex” dishes and “truly original flavour combinations”. Indeed, this “lively” venue is the most commented-on destination in town in our annual diners’ poll and the UK’s most prominent meat-free venue. Ratings, though, were dragged down a little this year by a few more cautious reporters who feel “it used to be a trail blazer but hasn’t moved on” and is “not as pleasing as it was”. On most accounts, though, it remains “worth the trip to the south coast”: “you don’t feel like you’re missing out on meat or fish”.
3. The Tasting Room, Rathfinny Wine Estate
British, Modern restaurant in Alfriston
Rathfinny Wine Estate - BN26
Panoramic views of the vineyards and South Downs accompany a trip to this seasonal dining room (which is closed in October during the wine harvest). Some reports are of outstanding cuisine from chef Chris Bailey, although there is the odd concern about some “huge mark-ups” on certain items. You can always opt for the “really relaxed” Flint Barn dining room also on the estate (“keenly priced, lovely posh grub with a large choice of wines to wash it all down”). There is also The Hut at Rathfinny – a wine bar with week-round opening.
4. English’s
Fish & seafood restaurant in Brighton
29-31 East St - BN1
“Traditional seafood in pleasant surroundings” has proved an enduring formula for this seafood veteran in the Lanes – one of the UK’s few historic provincial restaurants, dating as it does from the 1890s and run by the Leigh-Jones family since 1945. More critical reports say the “food quality can be a little hit or miss”; or alternatively that it’s “very good, but more pricey than it needs to be”. But “sat outside enjoying the sun, with great service and full-on Brighton atmosphere, you can have a great meal”.
5. The Chilli Pickle
Indian restaurant in Brighton
17 Jubilee St - BN1
“Still one of Brighton’s top Indians” – this Arts Quarter operation (est. 2008) offers “very good authentic cuisine, with dishes you usually never see here in the UK” – barbecue surf and turf, say, or interesting regional curries – and benefits from a “great atmosphere” too.
6. Limes Thai Kitchen
Thai restaurant in Lindfield
67 High Street - RH16
“Really impressive and tasty food that’s a cut above usual Thai fare” and “attentive service” win praise for this local Thai, on the high street of a super-cute village. Top Tip – “top delivery” too: “speedy delivery and delicious food; and a good range for vegans too”.
7. Ram Inn
restaurant in Firle
The Street - BN8
2022 Review: At the heart of a picture-perfect village in the South Downs National Park which was beloved by Virginia Woolf in her day, this rambling brick and flint pub-with-rooms has a “great garden, or more like field” (!) offering views over the Sussex countryside. Inside offers an “intimate” and “romantic” backdrop to “modern and fresh” food of a “reliable” bent.
8. The Ginger Dog
British, Modern restaurant in Brighton
12 College Pl - BN2
2021 Review: “More ‘pubby’ than The Gingerman” – the namesake group’s original site and flagship, opened in 1998 – “but more relaxing” too, this dog-friendly Kemptown spot is a solid performer which “cannot be beaten for family get-togethers”; the newest ginger, The Flint House, mixing tapas, cocktails and a roof terrace, opened in central Brighton in spring 2019.
9. MEATLiquor
Burgers, etc restaurant in Brighton
22-23 York Place - BN1
“The Dead Hippy burger is a dirty, dirty legend” – the best-named burger on British menus and “if not the easiest burger to eat definitely the tastiest” (especially when chased down by a boozy “hard shake”) – at the “cool” chain founded 15 years ago by Scott Collins and Yianni Papoutsis. The expansion of recent years seems to have ground to a halt with the closure of branches in Boxpark Croydon and Clapham Old Town, with a new strategy based around boosting sales via a national network of delivery kitchens launched in 2023. Top Tip – “root beer is available if you want a bit of real Americana!”
10. Isaac@
British, Modern restaurant in Brighton
2 Gloucester Street - BN1
2023 Review: Isaac Bartlett-Copeland’s ambitious and ultra-local operation in Brighton’s boho North Laine is “so original and never the same twice”, with its ‘taste of Sussex’ menus and an all-English list of wines. The “NYC vibe” goes too far for some tastes (“well-meaning front of house told us everything, and I mean absolutely everything, about every dish…”)
11. Basketmakers Arms
British, Traditional restaurant in Brighton
12 Gloucester Rd - BN1
2023 Review: This “little” Victorian boozer on a North Laine corner is “a bit away from the centre but not far from the station, so perfect when arriving at lunchtime” – “the menu’s not massive, which is usually a good sign, and you’ll find Sunday roast, fish ’n’ chips, and classic pub dishes”.
12. Amarillo at Drakes
restaurant in Brighton
Drakes, 43 - 44 Marine Parade - BN2
2022 Review: Occupying the basement Kempton site of the eponymous Drakes of Brighton, the new restaurant at this boutique hotel is headed up by chef Ian Swainson (previously at The Pass). It started as a pop-up in 2019 and went permanent in 2020. Our limited feedback said the food is very good, but was too limited for a rating. But the word on the street is that his food is some of the more interesting to be had in the town.
13. Iydea
Vegetarian restaurant in Brighton
17 Kensington Gardens - BN1
2022 Review: “A fire before lockdown, followed by Covid restrictions, mean it's been a tricky time for this well-loved Brighton institution”, but the “fabulous” North Laine veggie and vegan café is happily once again back in business. “Beyond-delicious food, lovely people and a great atmosphere” ensure that it's “definitely worth a visit even if you’re not vegetarian”.
14. Fatto a Mano
Pizza restaurant in Brighton
25 Gloucester Road - BN1
This popular Neapolitan-style pizza pie joint (born in 2015) now has three outlets in Brighton and Hove – plus a newer one in King’s Cross; solid ratings, if little in the way of feedback this year, but what there was reported the pizzas “excellent” (they do pizzas of the month, and also run a pizzaiolo competition).
15. Burger Brothers
Burgers, etc restaurant in Brighton
97 North Rd - BN1
2023 Review: “Not a restaurant… rather a tiny room with some bar stools along the wall”. Fans say “it’s a ‘must-try’ experience for all lovers of honest, tasty cuisine! The burgers are juicy, and full of flavour from the quality of the meat to the seasonings”.
16. La Choza
Mexican restaurant in Brighton
36 Gloucester Rd - BN1
2023 Review: Decked out with neon lights, graffiti, sugar skulls and vivid flowers, this ten-year-old cantina has also spawned a (larger) Hove spin-off. Such feedback as we have says its “great value, with really enjoyable food” – more reports please!
17. Wahaca
Mexican restaurant in Brighton
160-161 North Street - BN1
These “lively, colourful” Mexican street-food joints are, say fans, “great for a quick bite” – “the food remains pretty good (if not where it was several years ago)” and “you can’t complain at the prices”. That’s the majority view anyway, although there is a small minority who feel it’s “very average” now (and its ratings risk heading that way). Founded by MasterChef winner Thomasina Miers in 2007, the group hit the buffers during the pandemic and halved in size to 10 sites in London, with Dick Enthoven of Nando’s taking a controlling stake.
18. Indian Summer
Indian restaurant in Brighton
70 East Street - BN1
2022 Review: “Creative and delicious” – this pleasing Lanes spot, say fans, “takes Indian food to new heights”. One or two reporters this year, though, craved more spice here.
19. Flint House
British, Modern restaurant in Brighton
13 Hannington’s Lane - BN1
“Every dish is packed with flavour” at this “crowd-pleasing”, modern British small plates venue from Pamela & Ben McKellar’s Gingerman group, with a “bright and friendly dining room above the bucolic Lanes of Brighton”: there’s a “really something for everyone”, backed up with “super-friendly service”.
20. Riddle & Finns
British, Modern restaurant in Brighton
12b Meeting House Ln - BN1
This “cracking hidden gem, tucked away in the Lanes” is “a bit of a Brighton institution now, and rightly so” – an “intimate and romantic” place where “the seafood is fresh, the dishes filling yet light and the service unobtrusive but friendly”. “It provides a great selection of crustacea and everything from mackerel to Dover sole”. There is now also a beachside offshoot in the Rotunda on Brighton’s Promenade.
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