Southwold, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

This attractive Georgian high street inn, long of note among London daytrippers, is part of the Adnams stable, so “exemplary beer” is a given. While it’s “had its wobbles over the years” (decades, really) and there was the odd “average” report again this year, a number of reports claim it’s “finally improving again” and its biggest fans say it’s “everything that you’d want a seaside hotel restaurant to be”.

“Fish is the speciality at this historic house hotel” – “we love the food here and we’re always made to feel very welcome” by proprietors Andy & Kinga Rudd, who have run it for 16 years. The building itself is one of the oldest in Southwold, dating from 1455.

2023 Review: This attractive Arts & Crafts pub-with-rooms and an acre of land is a “good place to stay on the Suffolk coast”, with “friendly service” and “good pub grub” which puts an emphasis on local seafood and produce – including beers from champion local brewer Adnams. Mark & Sophie Dorber (formerly of the White Horse in Parsons Green, aka the Sloaney Pony) have owned and run it for 19 years.

2021 Review: This comfortable old inn between Southwold and Aldeburgh has generated all-round enthusiasm since joining East Anglia’s Chestnut Group a couple of years ago: the food is well rated and “friendly staff make a meal here a real pleasure”.

“Unpretentious but consistently good cooking and wonderful service” help sustain this Aldeburgh fixture, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, as “the epitome of a reliable, welcoming local restaurant”. Owner Sam Hayes “is a terrific host” and with his “exemplary staff” makes sure that every meal is “a fabulous experience” – and “given the multi-millionaire level” of Aldeburgh prices, it’s also “thoroughly good value”. Top Menu Tip – “excellent fish”.

This unpretentious high street outfit is run by twins Alex (on FOH) and Oliver (kitchen duties) Burnside, who had already racked up a decade-plus of experience working there before taking it over in 2020 – and, in the case of Alex, having met his wife there too. As befits the coastal location, fish and seafood are the focus, but the popular specials board ranges more widely. If you like their style, the duo also oversee cottage-style dining pub The Golden Key, in Snape, and The Plough and Sail on the front at Snape Maltings.

This pub-with-rooms (plus a sibling, The Parrot, in Aldringham) is “mostly a restaurant now, although some of the very smart locals still use it as a pub” and regulars say it remains “the social fulcrum of this very under-the-radar and incredibly exclusive resort, where discretion and good taste rule” (with “boules pitches in the gardens at patrons’ disposal during summer months”). Ratings are quite safe across the board, although there’s a feeling that “the good food has been somewhat up and down” of late.