Thetford Restaurant Guide

A “beautiful” 400-year-old barn conversion creates a “lovely relaxed atmosphere” for the “interesting food and own-produced wines” served on Wyken Estate, whose vineyard was planted in 1988. The café at the other end of the barn reopened after a four-year closure in September 2024, serving more relaxed lunches, and there’s also an open-air pizzeria knocking out wood-fired sourdough pizzas on Saturdays.

A gloriously situated old watermill set on twelve acres strewn with weeping willows plays host to this venture, juggling a more formal upstairs dining room and casual outdoor hangout Tipi on the Stream, for cocktails and seafood. Chef-owner Lee Bye’s seasonal field-to-fork food is “done to perfection” (with one reporter preferring the à la carte to the tasting menu) and if you want to overnight, the rooms are “fantastic” too.

“Bury St Edmunds is quite a gastronomical wonder town” and near the top of the pile is this “small beauty” – an “unpretentious” sort of place set up by chef Justin Sharp and FOH wife Jurga in 2009, and which has retained the tyre men’s acclaim since 2021. The “fabulous” and “scrummy” food is a mash-up of the Mediterranean and the Middle East that “never fails to delight”, while there’s “always something exciting, interesting or unexpected” on the wine list (particularly if you like organic and natural wines). Top Tip – the “off-pitch location” (a residential square) “means parking nearby at lunchtime is impossible”, but on the plus side it’s only a ten-minute walk from the train station.

2021 Review: “For that romantic meal close to the town centre within super gardens and with a great terrace”, this elegant restaurant with rooms provides a “gorgeous” setting and “delicious cooking”. At lunch, there’s a cheaper set menu (as well as the option of sandwiches and salads).

“Wow, what a find!” – Chef-patron Zack Deakins’s townhouse on Angel Hill offers “delicate, subtle, tasty and skilful cooking” in a “beautiful room”, along with a “cheery, warm welcome” and “attentive, friendly service” – “one table wanted the tasting menu but one with no fish; one no meat; one vegetarian... no problem at all, the staff were flexible and made helpful suggestions”. There’s also “an interesting, well-chosen wine list with wines from unusual countries (Croatia; Lebanon; Japan)”. It’s “great for business lunches”, too.

“A tiny restaurant with big flavours” – James & Sophia Carn’s ambitious yearling is “very different” by the standards of the area, but numerous fans suggest “it’s the place to be in Bury” and (“being very small – around 25 covers – booking is essential”). The menu provided a good number of diners’ best meal of the year: “a wide and diverse range of small plates” which can also be enjoyed as a tasting selection for £80 per person. “The whole underlying theme is one of care”: this is “tasty, pretty, creative food that is not fussy or pretentious in any way”, “served with professional smiles in a buzzy little space”. Top Menu Tip – “Bone marrow and oxtail pie is stunning”.

Opened in February 2024, the new kid on the block in this foodie town is “part-owned by Régis Crépy, who used to run The Great House in Lavenham” (which he sold in 2018 after over three decades at the helm) and restaurateur Lamen Reddy, whom he met when they were running neighbouring eateries at Cambridge’s Grafton shopping centre. The Grade II-listed building (formerly Neal’s Yard and, way before that, Italian La Vita Bella) now offers a “fresh exciting menu” based on “superb” Mediterranean small plates and is “already very popular”.