Thorpeness Restaurant Guide

“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.

2024 Review: There’s “always a long queue” at this well-known and much-commented-on fixture – “but it’s worth the wait” for “great fish ’n’ chips to eat on the beach” while trying to “avoid the seagulls” poised to pounce on your meal. Owner Peter Cooney was 11 when his parents bought the business in 1967, and he’s still frying. Top Tip – “grab a pint of excellent Adnams from next door while you wait”.

2022 Review: “You could almost be in Kerala” at this “excellent and imaginative Indian” on the seafront, noted for its “delicious spicing”… almost, were it not for the mismatched modern hotel setting; attractive booth-style seating and an impressive list of specialist beers are added motives for a visit.

2022 Review: “Great pork dishes” are the highlight of landlord Garry Cook’s menus at this fifteenth-century tavern, using meat from his wife Teresa’s smallholding, where she has bred prize-winning pigs and other animals since moving into the pub 15 years ago. Snape Maltings concert hall is just five minutes away, so the dining room is “well attended”.

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.

Since its post-pandemic arrival, this “bright and appealing” restaurant with rooms in the premises of a converted old hotel has been a “pleasant addition” to the dining scene in this posh coastal town and its popularity is such that it “becomes noisy and crowded at weekends”. It wins consistent praise for its “great seafood (very nice lobster in particular) and fresh, well-prepared fish” but there are also a number of reports which suggest that it can feel a little overhyped locally: “it’s aiming high, but maybe not quite reaching the heights… not memorable if very pleasant”.

2023 Review: This black-painted shack opposite Aldeburgh’s Moot Hall sells “seriously brilliant smoked fish right on the beach”. The seafood is either hot- or cold-smoked on site, using a light smoke to enhance flavour rather than the more commercial heavy smoke used as a preservative. Top Tip – “noon tarts to die for”.