Luxury and boutique hotel destinations

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Boutique hotels in Suffolk

Suffolk
Eating, drinking and dancing

We've tracked down the best beach cafés, the freshest seafood, the most accomplished restaurants and the nicest pubs in Suffolk. All you have to do is pick your favourite…

Restaurants

(+44 (0)1638 713552)

Tuddenham Mill

Gordon McNeill’s tantalising Modern European fare, made with fresh local produce and tinged with a hint of his native Scotland, is served up against a backdrop of sleek Italian tables and oak beams at this restored millhouse hotel in Tuddenham. Don’t miss the awesome assiette of puddings.

High Street, Tuddenham, near Newmarket, Suffolk IP28 6SQ

(+44 (0)1394 450277)

Butley Orford Oysterage

A wonderful, relaxed fish restaurant with its own smokehouse, the Oysterage even sends out its own boats to guarantee the freshness of its produce (www.butleyorfordoysterage.co.uk).

Market Hill, Orford, Suffolk IP12 2LH

(+44 (0)1284 760623)

Maison Bleue

So upscale that its menu includes a ‘plâteau de fruits de mer’ requiring 48-hours’ notice, this West Suffolk establishment offers fine dining at reasonable prices. The emphasis is on seafood, and the influence is unmistakably French (www.maisonbleue.co.uk).

31 Churchgate Street, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

(+44 (0)1502 722186)

The Swan

It may be a little formal for a seaside town, but the Swan hotel is the place to eat in chi-chi Southwold. Its excellent menu – featuring lots of fresh local fish – is complemented by what is probably Suffolk’s best wine list.

The Swan Hotel, Market Place, Southwold, Suffolk IP18 6EG

(+44 (0)1502 722275)

The Crown

Just up the high street from the Swan, the Crown – also owned by the local Adnams brewery – offers another fine-dining experience by the coast. Its brasserie-style menus are changed daily in both the main restaurant and its dark, atmospheric bar.

The Crown Hotel, 90 High Street, Southwold, Suffolk IP18 6DP

(+44 (0)1728 453377)

The Lighthouse

An unpretentious restaurant inhabiting what looks like an old-fashioned grocers’ shop. The reasonably priced bistro-style dishes appeal to weekending urbanites who flock to Aldeburgh year round (www.lighthouserestaurant.co.uk).

77 High Street, Aldeburgh, Suffolk IP15 5AU

(+44 (0)1787 247431)

The Great House

Sister establishment of Maison Bleue, this intimate country-hotel restaurant brings a little bit of France to the Ipswich environs. Lots of local pork and fish, all served with a Gallic twist – and at reasonable prices (www.lavenham.co.uk/greathouse).

Market Place, Lavenham, Suffolk CO10 9QZ

Cafés

(+44 (0)1728 621232)

Off the Square

This lovely spot in picturesque Framlingham offers a simple and fresh menu in the comforting surroundings of a former greengrocers’ shop. It’s also very handy for the nearby castle (www.otsframltd.co.uk).

3 Church Street, Framlingham, Suffolk IP13 9BG

(+44 (0)1284 765481)

Vinch Finch

It may look like a wine bar from the outside, but its wide selection of local meats and cheeses, as well as treats from around the world, make this deli-café the ideal place to stop for an epicurean lunch (www.vinchfinch.co.uk).

43–45 Churchgate Street, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP33 1RG

(+44 (0)1728 454152)

Café 152

Thanks to its proximity to Aldeburgh beach, where local fishermen lay out their still-flipping wares each day, this is simply one of the best places on the coast to pick up a fish knife (www.152aldeburgh.co.uk).

152 High Street, Aldeburgh, Suffolk IP15 5AQ

(+44 (0)1502 722105)

The Clockhouse

A brasserie-style café on Southwold’s pier that offers locally caught moules marinières, baskets of organic bread, and blonde abbey beer Leffe on draught – as well as far-as-the-eye-can-see views of the coast (www.southwoldpier.co.uk).

Southwold Pier, North Parade, Southwold, Suffolk IP18 6BN

Bars and clubs

(+44 (0)1728 452720)

The White Lion

An eye-catching fixture on the seafront since the 16th century, Aldeburgh’s most auspiciously positioned hotel is a lordly place for a drink. The oak-panelled bar offers views out to sea and, in the winter, the chance to dry out in front of a log fire after a beach walk.

Market Cross Place, Aldeburgh, Suffolk IP15 5BJ

Pubs

(+44 (0)1502 722079)

Lord Nelson

A cracking pub right on the Southwold seafront, with the sort of bar menu that those who’ve spent all day paddling, throwing frisbees and chasing errant children along the pebbles dream about. Its enormous portions of fish ’n’ chips are the perfect accompaniment to a pint of Adnams.

42 East Street, Southwold, Suffolk IP18 6EJ

(+44 (0)1284 764867)

The Nutshell

With a saloon bar only marginally larger than a snooker table, this thatched pub is officially one of the smallest in Britain, with room for no more than ten drinkers. You’ll rub shoulders (literally) with having-a-look-see daytrippers, and don’t be put off by the dead cat hanging from the ceiling, strategically placed for those clever so-and-sos who suggest you couldn’t swing it in here.

17 The Traverse, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP33 1BJ

(+44 (0)1502 722381)

The Harbour Inn

A higgledy-piggledy pub by the River Blyth with beer on handpumps, low-slung beams and a marker showing the floodline reached by a devastating high tide in the Fifties. Good for a pint of Adnams and some locally produced pork scratchings. Live music at least twice a week.

Blackshore, Southwold, Suffolk IP18 6TA