23 Best Restaurants in East Anglia, England

A frequent (and deserving) entry on "best fish-and-chips in Britain" lists, Aldeburgh's most celebrated eatery always has a long line of eager customers come frying time. The fish is fresh and local, the batter melts in your mouth, and the chips (from locally grown potatoes) are satisfyingly chunky. Upstairs you can sit at tables, but for the full experience, join the line and take out the paper-wrapped version. The nearby Golden Galleon, run by the same people, is a good alternative if this place is too crowded.

What started as a little café that sold oysters and cups of tea is now a bustling restaurant, with a nationwide reputation. It has no pretenses of grandeur but serves some of the best smoked fish you're likely to taste anywhere. The fish pie is legendary in these parts, and the traditional English desserts are exceptional. The actual smoking (of fish, cheese, and much else) takes place in the adjacent smokehouse, and products are for sale in a shop around the corner.

This excellent "restaurant with rooms" on the medieval Market Square takes deeply traditional flavors of the British countryside and updates them with a slight French twist. Served in an elegant, whitewashed dining room, the five-course, fixed-price dinners might include breast of pigeon with caramelized endive or halibut with ginger foam and parsley sauce. The five spacious guest rooms have sloping floors, beamed ceilings, well-appointed bathrooms, and antique furnishings.

In one of Lincoln's oldest buildings, a rare extant example of 12th-century Norman domestic architecture, this restaurant is worth a visit for more than just its outstanding cosmopolitan menu. Typical main dishes include roasted rack of lamb with rosemary confit carrots or wild turbot with caviar hollandaise. For dessert, you might be offered pistachio sponge with mixed berries. The restaurant is a much more sedate place than its colorful and sometimes dark history suggests (the name is medieval—check out the story while you're here).

The villages of England are awash with cream tea cafés, but none are as quaint and cute as this one. Having converted the ground floor of the 15th-century timber-framed cottage into a café, the proprietor set about making a name for the place with the best cream teas and door-stop sandwiches this side of the Broads. And if you can't manage another cream tea then indulge in a classic ploughman's lunch, a quintessential country lunch of cheeses, cold meats, pickles, and bread. 

This stylish French restaurant, with the same owners as the Great House in nearby Lavenham, specializes in locally caught seafood. Typical choices include king scallops with squid ink and saddle of lamb with parsley and mushroom stuffing. Leave room for dessert, such as the indulgent Opera gateau, a rich chocolate and almond pudding. The three-course £42 lunch offers good value.

Beside the River Cam on the edge of Midsummer Common, this gray-brick 19th-century villa holds a two–Michelin star restaurant set in a comfortable conservatory. Fixed-price menus for lunch and dinner (with five to eight courses) present innovative dishes—perhaps freshwater prawn with gazpacho mousse or sautéed duck liver and Comté cheese—that emphasize seasonal, often local, ingredients. Service is both informal and informative. If you don't want to pay the eye-watering cost of dinner here (£250 per person), come for lunch, which is £150 per person.

Scrubbed pine tables fill the main dining room of this converted fire station near Ely Cathedral, and another room, used when there's a crowd, has an open fireplace and a polished wood floor, and also serves as an art gallery. The menu could include fenland recipes like sea bass with shrimp and dill sauce, as well as more familiar rustic English fare, such as steak and kidney pie. Desserts might include treacle pudding (a sticky, steamed cake) or housemade ice cream.

This sophisticated restaurant serving excellent seasonal British fare is in a Tudor house beside the idyllic River Stour. Outside, there are lighted terraces, where food and drinks are served on warm evenings, while inside, original beams, leaded-glass windows, and a brick fireplace add to the sense of history. The menu at lunch and dinner may include thyme-roasted partridge with salsify and grapes, or John Dory with razor clam chowder. For dessert, try the fresh fruit pavlova. In summer, evening barbecues are occasionally held on the terrace.

This place, which dates from at least 1249, serves hearty pub staples and a good range of beers and ales. Rumor has it that the pub is haunted, which makes it the perfect meeting point for the Norwich Ghost Walks held on Tuesday and Thursday.

A converted pub, this cozy, thatched café and restaurant has famously good homemade cakes as well as roasts and afternoon tea. The building, which dates from 1347, has low ceilings, a garden that's open in summer, and a crackling fire in winter.

This restaurant close to the cathedral serves the best of old-school British food, including freshly made savory pies and succulent beef, as well as pork belly, sausage and mash, and exotic pie specials. Its early evening menu is notably affordable.

Excellent value, this low-key brasserie with tightly packed wooden tables relies exclusively on local produce for its Modern British dishes, all imaginatively prepared. The menu focuses on seafood, including oysters and Cromer crabs. Desserts are particularly good.

Across from Constable's school in Dedha, this friendly, 300-year-old pub serves traditional English fare and has five elegant guest rooms. The Ploughman's lunch (cheese, bread, salad, and pickles) and steak and chips share the menu with dishes like shrimp scampi.

In a town ready to burst with cream teas, it's a bit of a surprise to find an Indian restaurant, let alone such an exceptional one. Among the classics you'd expect from a curry house—from mild kormas to spicy madrases and jalfrezies (traditional curries made with chili and tomato)—are some finely executed specialties, including Nizami chicken (a fiery dish prepared with yogurt and fresh ginger) and tiger prawn bhuna (with ginger, garlic, and spring onion). The menu also contains regional specialties from Goa and Hyderabad.

This charming, intimate local favorite is near an uncompromisingly busy intersection, but the friendliness of the staff and classic bistro food more than make up for it. Typical mains include Cajun swordfish with green bean salad or beef Wellington. Ask to be seated in the lovely walled garden if the weather's fine.

This 600-year-old inn is home to one of the city's oldest pubs, making it a good stop for an afternoon pint of real ale and bowl of doorstop-sized potato wedges. Mind the low beams.

Pretty stained glass windows separate this sophisticated little restaurant from bustling Chesterton Road. The setting, in a terrace of houses, is low-key, but the food is creative and eye-catching, with a fixed-price menu that changes monthly and includes dishes like Australian winter truffle with Parmesan or Nidderdale lamb with smoked aubergine. For dessert, try the coconut parfait with chili sauce if it's available. The restaurant only offers its full tasting menu (£145) for dinners and its short tasting menu (£110) for lunch.

Across the river from Magdalene College, this popular waterfront bar and grill serves delicious steak, burgers, and pies, plus specialties such as lobster mac and cheese or salmon steak with molasses and spices. There's an extensive cocktail menu as well. Try a Frisky Vixen (rum with pineapple juice, lychee, and passion fruit) or head up to the roof terrace for a glass of Champagne. When dining, perhaps leave room for a classic sticky toffee pudding for dessert.

This early-19th-century pub and restaurant in a thatched cottage has an elegant dining space in the conservatory and more casual tables in the airy bar. Sourcing of ingredients is taken seriously here—the menu lists not only the suppliers but specific reasons for choosing them—and this is all put to good use in Modern British dishes with hints of the Mediterranean. Start with squid ink arancini, then move on to pork T-bone or a fresh catch of the day from the fish board. The long wine list is predominantly Italian, but there are also some good New World choices. Madingley is 5 miles west of Cambridge, about a 10-minute taxi ride.

This is the perfect antidote to all those meat-heavy English breakfasts—waffles, waffles, and more waffles on an imaginative menu. Breakfast choices include toppings like bacon and bananas, while later in the day you can order them with anything from hummus and avocado to free-range sausage. Or, skip to dessert and order yours topped with chocolate and honeycomb mousse, or "banoffee" sauce (a heavenly mix of banana and toffee)—sugar rush heaven.

Traditional British food with an imaginative twist is the draw at this former coaching inn. The hearty, house special fish pie is excellent, or you may opt for a plate of fresh local mussels. You can dine in the bar, the airy conservatory, or the more intimate Long Room. There are also cozy guest rooms with sea views starting at around £150 for bed-and-breakfast in the high season.

This pub-café-restaurant serves everything from breakfast (on weekends) to full evening meals in its old-fashioned dining room. The produce comes from the local markets, and you can expect dishes such as rib eye with triple-cooked chips (thick-cut fries) or sea bass and crab risotto.