4 Best Restaurants in Canterbury, The Southeast

Set just outside the medieval city walls, this historic pub-turned-restaurant serves locally sourced British produce with creative culinary twists. Mains include confit pork belly with burnt-ends croquettes and monkfish in Parma ham, but it's the "nibbles" (snacks) that are really inventive—try the sausage roll, served as three thick slices with mushroom ketchup. It's a little pricey, but the food is excellent and the portions are very generous. There are also five appealing bedrooms available upstairs, with prices starting from £120 (double that in high season) including breakfast.

Long lines and lots of satisfied finger licking attest to the deserved popularity of this excellent fish-and-chip shop in the center of town, where all orders are takeout. Everything is freshly fried, the batter crispy, and the fish tasty; the fried mushrooms are also surprisingly good. There's no seating, so your fish is wrapped up in paper and you eat it where you want, perhaps in the park. This place closes at 7 pm.

Next to Canterbury West Station, this farmers' market restaurant with wooden tables is well known for offering fresh, seasonal Kentish food—think spring lamb leg with lemon and mint or wild bass with a crab and tarragon broth. Whatever is freshest that day appears on the menu, whether it's quail eggs, trout, or duck breast. The vaulted wooden space with stone-and-brick walls was a storage shed in Victorian times (hence the name); today the restaurant has huge arched windows overlooking the market and a butchers' stall.

A colorful, friendly old pub near the cathedral, the Old Buttermarket is a great place to grab a hearty lunch and sample some traditional English fare with a modern inflection. You can sip a pint of fresh English ale while sampling a wild boar and chorizo pie or perhaps a warming bowl of Cheddar-crumbed mac and cheese. There's been a pub on this site for more than 500 years; historical records show that there were once secret tunnels connecting it to Canterbury Cathedral.