11 Best Restaurants in The Southeast, England

White tiles, bare metal tables, and sparkling chandeliers set the tone as soon as you walk through the door of this casually elegant restaurant. The house specialty is oysters, fresh and sustainably sourced, served with or without a foaming tankard of black velvet (champagne and Guinness) on the side. Other options include squid and shellfish risotto and Sri Lankan monkfish and prawn curry. The restaurant doesn't take reservations, so come early or be prepared to wait. However, you can reserve a table at their sister restaurant, Riddle & Finns The Beach, which overlooks the sea and has the same menu.

This popular restaurant is set within a gorgeous space in the city center, with exposed brick walls and high ceilings. The à la carte menu features updated Mediterranean dishes including fried zucchini "cakes" with fresh Greek yogurt, veal cheeks with potato puree, and roasted octopus with caramelized onions. Save space for a traditional Greek dessert.

One of Rye's most popular restaurants, where most of the seafood served is freshly caught nearby, occupies a brick building that dates to 1907, but the interior has been redone in a sleek, modern style. Sample dishes like cuttlefish and noodle salad with fennel and orange or the pan-fried Rye Bay scallops with pancetta and chive vermouth sauce. 

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.

Relaunched in 2024 as an upscale steak house, this sleek, plant-filled restaurant offers a pared-back menu of prime-cut, grass-fed bavette, sirloin, and rib-eye steaks cooked over charcoal. The meat, which you can watch cooking in the open kitchen, comes medium-rare unless otherwise specified. To accompany your steak, choose from a selection of tasty sauces (from peppercorn to chimichurri) and sides (from sweet potato fries to macaroni cheese). There's a good choice of desserts too (try the lemon posset), along with a tempting wine and cocktail menu.

Located 8 miles southwest of Guildford, just a short hop down the road from Waverley Abbey and roughly halfway between the Sculpture Park and Watts Gallery, this unusually handsome country pub is in an old water mill; you can still see the working water wheel in the lobby. The menu nicely balances British pub classics and more ambitious restaurant fare; expect to find fish-and-chips and burgers alongside pan-roasted sea bass and Devonshire crab on toast. The huge beer garden is an extremely popular spot when the weather's nice, and it's also the venue for occasional open-air theater performances by local groups. Look out for the cute (but slightly intimidating) flock of ducks that are not only well practiced at begging for crumbs but also will immediately pounce on any unattended meals.

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.

Considered by Guildford locals to be one of the best Thai restaurants in the Southeast, Rumwong has an incredibly long menu, with dozens of choices from all over Thailand. Tasty dishes include the poh-taek, a "seafarer's soup" made with lemongrass, lime leaves, and shellfish, and kai pud krapraw, a spicy stir-fry made with ground chicken, fresh chilies, and basil.

Just over a mile south of Penshurst, this historic pub first opened its doors in 1520 and in many ways hardly appears to have changed today. Its big inglenook fireplace and heavy beams give it character, the views from the hilltop are lovely, and the good food (a mixture of traditional pub grub and slightly more sophisticated fare) make it a pleasure to relax inside. Come on Sunday to try the popular lunchtime roasts.

This inspiring vegetarian restaurant is incredibly popular, so come early for a light lunch or later for a more sophisticated evening meal. The food here has a pan-Asian influence, with dishes such as Korean fried cauliflower with kicking kimchi and steamed buns stuffed with ginger-braised halloumi. There's also an excellent collection of wines from around the globe.

Owned by talented graphic designers and photo artists, ThewitchEZ is certainly a unique concept: delicious German- and Polish-influenced comfort food served in the middle of a design studio (which means you can have your passport photo taken while you wait). Never mind the weirdness of the concept; this place is a whole lot of fun, and the food is good to boot—schnitzel, pierogi, German sausage, pizzas, and more.