4 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.

Once the home of Victorian novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, this mid-17th-century tile-hung house is now an elegant restaurant known for creative French cuisine, with à la carte dishes like roast stone bass with artichoke sauce and confit pork belly with blue cheese ravioli. The fixed-price, seven-course Chef's Tasting Menu is another option.

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.

This sophisticated modern bistro, with its hardwood floors and royal blue banquettes, is popular with locals for a special-occasion dinner and with the theater crowd, who enjoy the fixed-price early-bird menus. The food strikes a balance between hearty, traditional British fare (like beer-battered fish-and-chips) and contemporary international dishes (like confit duck croquette with saffron aioli). The pre-theater menus, available before all performances at the Chichester Festival Theatre, are a good deal at £25.95 for two courses or £29.95 for three—considering mains alone typically cost between £25 and £35.