Best Pubs in East Anglia
Published 15 November 2025

A gem of a village pub, owned and run by Will Orrock and his wife Cassidy Hughes, where there’s more than a passing nod to the Fergus Henderson (St John) school of cookery. Chef Adam Spicer's menu is brisk – beautiful ingredients are left relatively unadorned, and flavours are full. What a vol-au-vent lacks in flighty height it makes up for in crispness and the springtime deliciousness of foraged morels and wild garlic, and how good to see tenderly seared cuttlefish among the starters, alongside a silken ink-black mayonnaise studded with cod's roe – don't forget to save some of the excellent house bread for mayo-scooping purposes.

A terrine of brawn and ‘blood cake’ is as muscular as its name suggests, but alongside the heft is deft culinary balance from the crunchy bite of radishes and some zippy piccalilli. As for seafood, expect a few luxuries. The delicate flavour of lobster is somewhat swamped by its coronation sauce, although a turbot main course is memorably good. Served with fat mussels, the saline pep of monk’s beard and a gently spiced mouclade sauce, it’s a dish to hurry back for. Local produce stars throughout – from vegetables and leaves courtesy of nearby organic Maple Farm to chocolate from Pump Street or the St Jude cow’s curd served alongside a caramel tart. This is ‘proper cooking,’ notes one reporter.

The Greyhound is also a proper boozer, welcoming drinkers for honest sustenance. Do check out the great-value bar snacks – say Welsh rarebit or a ploughman’s including homemade pork pie and house pickles. Perfect with a pint, or a glass from a wine list which is fit for every occasion – be it a classy Burgundy (a 2021 Saint-Aubin 1er cru ‘Clos du Meix’ from family-owned Domaine Hubert Lamy, perhaps), a steely Austrian Riesling from the Arndorfer winery or a simple lunchtime sip from the Languedoc.

You can drop into the Anchor for a pint of Adnams Broadside and a packet of crisps, half a dozen bracingly fresh rock oysters (from Mersea or Orford) and a glass of crisp Muscadet, or go full-throttle on a three-course meal that sings with local and seasonal produce. Either way, the Anchor is firing on all cylinders as a good pub should. 

Expect straightforward, generous food. Evergreen fixtures such as tempura-battered halloumi fries, smoked haddock fishcakes, and voluminous fish and chips sit alongside specials that make the most of allotment vegetables and local meat – perhaps pork belly with sweetheart cabbage and salsa verde. The chocolate fondant has earned its very own fan club over the years, not surprisingly given its dark, molten deliciousness.

Publican Mark Dorber, who has run the place with his chef/wife Sophie since 2004, layers the drinks list with his beer and wine expertise – he’ll happily engage on the subject with interested guests while pouring everything from local ales and complex Belgian Trappist beers to everyday wines and push-the-boat-out vintages such as a Domaine des Comtes Lafon, Mersault Clos de la Barre at £110. If you need to walk all that off, the beach is minutes away; and if you need to sleep it off, there are rooms in the pub or in spacious garden chalets (our recommendation). There’s praise, too, for the ‘lovely warm welcome’ and the ‘superb atmosphere’, especially in the charming fire-warmed bar area.

Hiding behind its full-length green ivy coat is a north Norfolk inn with rooms that has plenty of fanatical support. ‘An absolutely fantastic local restaurant with exceptionally friendly staff and quality food every time,’ is a typical endorsement. The place is done up in a nice mix of old and new decorative touches, with a shiny wood floor, walls in jade-green or undressed brick, and old settles or kitchen chairs to settle on, and there's the bonus of two acres of garden to enjoy in fine weather.

It wouldn't be a proper dining pub without a steak night (Tuesdays), but there is also an enterprising modern menu that wouldn't look at all out of place on one of London's leafier fringes. Try sautéed kidney and smoked bacon on toasted sourdough to start, then cod fillet with roasted cauliflower and Norfolk asparagus with mash and leek oil for that distant waft of the coast, or chicken and ham pie with mash and seasonal greens. Indeed, well-sourced meats are the star attractions of main dishes such as grilled pork loin steak with sweetheart cabbage, apple sauce and sautéed potato.

Puddings, crumbles and brownies await the pure in heart at the finishing stage, or perhaps consider a rhubarb flan tartlet with rhubarb and custard ice cream. The Sunday lunch prix-fixe looks like a bargain. Hand-pumped ales and a serviceable wine list complete the picture.

By all means, go full tilt at the Bull's classical-leaning menu: from a crisp little Reuben's croustade brimming with beefy-pickly-cheesiness to a superlative soufflé. But, above all, the Bull is still a rural village freehouse (think lit fires, comfy old furniture, board games, quiz nights) where you can chat with the genial young owners, Sam Darling and Ben Davenport, who are invariably pouring drinks and running food to tables. 

Simpler dishes lean deliciously into that identity. Drop in for a cheese ploughman’s sandwich and a pint of the Bull’s own Rascality beer. An excellent pork pie has the fullest of fillings inside robust hot-crust pastry and comes with zippy homemade piccalilli purée. Mussels that teeter and steam in a heaped bowl are perfect partnered with bouncy garlic milk bread. 

The wine list suits the scope of the food. There are plenty of by-the-glass options below £10, but a ‘Push the Boat Out’ page tempts with three-figure bottles from classic domaines such as a St Estèphe Bordeaux (Les Pagodes de Cos, Cos d’Estournel 2012) – a fine choice with a shared côte de boeuf. There are also beautiful rooms in the pub's neighbouring guesthouse, the Pear Tree Inn, should staying over be the plan. But whatever your mood, occasion or budget, the Bull is a pub to have firmly on your Suffolk radar.

On the fringes of a 1,000-acre deer park just four miles from the Norfolk coast, this idiosyncratic pub/restaurant with rooms is quite a prospect. The grey-stone exterior may seem rather stark but inside all is comforting, thanks to soft, warm furnishings, lots of varnished woodwork, leather, blazing fires and the owners' collection of contemporary British art from the likes of Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst and Lucien Freud.

A recently acquired walled garden and chicken coop bolster the kitchen's larder, while big-boned British dishes are the order of the day. Much attention focuses on the mighty Elk Room fire, where cuts of meat are dramatically cooked to order as you watch from your table – expect anything from Blythburgh pork chops, ribs of beef and herby Gunton venison sausages to flavoursome sirloin steak served with goose-fat roasties, sauces and rowan jelly. Rich, carefully seasoned pies are also something of a trademark (perhaps chicken, bacon and leek) and there’s fish from the coast too (sea trout with seashore vegetables and King’s Lynn shrimps, for example). For afters, a delicate Amedei chocolate mousse was the standout for one visitor, but there’s also comfort to be had from the vanilla cheesecake with rhubarb or the Bramley apple and almond tart.

Sunday brings roast Aberdeen Angus sirloin as well as roasted chickens, which are carved by skilled staff and served with veg from the walled garden, garlicky bread sauce and a spectacular gravy that elevates the whole feast to another level. Everyone praises the cheerful, prompt and ‘incredibly friendly’ service too. Norfolk ales are on tap in the bar and the short wine list offers a decent spread at fair prices.

As slices of English heritage go, Piers Baker’s 15th-century yellow-washed coaching inn right in the heart of Dedham is nigh-on perfect. The rear terrace looking onto the garden is a hidden gem, while inside there are atmospheric drinking areas, a split-level, heavily beamed dining room, clattering floorboards and real fires galore.

There’s a sense of seasonality, too, in menus that offer a winning mix of updated pub classics (a thick-cut ham bagel with Keen’s Cheddar, piccalilli and fries; a rare-breed burger) and more inventive, Italian-accented dishes built around prime seasonal ingredients.  Violetta artichoke bruschetta with green olive, confit tomato and Katherine goat’s cheese is a winning combination, but if pasta is your thing (always a strong suit here), spaghetti with clams, cream and samphire is equally accomplished. Aged British steaks get the proper treatment, or there could be a full-flavoured pork côtelette with anchovy, egg, green beans, beetroot and watercress. Comforting desserts such as burnt cheesecake or limoncello syrup cake with berries and mascarpone close the show.  And it’s worth noting that the weekday ‘house menu’ (lunch and early evening) is a steal.

While the Sun is an emphatically laid-back place, there’s no corner-cutting, and the attention to detail extends to an interesting wine list weighted towards the Old World, with plenty of fine options by the glass and carafe at refreshing prices.

As a place where classy, contemporary design collides joyfully with a half-timbered country pub, the Swan is testament to what can emerge when you have what estate agents call ’vision’. By preserving the 16th-century original and adding contemporary amenities in the form of a low-slung, modern steel, wood and glass bar-restaurant overlooking a stunner-for-summer terrace, Mark and Sophie Dorber (who also run the Anchor in Walberswick), have created a new breed of country dining pub – and a godsend for tourists exploring Constable country.

Slickly turned-out modern British food defines the menu, with equal emphasis laid on freshness and revitalised classicism. This is simple, reliable cooking that can range from heritage tomato panzanella to a rare-breed burger with Keen’s Cheddar, bacon and truffle mayonnaise. Our visit kicked off with orange- and gin-cured sea trout jumbled with strips of pickled fennel and cucumber, then two delicious roundels of cumin-infused pressed shoulder of lamb served atop giant couscous with mint yoghurt, and plump fishcakes with buttered new potatoes, tenderstem broccoli and sorrel crème fraîche. 

For dessert, an orange, almond and polenta cake, and a burnt Basque cheesecake with virgin olive oil and Malden sea salt, both made a brilliant final flourish. Like the food, service strikes a great balance, while drinkers have craft beers (including Dorber’s own Harvest Ale) and a wide-ranging wine list that’s pitched just right.

Pubs come in many guises, from gritty boozers to smart dining rooms, but some straddle the roles of watering hole and restaurant with ease. Something about the White Hart – a strikingly renovated hostelry with rooms directly opposite West Mersea’s church – hits the bull’s eye. Its good looks certainly make it stand out from the crowd, with reporters much taken by the seaside colours and mid-century vibes of the bar/dining room, as well as the trump-card terrace.

This is the latest in Piers Baker’s tight-knit group (alongside the Sun at Dedham and Church Street Tavern in Colchester), and it continues the theme of uncomplicated modern cooking and kind pricing. Oysters from the inter-tidal waters of the Blackwater Estuary (a couple of minutes' stroll from the pub) open the broadly appealing menu, which takes in everything from mussels with fries to dry-aged, grass-fed rump or ribeye steaks.

Highlights of our visit were many and varied, ranging from a delicious tangle of local baby beetroot and gooseberries with Old Winchester cheese custard to tender venison haunch with runner beans, peas, grilled baby gem and girolles. Fish dishes also shine brightly – perhaps perfectly grilled mackerel fillets with cucumber and crème fraîche or crisp-skinned day-boat sea bass fillet with sweetcorn sauce, locally grown baby fennel and caponata.

Desserts are a must, especially if Paris-Brest with raspberry and almond is on offer, while the rich Tosier chocolate torte flavoured with lime and served with salted-caramel ice cream and fresh cherries has the makings of a signature dish. There's praise, too, for the Sunday roasts, the friendliness of the staff, the array of cocktails and the well-assembled wine list – although wines have always been a big plus with this small, independent group.

It could be just another whitewashed roadside inn, briefly glimpsed along the A149 as you drive past, but the White Horse is something special. Set on the marshes, it provides one of the best views along the coast and manages an impressive balancing act between pub and restaurant. A rustic public bar caters for drinkers who can spill out onto the front courtyard when the sun shines, while the light-filled conservatory dining room and terrace maximise the views – big skies, tidal creeks, little boats.

Here, chef Fran Hartshorne presents a strong 'when in Norfolk' case for choosing the exceptional mussels, half a dozen oysters served classically or tempura, dressed Cromer crab or delicious smoked salmon from the tiny Staithe Smokehouse on the premises. Elsewhere, pan-seared sea trout with leeks, local cockles, clams and brown shrimps, smoked cream and potato is a straightforward pleasure, as is marsh-grazed sirloin with Café de Paris butter and skin-on fries – one of the few meat options. For afters, the signature lemon tart with blueberries, Dann's Farm yoghurt sorbet and poppyseed crumb beckons.

If you want something more casual, head down to Marshside, the pub’s seasonal, alfresco hangout for a cocktail, glass of wine or beer plus a few small sharing plates – a robata-grilled scallop, devilled mussel crumpet or Cheddar doughnuts, say. You might, however, like to keep large plates of grilled lobster and chips or crayfish poutine to yourself. In both dining areas, the well-targeted, international wine list offers plenty by the glass.

Sometimes, pubs hit that ‘something for everyone’ note pitch-perfectly. Locals and North Norfolk coastal tourists alike can thank Anglian Country Inns for turning this rundown village boozer into a smart, forward-thinking hostelry, where drinkers are more than welcome and food is top of the agenda.

Chef Gabriel ('Gabe') Lea has impeccable credentials (Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons under Raymond Blanc, The French under Simon Rogan and Northcote with Lisa Godwin-Allen), but keeps things admirably straightforward here. His dishes are simple and unshowy, revealing a commitment to local and regional suppliers (Brancaster oysters and smoked salmon, Howard & Sons pork sausages, Mrs Temple’s Binham Blue cheese, Norfolk asparagus), while flavours are as big-hearted as the portions. Given the location, you can expect seafood to feature strongly (we enjoyed a flawlessly cooked whole lemon sole with a sauce bonne femme), but there’s excellent meat too – both a whopping bone-in pork chop and a plate of pink and perfect grilled mutton chops were triumphant highlights when we visited. 

We would also go back for the cheese and red onion tart and for the fresh sourdough from the on-site bakery, which is irresistible – especially with whipped chicken butter. To finish, dark rum panna cotta comes with local strawberries, while Norfolk cheese is paired with blackberry chutney and an Eccles cake. Lovely service and decent wines also repay the journey.