The Stag Inn
Hastings, East Sussex
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Dating from the 16th century and touted as the oldest pub in Hastings, this Grade II-listed, timber-framed boozer sits among several ancient buildings on a lovely street. Inside it’s everything you would expect of an old English hostelry: oak beams, polished wooden bar, country furniture, scrubbed tables, and a tiered garden for summer eating. If it looks like a regular pub, the menu from chef Ben Cumberpatch is surprisingly ambitious. Start with a perfectly runny black pudding Scotch egg and brown sauce or maybe a couple of delicate little smoked haddock croquettes with gherkin ketchup. For something lighter, try a combo of beetroot, burrata, candied walnuts, pickled walnuts and pangrattato. For main course, you might fancy baked cod with seaweed gnocchi, pickled mussels, broccoli, samphire and tartare sauce or skate wing with ‘skate scampi’ and triple-cooked chips, although few can resist the slow-cooked lamb shoulder served with a faggot, pomme purée, roast carrot, mustard cabbage and gravy. Portions are generous and everything is honestly priced. If you still have room for dessert, you might opt for Jamaica ginger cake with rum caramel and crème fraîche ice cream or affogato served with a traditional Sussex 'heavy biscuit'. The amiable couple holding all this together are Nick and Nicole Holt, who also put on weekly pub quizzes, regular live music sessions and a comedy club.
