Best Restaurants in West Sussex Published 22 February 2025
West Sussex is home to some of the most inviting restaurants in the South East, where quality ingredients and thoughtful cooking take centre stage. From countryside inns to elegant fine dining, the county’s best restaurants make the most of their surroundings, whether nestled in the South Downs or set in charming villages like West Hoathly and Slaugham.
Whether it’s the refined tasting menus at Restaurant Interlude, the relaxed charm of The Cat Inn, or the estate-to-plate ethos of Gravetye Manor, West Sussex offers plenty to tempt food lovers. Explore our guide to the best restaurants in West Sussex and discover where to enjoy memorable dining across the county.
Farm dining rather than fine dining is the order of the day at Wiston Estate Winery's on-site restaurant. Situated in a restored 18th-century threshing barn and making use of ingredients from a walled kitchen garden on the estate … Read more
Farm dining rather than fine dining is the order of the day at Wiston Estate Winery's on-site restaurant. Situated in a restored 18th-century threshing barn and making use of ingredients from a walled kitchen garden on the estate (as well as bountiful foraged pickings), Chalk's short, regularly changing menu celebrates seasonal produce in a mostly unadorned fashion. The attractive, light-filled dining room's soaring, exposed roof space is hung with pendant lamps, while the whitewashed walls are decorated with original artworks – a pleasing (and often buzzy) backdrop for some equally pleasing food. Chef Tom Kemble has moved on, and the kitchen is now run by his number two, Jordan Powell.Little else has changed: lunch is a carte, while evening meals (Fri and Sat only) revolve around a slightly more elaborate fixed-price menu (aka the Estate Dinner). Either way, expect appealing, uncomplicated cooking with the accent on fresh up-front flavours. Proceedings open with superlative house-baked focaccia and cultured butter, while starters might bring South Coast mackerel – perhaps accompanied by salt-baked beetroot, cucumber, horseradish and a scattering of elderflowers from the estate. Mains also keep things local, from Sussex lamb ravioli to corn-fed chicken breast partnered by confit potato, estate courgettes and onions. To finish, excellent ice creams fragranced with meadowsweet or lemon verbena add the final gloss to desserts such as white peach and almond tart. Lovers of English wine (still as well as sparkling) will appreciate the selection from Wiston’s own cellars, enhanced by a short list of interesting bottles from around the globe. The owners also run wine tours, ‘sundowner safaris’ and tastings, which come highly recommended.
Enchanting Elizabethan charmer with showpiece gardens
* Head chef George Blogg has announced that he is leaving Gravetye in December 2024. Watch for more details.*
The house was bought in 1884 by William Robinson, renowned horticulturist, journalist and champion of 'natural gardenin… Read more
* Head chef George Blogg has announced that he is leaving Gravetye in December 2024. Watch for more details.*
The house was bought in 1884 by William Robinson, renowned horticulturist, journalist and champion of 'natural gardening', and over the years its grounds have been lovingly nurtured by Gravetye's successive occupants. It's a glorious spot and well worth a wander if time and weather allow; check out the magnificent Victorian kitchen garden if you want to see where many of the ingredients on your plate come from. There are glasshouses and polytunnels on the land as well.
It's the kind of place where you're greeted outside by smiling staff and offered drinks out on the lawn or in a grand panelled room with an ornate moulded ceiling; once you're seated in your well-upholstered chair in the smart, contemporary dining room with its wall of glass overlooking blooming borders, everything is hunky-dory – and the feel-good mood continues as the food arrives.
A cheese and truffle gougère disappears in one satisfyingly bite, and its companion amuse-bouche – duck liver parfait with blackberry gel – reveals the kitchen's penchant for prettiness. Seasonal lunch and dinner menus include supplementary intermediate courses and cheese if you're going all in, and there are thoughtfully put together vegetarian and vegan opportunities too. The bread basket overflows with the likes of buttermilk brioche and seeded malt bread, although the arrival of five flavoured butters maybe suggests that the kitchen is a little too keen to impress. To follow, cured chalk stream trout gets a sweet smokiness from the clever use of lapsang souchong tea (plus a citrus zing from finger limes), while the Gravetye garden salad with confit egg yolk is a 'beautifully colourful' beatification of the garden's bounty.
Modern ideas are underpinned by classical good sense, so 'duck and orange' matches tender meat (its skin deliciously crisp) with a sweet hit of marmalade plus earthy forms of beetroot and red chicory (from caramelised to pickled). Saucing is on the money throughout (Chardonnay with fillet of turbot, for example) and flavours ring true – not least the 'fabulous' mint ice cream, which tastes fresh from the plant and is ceremonially placed into a perfectly risen blackcurrant soufflé. The wine list has the the English southern counties covered, including top-drawer fizz, but it deals in excellence from around the world – although its first love is the French classics.
Thoughtful modern cooking and views over Sussex vines
* Jackson Heron has moved on and is now head chef at Le Flamant in Lindfield. His former sous-chef is currently running the Kinsbrook kitchen, which is now open for dinner. *
There are good things happening on this piece of charm… Read more
* Jackson Heron has moved on and is now head chef at Le Flamant in Lindfield. His former sous-chef is currently running the Kinsbrook kitchen, which is now open for dinner. *
There are good things happening on this piece of charming Sussex terroir – a rural spot outside West Chiltington. Third-generation farmers took to viticulture in 2017 and are producing some classy wines, branded as KIN and all available in the restaurant –including a well-rounded fizz. The Farmhouse dining room takes up the first floor of a lofty and light-filled barn with views across the vines, but bag a space on the terrace if the weather permits.
The open kitchen turns out some perky modern food which aims to follow the seasons and keep things local and sustainable. Come here for breakfast, brunch or an easy-going lunch – we plumped for the latter. Sharing plates are delivered from the kitchen as and when they're ready (perhaps too many at once) and impress with their intelligent combinations and zesty flavours. A gentle touch with pickling lifts a colourful salad of beetroot and goat's curd with little hits of sweet acidity from mandarin gel, plus black olive crumb for texture, while a chicken liver ragù is punchy and rather sophisticated, with runny egg raviolo and pesto. Celeriac and potato terrine is deliciously rich with Comté and smoked garlic, while desserts such as rhubarb and custard soufflé show proper culinary skills.
The ground floor is home to a first-class deli and café where you can grab wines such as their own Bacchus or Pinot Noir rosé, as well as a decent supply of foodstuffs.
Sussex meets South Africa in a bravura fine-dining experience
Dating from the 19th-century and surrounded by 240 acres of Sussex gardens and woodlands, Italianate Grade II-listed Leonardslee House is now home to a distinctive and elegant fine-dining restaurant with rooms. Here, Jean Del… Read more
Dating from the 19th-century and surrounded by 240 acres of Sussex gardens and woodlands, Italianate Grade II-listed Leonardslee House is now home to a distinctive and elegant fine-dining restaurant with rooms. Here, Jean Delport and his team forage for ingredients, though the chef also looks to his South African culinary heritage, which lends a very distinctive flavour to his 16-course ‘Estate Experience’. Slices of biltong formed part of our array of canapés served in the bar, alongside breadsticks glazed with homemade ‘Marmite’ and topped with a refined version of slaphakskeentjies (a South African onion salad with a cooked egg and mustard dressing).
A first course of lobster with cauliflower and kombu-washed Exmoor caviar, served with a glass of excellent Blanc de Blancs from Leonardslee’s own vineyard, was almost upstaged by the accompanying vertoek – an ethereally light, savoury doughnut finished with lardo and crispy pork skin. The mosbolletjies bread course was a highlight. Made with wine must from the vineyard, the traditional anise-flavoured brioche-like loaf was served in a mini cast iron casserole with home-churned butter ceremoniously melted tableside in a pan into which biltong spices, mushroom garum, red-wine onions and herbs from the estate were added.
‘Rabbit eats carrot’ showcased another estate ingredient in an impressively elaborate signature dish of many parts: a terrine of rabbit, duck liver, pork and rabbit jelly sandwiched between wafers of 'feuilles de brick' pastry, paired with carrot mayonnaise; buttermilk- and vodka-marinated deep-fried rabbit leg, presented in a smoke-filled cloche; pastry boats of confit rabbit and chilli jam, topped with rabbit mousse, cured egg yolk and marinated carrots. The dish was completed with crisp carrot 'leather' tartlets filled with rabbit offal and presented on a moss-topped log from the garden – a bravura exhibition of culinary technique and nose-to-tail cooking that was a delight to eat.
There were a few hiccups during the three-and-a-half-hour marathon, but despite the extended duration, the pace of the meal never flagged and the service remained engaged and genuinely friendly throughout. Each course was accompanied by an information card, a clever way to avoid overly long dish descriptions at the table. Wines from Leonardslee and sister South African winery Benguela Cove offer particular value on a varied and interesting list where two-thirds of the bottles are priced at less than three figures – a pleasant surprise given the ambition of the restaurant.
Well-tended hilltop inn with food that's a cut above
At the hub of a Sussex hilltop village, with a sunny terrace overlooking the local church, this reimagined 16th-century inn has all the nooks, crannies, inglenooks, oak beams and floral displays that you could wish for. Efficient,… Read more
At the hub of a Sussex hilltop village, with a sunny terrace overlooking the local church, this reimagined 16th-century inn has all the nooks, crannies, inglenooks, oak beams and floral displays that you could wish for. Efficient, cheery staff keep things rolling along, bringing ‘pint milk bottles’ of water to each table as a matter of course. The place gets packed and everyone is here for the food – thanks to a confident kitchen that can deliver consistent crowd-pleasing dishes from a regular menu and a chalked-up specials board that included a tempting with a crab-topped crumpet with cucumber and almond cream.
Burgers, pies and battered fish keep the traditionalists happy, but there's room for invention too: a well-balanced goat’s cheese brûlée delivered on all fronts, with a fine lavosh cracker alongside, while cod fillet was perfectly pan-fried, with impressive accompaniments including a crayfish beurre noisette, silky-smooth celeriac purée, savoy cabbage and crispy Parmesan-crusted potatoes. Meaty choices range from Surrey ribeye steaks with peppercorn butter to haunch of local venison richly embellished with a braised shoulder tartlet, quince poached in mulled wine, potato terrine and a boozy sauce. And on Sundays, the prospect of three ultra-traditional roasts guarantees regular full houses.
The kitchen puts on a show when it comes to desserts: our deep-filled lemon tart had bags of citrus tang, with blackberry purée and blackberry sorbet on the side, while a dark chocolate terrine was lifted by a raspberry sorbet and maple-flavoured honeycomb. The well-considered wine collection offers oodles by the glass, including a range of Sussex sparklers.
Pretty Hurstpierpoint on the edge of the South Downs National Park has been home to James and Jodie Dearden's restaurant since 2016, and if all looks charmingly traditional from the outside, rest assured, James' cooking brings thi… Read more
Pretty Hurstpierpoint on the edge of the South Downs National Park has been home to James and Jodie Dearden's restaurant since 2016, and if all looks charmingly traditional from the outside, rest assured, James' cooking brings things right up to date. It's a tasting menu format in the evening, six courses (seven if you add a plate of British cheeses), with choice offered only at lunch (from a fixed-price carte). Regional produce plays its part across the board, and things get going with some genuinely contemporary amuse-bouches – tandoori monkfish taco, salt-beef cracker. There's classical good sense in combinations such as fresh crab with lemon and dill or the scent of truffle cutting through a quail dish with celeriac. Seafood is a strength – sea bass, say, with parsnip and tarragon, or turbot with more of that crab. A vegetarian tasting menu is packed with flavour too, perhaps fiery horseradish with beetroot and celeriac or tender leeks in crispy puff pastry, while rhubarb and custard makes a comforting finale. English sparkling wine gets its due on the drinks list, where the Coravin preservation system ensures plenty of cut-above offerings by the glass. Bottle prices open at £26.
With its neat mop of thatch, crowned with figures of a fox chasing a pheasant, this thoroughly spruced-up, contemporary pub – a country cousin of The Ginger Pig and The Gingerman (in Brighton and Hove) – is an idyllic-… Read more
With its neat mop of thatch, crowned with figures of a fox chasing a pheasant, this thoroughly spruced-up, contemporary pub – a country cousin of The Ginger Pig and The Gingerman (in Brighton and Hove) – is an idyllic-looking place right out of central casting. With the Downs looming in the distance, it boasts a pretty garden shielded from the road by tall trees, a smart children's playground tucked away in a corner, and a proper bar with cask ales and keg lagers. But dining is king here (booking is advised), with a menu of modern British food reflecting current trends. ‘It feels smart but not overly posh.’ Crispy jalapeños with Brighton Blue cheese is a snack to get you fired up, before a starter of, say, ham hock and cornichon terrine, where traditional flavours get the gel and pickle treatment (piccalilli and cauliflower, respectively). Monkfish tail with paprika crumb is the closest you'll come to fish and chips here (served with a cassoulet of haricot beans and chorizo), although you can get a fix of duck-fat chips with a 35-day aged rump steak. Daily specials might include a pie (chicken and mushroom, say), and fish is a winner judging by a perfectly cooked fillet of hake with summer vegetables and fish velouté. Sunday roasts such as leg of lamb and belly of pork are crowd-pleasers, while non-meat eaters fare well across the board. Finish with cardamom frangipane, poached apricots, apricot gel, honeycomb and clotted-cream ice cream. Classic cocktails and an intelligently gathered wine list support the beers at the bar, with Sussex vintages getting proper appreciation; a dedicated local flight truly celebrates its fabulous terroir.
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