The Best Places to Drink Near Leaping Hare, by the Record
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Rank 1. The Suffield Arms
Mediterranean Pub
The art on the walls ranges from tasteful to genuinely startling, which sets the tone for a place that refuses to be one thing. The Suffield Arms is a Mediterranean gastropub spread across sharply different rooms: a Victorian bar with local ales and a pool table, a plush cocktail saloon upstairs, and a bright tapas restaurant at the back serving patatas bravas, pizzas, and larger plates. It landed on the Top 50 Gastropubs list, which tracks.
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Rank 2. The Unruly Pig
Modern British Pub
Beamed ceilings, log burners, and modern art on the walls set the tone at this gastropub in rural Suffolk, a short drive from Woodbridge. The kitchen leans British with a Mediterranean streak, changing the menu monthly and running daily specials off local coastal suppliers. More than sixty wines are available by the glass, which keeps things lively. It sits at number two on the Top 50 Gastropubs list, for those keeping score.
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Rank 3. The Burleigh Arms
Modern British Pub
A Cambridge gastropub where the head chef's West Indian roots run quietly through an otherwise modern British menu, turning a neighbourhood pub into somewhere you'd actually plan around. The bar side has its own themed cocktail menu, so drinkers aren't an afterthought. Regulars from the surrounding streets mix with people who drove across town, which tells you most of what you need to know.
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Rank 5. The Gunton Arms
British
Slabs of red deer rump and sirloin cooked over an open fire in the flag-floored Elk Room is the main event at this gastropub on a thousand-acre Norfolk deer park. The menu leans hard on whatever the estate and the nearby Cromer boats bring in, with offal and nose-to-tail cuts sitting alongside the headline steaks. The Michelin Guide has given it a Bib Gourmand, and the place earns it without trying to impress anyone.