Places to eat in Lewes

Erawan is an exceptional little Thai bistro conveniently located just down the road from Lewes Station on Lansdown Place. The food is authentic and beautifully plated. Plus, the staff are super friendly and excellent at recommending dishes if you aren’t accustomed to Thai food. If you think you can handle the heat, the pad gra prao is one of the spiciest and tastiest dishes on the menu. Top tip, visit Symposium next door if you fancy a drink before your meal, it’s the best wine shop and bar in Lewes.

If you now have a craving for a taste of the Orient, Lemongrass is an excellent alternative to Erawan on the High Street. It’s a beautiful little restaurant opposite the popular Flint Owl Bakery with a tasty menu made up of authentic Thai dishes and Japanese sushi. The decor is stylish and the modest doorway doesn’t do justice to the large and airy restaurant within.

Limetree Kitchen is among the nicest in Lewes. It’s a stunning bistro-style restaurant on Station Street with a sublime menu of small plates that take culinary influence from all around the world and adopts the nose-to-tail philosophy that ensures as little waste as possible. We love the small plate approach as it allows you to sample more of the menu with every visit. The quality of food is high, and you certainly get what you pay for. We recommend booking in advance to avoid disappointment.

Here’s a curveball; visit Depot and enjoy a trip to the cinema with some of the finest cuisine in Lewes. Depot is the name of the town’s stunning state-of-the-art independent three-screen cinema which curates its own programme of independent and foreign films, and features a seriously tasty glass-encased restaurant where the food looks stunning, tastes great and is very reasonably priced.

Lastly, let us tell you about the excellent Rights of Man pub on Lewes High Street. We’ve placed it among our favourite places to eat in Lewes because the kitchen cooks up some quite exceptional food using only the finest local produce. Nevertheless, the Rights of Man could easily have headed up our list of the best pubs in Lewes. It’s a rustic, stylish and characterful tavern with a top-class selection of Harveys Ales, fine wines and world gins that never fails to impress regardless of whether you’re popping in for a pint or a sit down meal.

If you’re after some daytime eats, Flint Owl Bakery opposite Limetree Kitchen on the High Street is a paradise of pastries and other baked goods. Visit for the best croissants this side of the Channel. Bake Out is another beast of a bakery on the High Street with some outrageously good doughnuts and some of the best coffee in town. If, like us, you’re always on the hunt for good artisan bread, both are brilliant and worth visiting.

Do you want to go on an adventure? There’s a beautiful cafe hidden in the Sussex countryside that goes by the name of Beanstalk Tea Garden. It’s well off the beaten track but a quite beautiful setting and perfect for a good old fashioned lunch in the great outdoors. It’s a true hidden gem as it’s not signposted at all. All we’ll say is it’s about a mile away from the village of Firle. Good luck finding the place; it’s worth hunting down.

Cafe du Jardin is an exceptional all-rounder that’s just a five-minute walk away from our Lewes Town Centre hotel on Malling Street. The bistro-style food is exceptional, the bric-a-brac style is charming, it’s fully-licensed and serves some great wines and cocktails, there’s a gorgeous suntrap of a courtyard, and it hosts regular live music events as well.

Lastly, Ground Coffee House is home to what many people will tell you is the best coffee in Lewes. You’ll find it on Lansdown Place occupying a tiny corner space that barely has room for more than a dozen people. It’s cool, independent, and sells some seriously tasty pastries and treats if you want to indulge your sweet tooth.