Views from The Salt Room, Brighton — an ideal start to a UK foodie road trip
The Salt Room
Despite making it my life’s mission to eat at every great restaurant in every corner of the world, there are embarrassing holes in my UK restaurant knowledge outside of London.
Give me a decades-old noodle stall, a “secret” sandwich or a tasting menu with a star or two and I’ll rearrange my life. Suggest a few days eating around England and, until recently, I would’ve politely declined (especially with 2026 train travel as credit card-reliant as it is).
Give me great friends getting married ‘Up North’ and a shiny new hybrid Range Rover Sport on the driveway, however, and it turns out I can’t hit the road fast enough. (Truth be told, that car beats just about every mode of transport in the world – business class included.)
England is particularly good at the restaurant-with-rooms thing, too, which solves the unpleasant business of having to leave dinner in an expensive cab (or, gasp, not indulge in the wine pairing).
As I planned every stop my partner and I might want to pull over on this particular adventure, it became clear I was just as hungry for low-key locals as Michelin stars, too, so neither the eating nor the sleeping needed to be fancy every night.
In fact, several decorated addresses didn’t cut the mustard, while other starless ones absolutely did. As such, everything below blew our socks off, which is exactly why and how I’ve compiled 7 foodie stops worth building your next Great British Road Trip around.
1. Brighton And Hove
Brighton is the perfect place to start switching into holiday mode. There’s brilliant seafood, coffee, brunch, et al, all available at ease. Book The Salt Room for the first evening – ideally one that runs through sunset. We ordered the seafood tower (oysters, tuna sashimi, sea bass crudo, chilled clams, crab salad and tarama, with anchovy gildas bringing olives and pickled peppers to the party), as I’m very susceptible to seafood arriving on multiple storeys, but the variety and quality really shone here. Elsewhere, the kitchen puts English strawberries and macadamias through a yuzu-dressed sea bass ceviche, and finishes Josper-seared scallops with honey-and-chilli butter. There’s plenty worth investigating beyond the usual lobster-and-Chablis routine.
The seafood tower at The Salt Room
The Salt Room
At À Table Café in Kemptown, breakfast runs until 3pm. Follow brunch with Bond St. Coffee and Boho Gelato, allowing whatever happens in the Lanes to count as exercise. Over in Hove, Maré by Rafael Cagali gained a Michelin star in 2026. Cagali, also behind London’s two-star Da Terra, brings Brazilian roots and a wandering culinary imagination to a neighbourhood restaurant. Mediterranean, Mexican and Japanese influences all find their way into the cooking. British seaside dining has plenty of room for that kind of ambition.
For this stop, favor a good rental with guaranteed private parking over a hotel. Weekend parking can become an expensive little hobby, so prepare to park once then walk everywhere.
2. South Lodge And Interlude, West Sussex
A short drive inland delivers the full country-house situation: gardens, expansive bedrooms, a serious spa and dinner you can dress up for.
Ben Wilkinson at The Pass, South Lodge
Angela Ward Brown
At South Lodge, Ben Wilkinson at The Pass serves seven courses over roughly three hours, with diners facing the open kitchen. See: day-boat turbot with asparagus, mussels and baby king oyster mushrooms, brought together by a velouté made with Ridgeview sparkling wine. There’s a substantial appetite for luxury, too. Celeriac comes with beef cheek, hen-of-the-woods and truffle, while dessert stretches from peach with fromage blanc and grains of paradise to a chocolate délice with frangipane and Pedro Ximénez.
Stay two nights and make time for Botanica, beside the spa. Its dairy-free menu is considerably more interesting than that description might suggest (squash arancini with zhoug, parsley gnocchi in garlic cream, and a ham-hock croquette accompanied by pork cheek, bacon jam and crackling, por ejemplo). I must say, I’m particularly receptive to a spa restaurant that understands the restorative potential of a croquette and a glass of bubbles.
Nearby, Interlude warrants its own overnight stay at Leonardslee House. Jean Delport draws on the estate’s 240 acres and his South African heritage, using foraged ingredients with enough imagination to make the provenance genuinely awe-inspiring. Its changing menus have included smoked scallop with birch and truffle, estate deer with skilpadjies, a “not so melktert”, and a dish called “rabbit eats carrot” in which the rabbit’s evening appears to have taken a turn.
Interlude holds both a Michelin star and a Green Star, and its ten bedrooms make it possible to spend the night inside the same estate that has supplied so much of dinner. Book one rather than making the few minutes back to South Lodge your final contribution to the evening.
3. Hambleton Hall, Rutland
Hambleton Hall provides an excellent reason to stop between Sussex and Yorkshire. Above Rutland Water, it has the drawing rooms, beautiful bedrooms and properly considered service that explain why people remain susceptible to country-house hotels only, crucially, the restaurant has retained its Michelin star since 1982.
Chef-director Aaron Patterson has been there since 1992, working with head chefs James Stone and Charlie Jones. Their repertoire includes grouse with blackberry sauce and hare Wellington with prune and Armagnac sauce, and while “classical” can sound rather bloodless on paper, the actual prospect is considerably more juicy.
Make time for Hambleton Bakery before continuing north.
Shaun Rankin at Grantley Hall
Justin De Souza
4. Grantley Hall, North Yorkshire
Grantley Hall is magnificently excessive. There are grand lounge areas, several brilliant restaurants, immaculate grounds and a spa substantial enough to absorb a weekend by itself. Which, by all means, go ahead and do, but keep one reservation sacred: Shaun Rankin’s Michelin-starred restau’ of dreams.
Shaun Rankin’s venison at Grantley Hall
Justin De Souza
“Taste of Home” makes a proper course of sourdough, butter, dripping and beef tea, with his Yorkshire upbringing informing much the menu, but there’s considerable ambition beyond the childhood references: veal sweetbread with black garlic and brown butter; langoustine with sea buckthorn and kohlrabi; grouse with barbecued celeriac and blackcurrant. The Jerusalem artichoke “Magnum” takes the familiar ice cream somewhere substantially more interesting than the petrol-station freezer, as does the restaurant staff’s impeccable service to the white tablecloth dining experience, ad nauseum.
Nearby, FIFTY TWO at Rudding Park offers a very different Yorkshire dinner. When I interviewed chef Adam Degg shortly after its 2024 opening, he told me he wanted to bring a Michelin star to Rudding Park. In 2026, he did. His surprise menus have featured Orkney scallop blanquette with potatoes and garden herbs, and a honey custard tart with crème fraîche, bee pollen and honeycomb. The converted shipping containers might get your attention, but the cooking gives you a reason to return.
5. Low Wood Bay And The Lake District
Cumbria presents a small problem for people like me: there are so many restaurants to get excited about that the actual Lake District risks becoming something glimpsed between bookings.
Blue Smoke at Low Wood Bay
Steven Barber
Low Wood Bay restores a little perspective. Windermere outside, spa pools inside, and Blue Smoke coming in hot with an unstarred dinner worth staying in for. Its three-metre wood-fired grill cooks sensational steaks, fish and veggies over embers, including birch and oak, and the hotel also offers a wood-fired afternoon tea involving sliders and chicken wings, which fellow visitors assured me was the best they’ve ever had.
Forest Side in Grasmere and SOURCE at Gilpin provide further restaurant-with-rooms options, while Simon Rogan’s three-star L’Enclume in Cartmel deserves a dedicated night if it’s the main object of your appetite (and, in my opinion, it very well should be).
6. Farlam Hall, Cumbria
North Cumbria draws the journey away from the Lakes towards Hadrian’s Wall and the North Pennines. Farlam Hall makes the diversion particularly attractive. At Michelin-starred Cedar Tree, Hrishikesh Desai brings Indian influences to British produce, drawing on classical training and years spent in demanding kitchens. His approach to spice gives the food a distinct identity (welcome after several country-house dinners, however good they’ve been).
The Indian influences are there from the opening snacks: chickpea chaat, followed by a bread course that puts layered lachha paratha alongside milk bread and poolish. The longer Journey menu moves through Cartmel Valley venison, North Sea halibut and Creedy Carver duck. His signature tandoori beef Wellington explains the approach particularly well. The fillet is coated in a blend including cumin, coriander, cardamom, mild red chilli and chaat masala, then refrigerated for 24 hours. Ginger and garlic go into the mushroom duxelles; cinnamon, cloves and both black and green cardamom flavour the accompanying gravy. The spice runs through the construction of the dish, right into its otherwise reassuringly classical pastry-and-mushroom architecture. Smoked creamed potatoes complete a plate for which I’d be very willing to make endless road trips for.
Menus change, so don’t make a reservation conditional on the Wellington, but do stay the night: this is cooking worth giving an evening to.
7. Seaham Hall And Newcastle
End by the sea, in full holiday style again, at Seaham Hall on the Durham coast. At Geko, Japanese-inspired karaage, kushiyaki, ramen and donburi change the pace after the tasting menus, and spa guests can eat in robes and slippers, thereby removing the need to find out which trousers still feel agreeable to ye olde waistline.
Geko at Seaham Hall
Seaham Hall
Should you want to plump a final starred dinner, head into Newcastle. House of Tides occupies a historic merchant’s house on the Quayside; nearby SOLSTICE by Kenny Atkinson offers the more intricate tasting-menu experience, and both hold a star in the 2026 Michelin Guide.
Recommended Routes
Fourteen nights: Brighton two; South Lodge two; Leonardslee one; Hambleton one; Grantley two; Low Wood three; Farlam one; Seaham two.
Five nights: Two in Brighton, two at South Lodge and one at Leonardslee. Seafood, brunch, three potential starred dinners and substantial spa time.
Seven nights: Two at Grantley, three at Low Wood and two at Seaham. Save Hambleton and Farlam for a longer trip.
Book the important tables first, check opening days, and leave some meals uncomplicated to make room for the others. The pleasure’s been all mine.
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