Fine dining

Norfolk offers a huge range of dining experiences - Michellin starred restaurants, great country pubs, convivial bistros, coffee shops with fantastic cakes and some superb home cooking.

In many cases the dividing lines are fine and the difference between a pub and a restaurant is none too discerable these days. So, please look beyond this page if you're looking for somewhere to eat out whilst staying at at White Lodge Farm Cottages - our tastes in menu, ambiance and décor are like as not different to yours (and we've no wish to offend any chef or proprietor by what is, afterall, no more than an artificial classification to give manageable web pages)!

Set in a sixteenth-century thatched listed building, the The Lavendar House, offers diners the opportunity to enjoy Richard Hughes' inimitable style of cookery and service in a non-stuffy, relaxed and friendly atmosphere.

The beautiful Georgian architecture both inside and outside Congham Hall blend with the airy decor of the Orangery Restaurant, where a modern and interesting menu is served in lovely surroundings and with loads of space between the tables. We'd recommend rounding off the meal with coffee and perhaps a digestiv in the lounge.

The former station hotel, The Mulberry Tree at Attleborough is a firm favourite with guests at White Lodge Farm, offering interesting menus and well presented food in a warm and pleasant setting. Advanced booking (well ahead at weekends) is essential. Just the place for a celebratory meal, but bar food is also available. Open daily for lunch and dinner, except Sunday evenings. There's a garden and children are welcome.

East Anglia's largest village green at Old Buckenham has two pubs still. The nearest to Hingham, The Gamekeeper, is a 17th century Grade II listed freehouse with a log fire in the winter months and a large garden for use in warmer weather. The pub, which has fairly recently changed hands offers a modern menu served by a friendly team in a pleasant setting. There's a garden and children and dogs are welcome.

The recipient of awards from the most highly respected critics, Galton Blackiston's Morston Hall restaurant serves a set dinner menu, which changes daily and with many of the ingredients coming fresh from local sources. Dinner is served at a single sitting and dietary requirements are specially catered for.

Strattons in Swaffham, a hotel and restaurant, has a string of awards for its approach to environmental issues but it also has a lovely restaurant where knowledge of the provenance of the raw ingredients is part of the ethos. Staff are trained in supplier information, visiting the farms and gardens that supply the restaurant. Strattons also prides itself in making everything on the premises from the chocolate bread through to the after dinner chocolates and petites fours!

Another boutique hotel, By Appointment restaurant in Norwich offers fine food in an intimate setting in a number of small dining rooms, each with antique furniture, and the tables furnished with antique silver cutlery, crisp white linen and antique cruet sets.

The 2009 Good Food Guide awarded Chef Tina Pemberton a grade six for exemplary cooking skills, innovative ideas, impeccable ingredients and an element of excitement. So making her top chef in Norfolk and The Café at Brovey Lair in Ovington near Watton, just a few miles from White Lodge Farm, the county’s highest scoring restaurant. Menus are fish-dominated but guests who are not keen on fish may order an alternative first or third course.

You'll understand by now that Norfolk has more than its fair share of fine dining and we've still plenty more restaurants to choose from for inclusion (such as the Mad Moose and The Last Wine Bar, in Norwich and the Wildebeest Arms in Stoke Holy Cross, but, so as not to over-burden the choice, we'll add just one more suggestion (from Suffolk!) ...

... The Leaping Hare Vineyard Restaurant. The East Anglian Daily Times Restaurant of the year in 2007, and awarded a Michelin 'Bib Gourmand' in 2008, the restaurant, which is in a in a magnificent 400 hundred year old timber-framed barn, serves distinctive seasonal food, complementing the estate wines.

Contact details and menu examples

• The Café at Brovey Lair (Ovington near Watton)  Menu examples  01953 882706
• By Appointment (Norwich)  Menu example  01603 630730
• Congham Hall (Congham, Nr Kings Lynn)  Menu example  01485 600250
• The Gamekeeper (Old Buckenham)  Menu example  01953 860397
• The Last Wine Bar (Norwich)  Menu example  01603 626626
• The Lavendar House (Brundall)  Menu example  01603 712215
• Mad Moose (Norwich)  01603 627687
• Morston Hall (Morston)  Menu example  01263 741041
• The Mulberry Tree (Attleborough)  Menu example  01953 452124
• Strattons (Swaffham)  Menu example  01760 723845
• Wildebeest Arms (Stoke Holy Cross)  01508 492497
• The Leaping Hare Vineyard Restaurant (Wyken Fen, Ixworth)  Menu examples  01359 250287