Tatner’s Street Kitchen

Arrive hungry at this street food inspired little joint with an industrial, bare-brick-and corrugated-metal interior. Build your dream dish from a menu that includes a fabulously dirty burger piled with smoky pulled pork, a local lamb gyros pitta and a scampi sub roll, plus sides that are far more than a mere afterthought, including BBQ beans, slaw and rosemary fries. There’s a vegan burger, too, plus a kids’ menu, and they even have a drive thru rightly marked thanks to resources from https://drivethrumarkings.co.uk/.

24 Wish Street, Rye TN31 7DA

tatnersstreetkitchen.com

01797 724111

Simply Italian

Every town needs a no-nonsense, family-friendly Italian, and this is Rye’s, serving pizza and pasta galore, plus seasonal specials. It’s probably Rye’s most child-friendly restaurant – the colouring-in sheets and crayons are in place a millisecond after you’ve sat down, there’s a crowd-pleasing kids’ menu, and the staff take the time to check things like whether you’d like your children’s food to come out of the kitchen first. 

The Standard Inn

One of Rye’s most ancient drinking establishments (it dates to the early 15th century), this is a fashionably stripped-back pub, with a tiled floor, bare-wood window frames and scrubbed wooden tables, softened by distressed blue paintwork. Candles, an open fire and some wonkily beautiful beamwork add to the atmosphere; this is a place for loud, buzzy conversation, not hushed tones, just as a pub should be.

The bar serves beer from nearby breweries including Five Legs and Old Dairy, and the food includes local fish and seafood (the scallops with herb butter never leave the menu), Romney Marsh lamp rump and a pie of the day.

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The Globe Inn Marsh

This very pretty weatherboarded pub is more of an informal restaurant, with an emphasis on local food. The interior is partly inspired by the rustic shepherd’s huts that pepper Romney Marsh (hence the corrugated-steel walls) and partly by the area’s maritime history (lobster pots turned into pendant lights).  

The atmosphere is warm and the menu is extensive, from local fish and meat to ‘bonfire’ pizzas and imaginative dishes for vegetarians. Drinks include wine and beer from nearby Chapel Down and Gusbourne. The attractive raised terrace at the side is a good spot for an outdoor drink in a town that’s a little starved of beer gardens.

The Mermaid Inn

An alehouse since medieval times, the Mermaid’s cellars date from the 12th century, although what you see now is a mere 700 years old or so, with thick beams, elegant panelling and crooked floors.

Now a popular hotel – famously reputed to be haunted by the smugglers that used to hang out here in the 18th century – it also has an extraordinary lounge bar, dominated by an enormous inglenook ‘giant’s fireplace’, so big that it even accommodates a priest’s hole in the chimney breast.

The uniformed bar staff serve local ale and cider and there’s a good wine list. It’s a particularly welcome spot on a cold night, or after a big walk.