Head Chef Jake's menu has dishes to suit all palates, with classic roasts, as well as family favourites such as fish and chips, risotto, local fish dishes, and some seriously irresistible desserts. We're offering a specials menu throughout the month of June to help you celebrate the Queen's 70-year reign. So whether you're staying with us, or wish to enjoy an impromptu dinner in Orford, you can take your pick from a starter, main, or dessert option with a certified royal nod! Situated in Orford, just a 20 minute drive from the Suffolk coast, we pride ourselves on providing a secluded spot to relax and enjoy the natural beauty of our county.
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Head Chef Jake Lawrence promises nothing but the best with Suffolk's produce, delivering a classy, fun take on fine dining. Featuring a creative British menu using quality Suffolk produce including Orford landed seafood and locally reared meats. Polite notice, we do not permit children under 8 into the restaurant in the evening.
Reviews (16)
Michelle Heath
May 23, 2022
Ian McQueen
May 17, 2022
Frances Hadfield
May 13, 2022
Easily 5* superb all staff friendly helpful and whole package 1st class Our garden room was perfect The doggie table for our meals was a big plus But ooh menu food quality presentation amazing " perfect bolt hole. leave worlds madness behind. return home refreshed and ready to go " If you haven't been book now! ( perfect for visiting the local area Especially The Ness another must do to tick of ones bucket list ).
Suzanne T.
Apr 09, 2022
Consistent and outstanding service, over the years. They always deliver and to their best. The rooms are spacious and elegantly furnished. For those of you with dogs, ask for their dog friendly rooms. The restaurant is excellent. The menu changes with seasons and the chef's talents and creativity are always present. Superb food. The breakfast is rich and generous.
They offer juice, starters, main and viennoiserie, too. Plus bread and marmalade. The staff are exceptionally helpful and assist with a smile. Overall 5 stars and plus! Highly recommended!
They offer juice, starters, main and viennoiserie, too. Plus bread and marmalade. The staff are exceptionally helpful and assist with a smile. Overall 5 stars and plus! Highly recommended!
N. Spence
Mar 18, 2022
Derrick Feist Dijbo
Mar 06, 2022
Ann Thomas
Feb 05, 2022
Feed back Sadly I have to tell you I was somewhat disappointed with our stay. We last stayed jan 2020 prior to Covid and had a wonderful time and was so impressed, raving about our stay. I was very much looking forward to our return, but it just didn't match up in my opinion. I was looking forward to your best room, the suite, but it wasn't as good as I had hoped.
Although spacious I didn't find the sitting area a nice place to sit and relax. We had dinner at the first sitting and we were the only dinners in the restaurant. Service was incredibly slow. This however was not a reflection on the serving staff, who apologised for the long wait for the food. I ordered the Suffolk game pie, piccalilli emulsion. On its arrival, I received an apology that there had run out of piccalilli emulsion.
This was a surprise since we were the first and only dinners. Main course was the pan fried sea bass, warm potato salad, gem lettuce, crayfish, salsa verde charred leeks. It was nice, but the 4 boiled potatoes that the fish sat on were boring and added nothing to the dish and was a bit of a stretch to describe it as a warm potato salad. On our last visit, we were delighted to be treated to amuse bouche, but there was none on this occasion.
On our last visit my husband ordered the cheeseboard, so he indulged in again. Firstly it did not have the candied pecans stated, but it was a shadow of the cheeseboard we had enjoyed on our previous occasion. We had enjoyed the meal so much on the last occasion and I had taken pictures, so I was able to make an exact comparison. When we went to bed, I was awoken at sometime after 10pm of a member of staff slamming a door on a room underneath us, so hard that the bed actually shook and woke me up.
I appreciate I did have high expectations, following our previous visit. But I don't think it was unreasonable to expect a similar experience. For me, for my overnight stay the main focus is the food. As a good cook, I have very high standards and Whilst I felt the meal was nice, it wasn't anything more than that and didn't feel special and I certainly wasn't wowed. I'll be honest I'm now rather regretting booking ahead for both our birthdays this year.
Although spacious I didn't find the sitting area a nice place to sit and relax. We had dinner at the first sitting and we were the only dinners in the restaurant. Service was incredibly slow. This however was not a reflection on the serving staff, who apologised for the long wait for the food. I ordered the Suffolk game pie, piccalilli emulsion. On its arrival, I received an apology that there had run out of piccalilli emulsion.
This was a surprise since we were the first and only dinners. Main course was the pan fried sea bass, warm potato salad, gem lettuce, crayfish, salsa verde charred leeks. It was nice, but the 4 boiled potatoes that the fish sat on were boring and added nothing to the dish and was a bit of a stretch to describe it as a warm potato salad. On our last visit, we were delighted to be treated to amuse bouche, but there was none on this occasion.
On our last visit my husband ordered the cheeseboard, so he indulged in again. Firstly it did not have the candied pecans stated, but it was a shadow of the cheeseboard we had enjoyed on our previous occasion. We had enjoyed the meal so much on the last occasion and I had taken pictures, so I was able to make an exact comparison. When we went to bed, I was awoken at sometime after 10pm of a member of staff slamming a door on a room underneath us, so hard that the bed actually shook and woke me up.
I appreciate I did have high expectations, following our previous visit. But I don't think it was unreasonable to expect a similar experience. For me, for my overnight stay the main focus is the food. As a good cook, I have very high standards and Whilst I felt the meal was nice, it wasn't anything more than that and didn't feel special and I certainly wasn't wowed. I'll be honest I'm now rather regretting booking ahead for both our birthdays this year.
Nick Farrow
Dec 26, 2021
Booked for Sunday lunch very close to Christmas, our first time at The Crown & Castle. Staff very on it with our shifting timings and our dietary requirements. Service excellent. Ambience perfect. Food just amazing. We love to visit Orford and this experience will bring us back again very soon and more often.
Sean Rovai
Nov 16, 2021
Hayley Wilson
Oct 29, 2021
M. A. Walker
Oct 26, 2021
Christopher Terry
Oct 15, 2021
The Crown and Castle restaurant-with-rooms was the creation of Ruth Watson, whose fame as TV's original "Hotel Inspector" tends to obscure her considerable legacy as a gifted chef-restaurateur and hotelier. I was lucky that my first experience of this attractive, comfortable inn, nestled in a remote and slightly strange beauty spot hidden along East Anglia's ever-shifting coastline, was before she retired.
That was some years ago now, and Ms Watson is a very hard act to follow. Nevertheless, there remains a lot to like about the Crown and Castle. Its setting, for one thing: overlooking Orford Ness itself and with easy access to blowy, blustery estuary walks that stretch for miles along this inland coastline, or to the boat that will take you (but not your dog, I am afraid) onto the Ness itself, surely the National Trust's weirdest and most unearthly nature reserve.
The strange concrete pagoda-like structures that dot the shingle horizon date from when the Ministry of Defence used to test the detonating devices for atomic bombs here. It's now given over to wild nature - seals, egrets, bitterns and a myriad unique plants gradually reclaiming this "cuspate foreland shingle spit" as Wikipedia puts it - but sinister notices still warn visitors to stick to the footpaths because of the danger of unexploded ordnance.
It's an adventure, here, though sadly no longer with its beautiful red and white lighthouse, demolished for safety reasons in 2020. The Crown and Castle remains the best way to appreciate this magical spot. The rooms are comfortably fitted and kitted, even though I think the showers could do with modernising. Dogs are more than welcome here, in the attractive garden rooms. Inside, the restaurant is still very good.
There's a short menu of 'classics' that includes a wonderful venison pie, roasted skate wing, and the supreme plump Butley oysters, alongside a changing seasonal carte - picked local crab, hot smoked duck breast, medaillons of succulent pink venison for us. Good food, well served, except for a rather old-fashioned tendency to overly undercook some green vegetables.
There's a decent little wine list or good Adnams of Southwold ales and Aspall's Suffolk cider to choose from. Breakfasts largely maintain Ruth Watson's signature love of plentiful good local produce, which is perhaps why the home made Tuscan baked beans are an over-herbed mistake. The Crown and Castle is not quite what it was, during and immediately after Ruth Watson's tenure.
Hard to see how it could be. There is also, and perhaps inevitably, a slightly corporate feel now it is part of a little hotel group named "Hotel Folk", giving rise to several rather tweely-phrased advice notices to guests ("consult your Hotel Folk"). Speaking of which, a small framed tribute to the influence and legacy of the Crown and Castle's founder, in, say, the bar/reception area, would not go amiss. Yet we still love it here. It is right up there in our go-to places to treat ourselves. Long may it remain so.
That was some years ago now, and Ms Watson is a very hard act to follow. Nevertheless, there remains a lot to like about the Crown and Castle. Its setting, for one thing: overlooking Orford Ness itself and with easy access to blowy, blustery estuary walks that stretch for miles along this inland coastline, or to the boat that will take you (but not your dog, I am afraid) onto the Ness itself, surely the National Trust's weirdest and most unearthly nature reserve.
The strange concrete pagoda-like structures that dot the shingle horizon date from when the Ministry of Defence used to test the detonating devices for atomic bombs here. It's now given over to wild nature - seals, egrets, bitterns and a myriad unique plants gradually reclaiming this "cuspate foreland shingle spit" as Wikipedia puts it - but sinister notices still warn visitors to stick to the footpaths because of the danger of unexploded ordnance.
It's an adventure, here, though sadly no longer with its beautiful red and white lighthouse, demolished for safety reasons in 2020. The Crown and Castle remains the best way to appreciate this magical spot. The rooms are comfortably fitted and kitted, even though I think the showers could do with modernising. Dogs are more than welcome here, in the attractive garden rooms. Inside, the restaurant is still very good.
There's a short menu of 'classics' that includes a wonderful venison pie, roasted skate wing, and the supreme plump Butley oysters, alongside a changing seasonal carte - picked local crab, hot smoked duck breast, medaillons of succulent pink venison for us. Good food, well served, except for a rather old-fashioned tendency to overly undercook some green vegetables.
There's a decent little wine list or good Adnams of Southwold ales and Aspall's Suffolk cider to choose from. Breakfasts largely maintain Ruth Watson's signature love of plentiful good local produce, which is perhaps why the home made Tuscan baked beans are an over-herbed mistake. The Crown and Castle is not quite what it was, during and immediately after Ruth Watson's tenure.
Hard to see how it could be. There is also, and perhaps inevitably, a slightly corporate feel now it is part of a little hotel group named "Hotel Folk", giving rise to several rather tweely-phrased advice notices to guests ("consult your Hotel Folk"). Speaking of which, a small framed tribute to the influence and legacy of the Crown and Castle's founder, in, say, the bar/reception area, would not go amiss. Yet we still love it here. It is right up there in our go-to places to treat ourselves. Long may it remain so.
Konstantinos Vathakos
Sep 26, 2021
We had a lovely weekend last year. The top floor suite was very spacious and excellently decorated and maintained. The view from the balcony towards the castle and the sea was great too. We felt very special with the service and the food quality. We would definitely recommend it and we are planning on coming back very soon.
Trevor Hoare
Aug 28, 2021
Ground floor room of a good size and convenient with our dog. Not a cheap hotel, so were surprised the grouting in the bathroom was black in some places and marks in the bath that would not come off. To be honest that should not be the case whatever the cost of the room. Not clear where to put the poo bags either and when I asked a member of staff, he had not idea.
The instructions were in the hotel book, but not made as obvious as it should have been, for something so important to a dog owner. In fact he said leave the bag on the balcony of the room for the cleaner to deal with, which I think was wrong. Neither do I like cannellonni beans served with my full English Breakfast and was not given a choice of ordinary beans that are normally served at hotels.
The overall stay was enjoyable and the evening meals were nice. Orford is lovely. This is meant to be constructive for the hotel owner. When I stayed years ago, Ruth Watson owned it and she definitely would not have allowed these issues I picked up on.
The instructions were in the hotel book, but not made as obvious as it should have been, for something so important to a dog owner. In fact he said leave the bag on the balcony of the room for the cleaner to deal with, which I think was wrong. Neither do I like cannellonni beans served with my full English Breakfast and was not given a choice of ordinary beans that are normally served at hotels.
The overall stay was enjoyable and the evening meals were nice. Orford is lovely. This is meant to be constructive for the hotel owner. When I stayed years ago, Ruth Watson owned it and she definitely would not have allowed these issues I picked up on.
Andy Chowne
Jul 25, 2021
Erica Perry
Jul 21, 2021
