Restaurant in Hunstanton, United Kingdom
Book early. Seasonal cooking, serious execution.
The Neptune holds a Michelin star and a 4.8 Google rating — serious credentials for a four-nights-a-week restaurant on the Norfolk coast. Kevin Mangeolles cooks alone in a former coaching inn, serving a set dinner or nine-course tasting menu at £££. Book hard in advance, consider the on-site rooms, and plan for more than one visit.
A Google rating of 4.8 from 102 reviews and a Michelin star held since at least 2024 tell you something important about The Neptune: this is not a restaurant that coasts on coastal-getaway goodwill. For a former coaching inn on the Norfolk coast, operating only four evenings a week from 7 PM, it punches at a level that demands a deliberate booking strategy. If you are driving to Hunstanton and serious about food, this is the meal to plan your trip around.
Kevin Mangeolles has run the kitchen since 2007, working alone. That single-cook-in-the-kitchen model is rare at this level and worth understanding before you book: service is necessarily unhurried, and the 7 PM to 8:30 PM sitting window is not a suggestion. The format works in the kitchen's favour. Dishes arrive with precision that reflects concentrated, uncompromised execution rather than a brigade managing multiple covers. Jacki Mangeolles runs front-of-house with a steadiness that matches the kitchen's tempo — attentive without being performative, knowledgeable about the wine list, and genuinely engaged with the room.
The dining room itself is housed in an 18th-century coaching inn on the Old Hunstanton Road — split-level, unshowy in its fittings, tasteful rather than theatrical. This is not a room designed to impress on arrival. The impression comes from the food. Michelin inspectors have described the opening sequence , whisper-light cheese and raisin biscuits, Sicilian olives, a grilled mackerel amuse-bouche with pickled shallot , as immediately signalling a classy operation. That reading is accurate for what the awards data supports.
The Neptune rewards a multi-visit strategy more than most restaurants at this price tier, and here is why: the format branches between a three-choice set dinner and a nine-course tasting menu, and the kitchen leans heavily on seasonal and locally sourced produce. Return visits across different seasons will yield meaningfully different menus. A first visit is the right moment to choose the set dinner and get the measure of Mangeolles's cooking , his technical control of classic flavour combinations without any impulse toward novelty for its own sake. The deep-fried plaice with lobster broth, Herdwick lamb with hispi cabbage and rocket pesto, and the veal loin with butternut squash purée and celeriac are the kinds of dishes that showcase this register clearly.
A second visit is when the tasting menu makes sense. Nine courses from a single cook working alone in a kitchen of this calibre is a considered commitment on both sides. By visit two, you will understand the kitchen's pace and be better positioned to give the full menu the attention it deserves. The chocolate marquise with peanut-butter ice cream and poached cherries, described by Michelin inspectors as perfectly judged, is the kind of dessert that earns its place at the end of a long menu rather than as a standalone sweet course.
For a third visit, prioritise the wine list. Jacki Mangeolles's Old World-tilted selection is described by Michelin as everything you'd expect from a restaurant of this class. Returning with a specific interest in pairing across the tasting menu, or requesting guidance on the list before arrival, extracts more value from an already strong programme.
The Neptune operates Wednesday through Saturday, dinner only, with no Sunday or Monday service. Seats are limited in an 18th-century coaching inn dining room, and booking difficulty is rated hard. Book a minimum of several weeks out, more if you are targeting a Saturday. The bedrooms above the restaurant are worth factoring in: staying overnight removes the logistics of driving back from the Norfolk coast after a long tasting menu, and it allows you to plan a return visit on a subsequent stay without the round-trip calculus.
There is no booking method listed in the venue data, so check directly via The Neptune's own channels. Do not assume walk-in availability at any point during the operating window.
For context on where The Neptune sits in the wider Michelin-starred UK dining scene, consider comparisons with rural destination restaurants that share its coaching-inn-with-rooms format. Hand and Flowers in Marlow and Gidleigh Park in Chagford operate in similar stay-and-eat territory. The Neptune is more intimate and lower-key in its presentation than either, and the £££ price tier positions it as accessible relative to the ££££ bracket occupied by London-centric starred restaurants. For explorers building a UK Michelin itinerary, Moor Hall in Aughton, L'Enclume in Cartmel, and Midsummer House in Cambridge are natural companions to a Neptune booking in a wider touring plan. See also hide and fox in Saltwood for another rural English Michelin property with a similar intimacy of scale.
If you are planning the full Hunstanton visit, browse our full Hunstanton restaurants guide, our full Hunstanton hotels guide, our full Hunstanton bars guide, our full Hunstanton wineries guide, and our full Hunstanton experiences guide to build out the trip around the meal.
On the set dinner, the fish courses and meat mains are where Mangeolles's cooking is most clearly at its leading , the deep-fried plaice with lobster broth and the Herdwick lamb with hispi cabbage and rocket pesto are the dishes Michelin inspectors cited as standouts. The chocolate marquise is the dessert to hold out for. If you are on the tasting menu, the kitchen's pacing means you should resist editing , let the full sequence run.
Book well in advance , this is a hard reservation, especially on Saturdays. The dining room is small and the kitchen runs with one cook, so service is unhurried by design. First-timers should start with the set dinner (three choices per course at £££) rather than the nine-course tasting menu , it gives you the measure of the cooking without committing to a long evening before you know the pace of the room. The Michelin star and 4.8 Google rating are reliable signals: this is serious food for its location.
Yes, but on a return visit rather than a first. Nine courses from a single cook working alone requires patience from both sides, and you will enjoy it more once you know how Mangeolles cooks. At £££ pricing, the tasting menu sits well below the ££££ bracket of comparable Michelin tasting experiences in London. On a value-for-quality basis, it is one of the stronger arguments for making the drive to North Norfolk.
No dress code is listed, but the Michelin star and the room's atmosphere suggest smart casual is the appropriate register. Given the Norfolk coastal setting and the coaching-inn surroundings, you are unlikely to feel out of place in well-considered casual clothes, but this is not a jeans-and-trainers room. When in doubt, dress as you would for a London Michelin-starred dinner and you will be calibrated correctly.
Yes , and better than most options in this part of England at this price. The combination of a Michelin-starred kitchen, an attentive husband-and-wife team running both cooking and service, and on-site bedrooms for an overnight stay makes it a practical choice for a celebratory dinner that does not require a London trip. Book a room, do the tasting menu, and treat it as a two-day event rather than just a dinner reservation.
There are no direct Michelin-starred alternatives in Hunstanton itself. The Neptune is the clear anchor for serious dining on this stretch of the Norfolk coast. For comparable quality in the broader region, Midsummer House in Cambridge is the nearest alternative at a similar or higher Michelin level, roughly an hour and a half south. If you are building a multi-stop trip, Restaurant Andrew Fairlie in Auchterarder is another rural hotel-restaurant with a comparable intimacy model, though significantly further afield.
The Neptune does not serve lunch , dinner only, Wednesday to Saturday, from 7 PM. There is no choice to make here. If your schedule does not allow a weekday or Saturday evening, your only option is to adjust your travel dates. The narrow operating window (four evenings, 7 PM to 8:30 PM start) is the single biggest logistical constraint on booking, and it is worth building your trip around it rather than hoping for flexibility.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Booking Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Neptune | Modern Cuisine | £££ | Hard |
| CORE by Clare Smyth | Modern British | ££££ | Unknown |
| Restaurant Gordon Ramsay | Contemporary European, French | ££££ | Unknown |
| Sketch, The Lecture Room and Library | Modern French | ££££ | Unknown |
| The Ledbury | Modern European, Modern Cuisine | ££££ | Unknown |
| Dinner by Heston Blumenthal | Modern British, Traditional British | ££££ | Unknown |
A quick look at how The Neptune measures up.
The set dinner (three choices per course) and the nine-course tasting menu are the two formats on offer. Based on documented inspection notes, the plaice fillet with lobster broth and the Herdwick lamb main have drawn specific praise for precision and balance. Kevin Mangeolles works alone in the kitchen with a focus on seasonal and local sourcing, so the strongest dishes on any given night will reflect what is available locally rather than a fixed signature list.
The Neptune opens Wednesday through Saturday, dinner only, with no weekend lunch and no Sunday or Monday service — plan your visit around that window. It is a small, split-level dining room inside an 18th-century coaching inn, with Kevin Mangeolles cooking alone and his wife Jacki managing front-of-house. At £££, this is a destination meal, not a casual drop-in, and the limited openings mean seats go fast. Bedrooms are available if you want to make a night of it.
If you want the full range of what Kevin Mangeolles is doing with seasonal, locally sourced ingredients, the nine-course tasting menu is the stronger case for a special visit. The set dinner (three choices per course) is a reasonable alternative if you prefer a shorter meal or want more control over what lands in front of you. Both formats sit at £££, so the tasting menu represents the higher commitment at a restaurant that has held a Michelin star since at least 2024.
The Neptune is a Michelin-starred restaurant with attentive, polished service, operating out of a tastefully furnished coaching inn dining room. The setting is unshowy rather than formal — no ostentatious décor, no stiff atmosphere — but the cooking and service level place it firmly in the dress-up bracket. Treat it as you would any serious starred restaurant: neat and considered, without needing black tie.
Yes, with one practical caveat: the dining room is small, so if you have a large group, book early and confirm your party size when reserving. The combination of a Michelin-starred kitchen, attentive husband-and-wife service, and the option to stay overnight makes it a strong choice for birthdays, anniversaries, or any occasion where the meal itself is the point. For parties who want a private dining room, check availability directly — the venue data does not confirm one.
Hunstanton itself has limited Michelin-level alternatives, which is part of why The Neptune draws visitors from well beyond the immediate area. For comparable rural UK destination dining with a single Michelin star, restaurants such as The Checkers in Montgomery or The Black Swan at Oldstead follow a similar seasonal-local model. If you want more choice of evenings or a larger operation, Norwich has a wider concentration of serious restaurants within roughly an hour's drive.
The Neptune serves dinner only, Wednesday through Saturday, 7 PM to 8:30 PM. There is no lunch service documented in the venue data, so dinner is your only option. The narrow booking window — four evenings a week, a small dining room — means you should reserve as far ahead as possible rather than waiting for a preferred date.
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