Review: The Leaping Hare restaurant at Wyken Vineyard, Suffolk
1 May 2026
It is very possible to eat at England's first vineyard restaurant, The Leaping Hare, without actually seeing a single vine. As it happens we pass the vines on our drive, which were originally planted in 1988, but this part of England doesn't need vines to create ambience. In the wide open green spaces we spy literal leaping hares while tiny muntjac deer appear as apparitions from the hedgerow.
Who needs vines when you are greeted by a welcoming committee of newborn lambs frolicking in a field and curious to say hello? (I won't deny I'm later relieved to see there's no lamb available across the menu - not yet at least.)
Being a fan of Jay Rayner's recommendations - he visited in December 2019 calling it the 'restaurant equivalent of the bubble bath you never quite want to leave' - my expectations would have been high enough to begin with without the knowledge that it has been in the Good Food Guide for 26 consecutive years, and held a Michelin Bib Gourmand for over two decades.
First impressions matter, and The Leaping Hare makes a good one easily. The dining room is inside a 400-year-old barn with high beamed ceilings, warm lighting, and a crowd that looks like it has been coming here long enough to have a preferred table. Staff are effortlessly friendly, and being a usually reserved diner, I find myself in the unusual position of wanting to make conversation with them.
On Friday a 3-course set menu is served, with dishes built around the estate - venison, pigeon and game from the Wyken woodlands, vegetables and herbs from the kitchen garden - alongside foraged ingredients.
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Moonshine & Soup
I'm usually wary of seeing "foraged" on a menu, believing it to be shorthand for charging more, but I will always be drawn to wild garlic, and here it was combined with pea to make a delicious soup that was half caress and half slap around the chops. Without bread to mop up the final drops (more on that later) I am tempted to lift the bowl to my face.
I accompany the soup with a glass of the vineyard's own Wyken Moonshine, a sparkling wine made in the traditional style from Pinot Noir and Auxerrois. It makes an excellent palate cleanser between spoonfuls, with less yeasty character than I've come to expect from English sparkling wines, and more refreshment. This must be the closest wine equivalent to crunching into a crisp apple from a Suffolk orchard.
For main I've selected pigeon, which requires venturing deeper into the restaurant's wine list away from Wyken and all the way to Italy for a Valpolicella that is more than a match for the gaminess of the dish. The meat is cooked well and the dish is pleasing, but I can't quell the nagging feeling that I should've gone for the pork belly.
Life-affirming pastry
I had no such reservations about my dessert: a rhubarb tarte tatin with pistachio cream. This was what my partner would call a life-affirming pastry. The gentle and comforting buttery warmth of the tart was perfectly balanced with tart rhubarb and rich, creamy and nutty pistachio. This is the kind of dish I may well see flash before me on my death bed. It's the kind of dish I'd name my first-born after.
It's settled - I absolutely must make conversation with the waiter, and I must find out more about the dish. It is the creation of their head chef, who started here as an apprentice 16 or so years ago, and who spent years as their pastry chef. My heart is warmed at this, and I hope their mother is as proud of them as I am.
The Friday evening menu is a three-course set currently priced at £37.50 and changing monthly. That means this specific dessert might not be available on your visit - but if it is, order it.
The restaurant is open for lunch Wednesday to Sunday and dinner on Fridays and Saturdays. You don't see the vineyard from the dining room, but guided tours run April through September, walking through the estate's ancient woodland to the vines with a tasting of the full range included. Dogs are welcome on the terrace and in the café, but not inside the restaurant itself.