The Salthouse Eaterie is the restaurant at The Salthouse Harbour Hotel, which is ideally located at Neptune Quay on the Ipswich Marina in Suffolk. Paulo and I were looking for a night away at a luxury hotel that offers fine dining and the Salthouse Harbour Hotel delivered on both counts.

We hadn’t been to Ipswich before and the waterfront, although still under development, was a pleasant and relaxing place to visit. The Salthouse Harbour Hotel is a beautiful Victorian building featuring arched windows and iron columns. It was originally a merchants warehouse and was refurbished to a high standard over 10 years ago. The Salthouse Eaterie overlooks the harbour.

The décor throughout the hotel, including the restaurant, is quirky and chic. It is almost an art gallery in itself.

There is an interesting piece of art at every turn and the fun and colourful furnishings lend an air of joviality to the place.

Our room was comfortable and spacious and featured more eclectic art and furnishings, without being too overpowering. The ambience was fun but still relaxing and luxurious, with an amazing bed and bathtub!

The quirky theme continued to The Salthouse Eaterie, where delightful sculptures and paintings sat in contrast to the muted colours of the walls, tables and chairs.

We were given a choice of where to sit and we settled into a table by the window. There was a definite emphasis on fresh local produce on the menu and specials board. Given that it was the start of asparagus season, we each ordered a dish with this star ingredient.

My starter was the grilled asparagus with goat’s cheese, egg yolk and a tasty mousse which I believe was pea. The chef definitely likes to add an element of surprise as I didn’t expect the goat’s cheese to come in delightful little deep fried balls. They were delicious. The egg yolk and the mousse made a nice dip for the asparagus. The dish was beautifully presented and all the flavours worked well together.

Paulo’s starter was from the specials board: dressed crab with cucumber, fennel, and radish, served with new potatoes and a variety of salad leaves. The dish was presented on a wooden board with the new potatoes in a little pot. Top marks, not only for presentation but taste as well.

I was pleased to see that I had the choice of having the arancini as my main course, as it’s also available as a starter. It was served with wild garlic, lambs lettuce, rocket and Parmesan. This was great comfort food enhanced by the sharpness of the Parmesan.

Paulo really enjoyed his main course of tagliatelle with asparagus, wild garlic and peas. The asparagus and peas were very fresh and gave the pasta all of its succulent flavour.

We both chose the same dessert, the milk chocolate terrine with salted caramel, peanut praline and banana ice cream. It was rich and decadent!

We found ourselves at The Salthouse Eaterie again the next morning, this time for breakfast. We both ordered the American style buttermilk pancakes with berry compote and maple syrup. They were good but I’ve had better… probably because I’m from Canada where thick, fluffy pancakes and maple syrup are a North American specialty. Nevertheless, we enjoyed breakfast in the restaurant’s wonderfully relaxing ambience and service was cheerful and efficient.

All of the staff members, from the ladies at reception to the servers at dinner and breakfast, were friendly and helpful. We loved our room with its comfy bed and sumptuous bathtub. The hotel’s ambience was fun yet relaxing, complemented by a most enjoyable meal at The Salthouse Eaterie. This was the perfect little getaway!

The owners, managers or staff did not invite me to visit this establishment and were unaware that my experience would be the basis of a written review. It is based on my experience at my own cost and I did not receive compensation for my review.

Unless otherwise noted, I am the legal copyright holder of the content and images on this blog. Please contact me for permission if you wish to use, reprint or publish any material.