No pub can be the best pub in Britain – pubs are an incredibly subjective topic, after all – but the Unruly Pig in Suffolk has won numerous accolades to suggest that it’s a real contender. This watering hole is number one on Estrella Damm’s gastropub list, it’s Michelin Guide-listed and it has nabbed various other gongs. Still, whenever I write about an allegedly “good” pub that serves the likes of poussin terrine and halibut in vermouth, there’s a backlash from men (and it’s always men; not one woman – not ever) harrumphing that this is not a “real pub”, because it doesn’t serve Warton’s Old Scratchy and it has fitted carpets rather than, say, straw.
In the Unruly Pig’s defence, however, while it may indeed be a bit fancy or, rather, artily boho, owner Brendan Padfield has grasped tightly on to its innate pubbiness. This is a 16th-century inn with Regency period add-ons, and although these days there may be some quirky Lego conceptual art in reception and modern prints and propaganda art on every wall, it is nevertheless still a rather dark, snug pub, with crooked ceilings, exposed beams, log burners and a loo up olde worlde winding stairs. The Unruly Pig feels very much like a building that has lived a proper life, not least when it almost burned down 10 years ago. Padfield, crestfallen but undeterred, rebuilt the place, only bigger and brighter.
