St Clement's Restaurant

A local institution in St Leonard’s - Hastings. We dined here on a bank holiday Saturday in May 2025. We came with our two children, something the restaurant isn’t used to accommodating as most of the customers are couples or older, more refined folks. The restaurant was perfectly welcoming of the little ones and even rolled out a high chair for our baby. The ambience is lovely, a small intimate dining room with the glow of table lamps set against a dark shade of green on the walls. Drinks were efficiently ordered - the house Cremant de Bourgogne, and an alcohol free German wheat beer. Appetisers comprised of a tasty Thai fishcake, no breadcrumb filler and a delicious dipping sauce; and a chestnut, mushroom and Comte tart. The mains came next - the hake with broad beans and pancetta was a smash hit. The turbot was tasty but this is my only criticism, the portion was far *too small*. Sides of buttered greens and a tomato and shallot salad were, well, perfect. Too stuffed for dessert, we chatted with two friendly ladies at the table next door, then paid and left. About £114 for 2 appetisers, 2 mains, 2 sides and 3 drinks, a very good value. We’ll come again.

We booked a table for 4 on Sunday lunch. We were welcomed in a friendly but professional manner. The menu offered traditional roasts but also interesting seafood options. We loved the place as it was cozy but elegant at the same time. Good selection of wines and spirits. Perfect experience at a fair price. Will go again!

I had a sudden fancy for a Sunday roast and it's difficult to better, or even match St. Clement's. A warm welcome and delicious caraway bread. I then had an excellent chicken liver parfait, an old favourite, tender roast beef and the best ever Yorkshire pudding, washed down with a delicious rose wine. To finish a smooth and creamy lemon posset with apricots, served with limoncello. Friendly and professional service and a reasonable bill for the amount of food served and the superlative quality.

Hands down, one of my favourite restaurants in Hastings. Had fantastic meal here! Atmosphere great, service fantastic and food always outstanding! Must try place when in Hastings! We had mussel, skate wing and sea bass, all dishes were very tasty. Cheesecake for dessert was fluffy and moreish! Oh, almost forgot, great wine! Can’t wait to visit again!

We went for lunch for my special birthday and it really was a special lunch, what a wonderful restaurant St Clements is. The food was excellent, very flavorful, beautifully presented with great attention to detail. Service was wonderful with a personal touch, to every diner, not just us. Thank you for such a memorable lunch. Can't wait to go again

You'll be hard pushed to find a better restaurant than St Clement's. Why? Because consistently they just do food and service very very well. The menu is spot on with a perfect balance of fresh local fish, meat and vegetarian choices. The wine list is super and the absolute winner every time is the puddings! For an unassuming hidden gem that's tucked away in the sleepy but oh so beautiful part of St Leonards it's always busy with that lovely 'chatty people vibe' just having a great evening eating top notch food enjoying what great restaurants do so well. Just book and go enjoy but don't tell everyone!

Had a really lovely meal last night, after rebooking a cancelled table . Lovely bottle of local white wine, lovely hake / steak /skate and 2 top notch deserts . It’s been a while since we’ve been, will definitely not be leaving it so long next time - thoroughly enjoyable evening .

I’ve been wanting to eat here for ages and came for the lunch menu. The food was good but not great, the flavours could have been more pronounced and the amount of oil reduced - a solid 4 stars. Service was a bit indifferent, although there was an excellent Scottish waitress who was more attentive and engaged.

Regularly go here. Food has always been superb. Along with the service. Although there's a lot of fresh fish on the menu they also have a great choice of other dishes. Profiteroles are amazing Thoroughly recommend it here.

St Clements has a pretty good reputation in the south coast sun trap that is St Leonards on Sea. It has a "Michelin Bib" which, for the uninitiated (like me, prior to googling it), denotes good quality food at moderate prices which is a nice touch, as it allows reasonably priced restaurants to gain recognition next to the big boys. Hmmm, that was a rather long sentence, there will be less of those as the review goes on as they can often make paragraphs look intimidatingly drawn out and give the impression they are a bore to read, despite the content, which I can promise will be nothing short of fascinating. 51 words. Get in. Anyway, I'm sure you'd rather hear about the restaurant then have me waffle on about sentence length, and I have to say it is outstanding. First off, I recommend booking, certainly on the weekends as it can pack out. There is a lovely, little pub next door called the Horse and Groom which acts as a 'feeder' (not my words!) for St Clements, which makes choosing where to go for a drink beforehand a very straightforward process. The staff were friendly, and 'well paced'. By this, I mean they gave us enough time to peruse the menu and didn't clear the table before we were done, which is a sign of good training and an experienced team. They offer a set menu at £26.50 for three courses which has three choices per course. One of the mains is vegetarian, however the starters were all meat and fish dishes. Sinfully, there was NO chocolate option for dessert. Quite why I stayed is a mystery. The full menu is around £16.50 for a main, with starters coming in at the £8 mark and desserts at just over a fiver. I went for the Pork Terrine with Sourdough and Picalilli, Seabass with lemon, corriander and Thai Salad and Chocolate Truffle cake with cognac soaked raisons and pistachio ice cream. It was all delicious. Like insanely good. With the wine (some chilean thing I picked to impress my companion. I find the trick with wine is that you don't have to know a lot, just more than your date), it came to around £100 for two of us. Since going, St Clements has become the place I take anyone I want to impress whenever I'm in this neck of the woods.

Small friendly restaurant. Book your table in advance. Fantastically coked local food. A must if you are visiting the area.

Very overpriced, mediocre food and surly staff. The atmosphere is poor- not romantic at all, too busy and we felt very rushed a the restaurant do two sittings per evening. The starters were fine but the fish main courses were average. Puddings and coffee were lovely though. Would not return and felt very ripped off. There are many other good restaurants in Hastings and we'll be going to those instead.

Heard a lot about it and when we went for a special dinner it was well worth it. Fabulous food, excellent service, good wine selection. A good night out. Will go again and recommend it highly.