The story
The Leaping Hare is a Modern British restaurant at Wyken Vineyards, Stanton, IP31 2DW, just outside Bury St Edmunds. The Good Food Guide rated it Very Good in 2026, and it sits inside a converted medieval barn on a 1,200-acre farm.
Charlotte Oliver leads the kitchen, and the cooking blends traditional European technique with newer ideas. Wyken produce runs through the menu. Venison, hogget, pork and game are reared on the estate, and salads and vegetables come from the kitchen garden.
Venison arrives as a rissole with celeriac rémoulade and jam made from Wyken damsons. Brancaster mussels are cooked in Bacchus wine from the surrounding vineyards, finished with garlic and cream. Smoked cod gets a velouté made with the same estate wine, served with pickled oyster mushrooms and dill.
Desserts lean on familiar favourites such as trifle, panna cotta and pavlova. Dark chocolate mousse with poached pear, olive oil and sea salt also appears on the menu.
The dining room has raftered ceilings, crisply laid tables and landscape pictures on the walls. Wines from the estate feature strongly on the list. The house ale, Good Dog, is hoppy and malty.
Recognition
Ambience
Details
History
Nothing is quite as reassuringly rural as eating in a raftered barn, especially a 400-year-old one. Throw in some landscape pictures, crisply clothed tables and staff who radiate enthusiasm from every pore, and we're sold. Of course, the plentiful local produce that teems forth from the kitchen has something to do with it too, and here is where chef Charlotte Oliver really shines. His dishes are a mix of traditional European cooking and modern ideas, but with Wyken running through them like a stick of rock. The estate's venison might feature in a rissole to start, teamed with celeriac rémoulade and jam from Wyken damsons, while wine from the surrounding vineyards (an aromatic Bacchus enriched with garlic and cream) is used as the cooking medium for Brancaster mussels. More of that wine makes a silky velouté to sauce smoked cod, which appears with pickled oyster mushrooms and dill – or there could be a classic assemblage of pork belly and tenderloin with pommes Anna, sprouting broccoli, black pudding and Wyken apple in jus noisette. Sweet favourites furnish a dessert selection that includes trifle, panna cotta and pavlova, as well as dark chocolate mousse with poached pear, olive oil and sea salt. The estate's wines feature strongly on the list, and there is also a hoppy, malty house ale called Good Dog.
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