A restored farmhouse is a magnet for Britain’s best chefs and it’s making Deal a big deal

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Updown Farmhouse

'There were cows grazing here until the 1960s,’ explains Ruth Leigh when I run into her in the garden of Updown Farmhouse, the country-house hotel she owns and runs with partner Oli Brown. ‘The restaurant was the old cattle shed and your room was a rat-infested garage!’

It’s fair to say the place has come on a bit since then. The couple opened Updown in 2022 having spent years painstakingly restoring the Grade-II listed farmhouse, assorted outbuildings and seven-acre grounds. During the work, they invited an assortment of the country’s best chefs to host supper clubs as the spaces came to life. Rowley Leigh, Anna Tobias and Will Bowlby were some of the names who drew hungry crowds to the work-in-progress estate and proved to Leigh and Brown that this could be a full-time success.

Today, the main house is where you arrive. It has drawing rooms and snugs to settle into, enlivened with pops of colour and vivid artworks curated by Brown’s mother and brother.

Upstairs, four good-sized bedrooms make use of the house’s original features, each styled differently to be bright and inviting. I stayed in the two-bedroom Fig Tree Cottage (now thankfully free of rats), which sports arresting artwork from El Salvador-born, Margate-based painter Jose Campos and has its own outdoor terrace.

The pool is a short walk through the shaded gardens that, when bathed in heatwave sunshine, felt positively Mediterranean (crucially, it’s heated for when it feels decidedly less so).

Talking of the Mediterranean, then comes the restaurant. It’s undoubtedly the heart of the hotel and serves a seasonally changing Italian-accented menu in a light-filled, conservatory-style space where vines line the ceiling. There’s a wood-fired grill in the kitchen and the farm’s old bread oven is back in operation, churning out some of the most perfectly pillowy focaccia I’ve ever had.

Next door, the small, but mighty Bar Vita opened earlier this year, an homage to the chic drinking dens of Milan and Rome — Italian amaro features heavily on a menu that also has a signature martini (chilled, very precisely, to -15˚C) that comes with a smoked eel and olive gilda. You’ll want to linger here: it’s sexy and cosy and cool.

Ultimately, Updown pulls off that often-attempted, but rarely achieved trick of feeling like the country home of a very generous epicurean friend: a genuinely relaxing place in which you’ll truly feel at home — and well fed.

Rooms at Updown Farmhouse, Deal, Kent, cost from £250 per night on a bed and breakfast basis.

Need to know

Updown Farmhouse is only a 15-minute drive from the centre of Deal, beyond Betteshanger Park and down a narrow leafy lane, but feels distinctly peaceful and private. Its grounds are detailed on in-room maps so you can stroll and sit among the trees and watch chefs pick from the kitchen garden.

Venture into Deal itself and you’ll find a charming beach town that has felt the effects of ‘DFL’ (down from London) gentrification — a vibrant dining scene, cool concept stores, new galleries, popular antiques markets — but still retains an authentic soul.

The pebbly seafront is perfect for paddles and picnics and the houses and pubs set back on Beach Street and Middle Street transport you back to the town’s maritime past.

Where to eat

• When The Rose (on the High Street) was transformed from a tired pub into a boutique hotel and restaurant in 2018, it helped put Deal on the map. Now, the team has opened The Blue Pelican, the town’s buzziest new spot, a seafood-heavy Japanese joint on the seafront that opens for dinner on Fridays, lunch and dinner on Saturdays and exclusively ramen lunches on Sunday

• Elsewhere, Climpson & Sons is the place for coffee, cocktails and countertop snacks, Popup Cafe serves meat-free breakfasts and sandwiches on its renowned sourdough bread and beloved wine shop-bar Le Pinardier has recently doubled in size and scope, now also serving local beers and cocktails, plus a fine selection of French-accented bar bites
• Charming old-timey pubs, the kind you can imagine pirates propping up the bar in, are Deal’s stock-in-trade. The Ship Inn, on Middle Street, is one of the most untouched by time, with its copper table tops, upright piano, brick fireplace and maritime ephemera. The Forester, on The Marina, has a warm, homely atmosphere and perfect sea views. The Deal Hoy, tucked away on Duke Street, has been more recently spruced up and has a suntrap beer garden. If you fancy a walk, it’s about an hour south along the shore until you reach The Zetland Arms in Kingsdown, a picture-perfect pub on the beach

What to do while you’re there

• Walk Naturally, a stroll along Deal seafront is a must. Take a turn onto the pier, past the parade of locals with their fishing rods and you’ll find Deal Pier Kitchen at the end, perfect for a scenic snack. Continue south and you can take in the area’s history by stopping at Deal Castle, built in the shape of a Tudor rose, and on to Walmer Castle, both commissioned by Henry VIII to guard against invaders from the Continent
• Learn If you particularly enjoy the meat on offer at Updown Farmhouse, pay a visit to its supplier, the award-winning Black Pig butcher. Its locally sourced free-range meat is so well regarded that there are stories of people driving down from London just to stock up
• Explore Ramsgate, Broadstairs, Botany Bay and Margate are all within easy reach for day trips or head inland to explore the ever-growing patchwork of Kentish wineries

This feature originally appeared in the August 26, 2026, issue of Country Life. Click here for more information on how to subscribe.