Unruly Pig

The Unruly Pig was first opened in March 2015 by former City lawyer Brendan Padfield. The kitchen team was led from day one by chef Dave Wall. In December 2025, Brendan Padfield retired and handed the ownership of the gastropub over to long-standing Dave Wall and his wife Michelle. The head chef here is now Karl Green.

The pub is on the outskirts of Woodbridge and has 60 covers plus an upstairs private room for an additional dozen customers. The pub has a large car park. Incidentally, there is Wi-Fi for guests at a very respectable 40 Mbps speed, multiple times faster than the Wi-Fi at the hotel where I was staying.

There was a tasting menu available at £79, or a shorter one at £49, but we went à la carte. We started with mushroom arancini (£2 each). These were very good, with crisp outside coating and a mix of mushrooms and risotto rice and cashew blue cheese instead of the traditional mozzarella inside (14/20). Focaccia (£4) was quite good, served warm and having a fairly airy texture. 

Crab (£19) was wrapped inside a layer of tomato and served with a basil emulsion and a seafood bisque. This was quite a pretty dish, but the tomato had little flavour and obscured the brown crabmeat inside. The bisque and sauce were pleasant and to some degree rescued the dish (13/20). Better was cured halibut with lime, olive oil and pickled jalapenos (£19). This simpler dish had excellent flavour balance, good acidity and just enough bite from the mild chillies (easily 14/20). Native lobster (£55) came with bucatini pasta, peanuts, lime and chilli. This was quite boldly seasoned, the lobster tender and the pasta having good texture (14/20).

Poussin (£28) was from a farm in Suffolk. As well as the breast, a miniature chicken Kyiv was made, and the meat was served with a girolle and pea sauce. The girolles were very good, the peas were fresh, and the chicken Kyiv was a clever touch (14/20). On the side, Parmesan fries (£7.50) were pleasant, large chips that were crisp on the outside and with a pleasant texture. They perhaps did not really need the Parmesan (13/20). A mac and cheese (£5) with ‘nduja had nice enough macaroni texture but did not have quite enough cheese flavour (13/20).

Dessert (£11) was a lemon semifreddo with raspberry sorbet. The sorbet had good texture and flavour, and there was just enough sharpness from the Amalfi lemon in the semifreddo to balance the whipped cream and egg whites (14/20). Tiramisu (£12) was a fairly classical version of the Italian dessert. This had mascarpone dairy cream and amaretto almond liqueur, the sponge fingers having good texture and there being a decent kick of coffee flavour, though the coffee itself lacked much subtlety (14/20).

Coffee was from a supplier called Cafe du Monde, which despite its exotic name is actually based in Unit 16 of the Platt Industrial Estate in Sevenoaks. This was quite disappointing coffee, a dark roast masking the flavour of pretty ordinary tasting coffee beans. I believe the company does some premium brands such as a Brazilian Fine Cup coffee, but this was not what appeared tonight. 

Service was pleasant, though a bit slow at the start on this busy night; the staff were friendly and did their best to keep things moving along. The bill came to £148 each plus service, with cocktails and a nice bottle of Schloss Johannisberg Gelblack Riesling Feinherb 2024 at £69 for a wine that retails at £29. If you ordered more abstemiously and shared a modest bottle of wine then a more typical cost per person might be around £90 including service. Overall, The Unruly Pig is an enjoyable place to eat at, and a good choice if you are in Suffolk.

Further reviews: 09th Jul 2016