The Cove, Fairlight, East Sussex: “We had planned to share a few small plates. Things didn't go as planned” – restaurant review | Grace Dent on restaurants

I love a thoughtful pub makeover; it's one of my favorite things. Anyone can push a dumpster out of a pub and then rip out its heart and story in a bid to make things modern. And no one then thanks the breweries and owners for creating sterile spaces that play endless Sky Sports. Then you have places like the Cove at Fairlight near Hastings which closed in 2014 and looked sad until Olivia Loveridge and Henry David took it over this spring and he given new life.

The wooden-fronted pub is painted black, making it look like one of around 50 16th-century net shacks century along the shingle beach of Hastings Old Town. The pub sign is an ethereal hand-painted image of midnight swimmers lounging around the nudist beach just off the coast. Unfortunately, no nudists were spotted during my stay at the cove; the beer garden patrons had all chosen to wear slacks and shoes to enjoy their pints of Harvey's Sussex Best and plates of bitterballen, an addictive Dutch croquette-like snack, usually meat-based but here with cabbage -mustard flower.