Kent Restaurant Guide

“From the outside, it really is a scruffy, rundown-looking pub in a bleak landscape” (“with views over fields – the sea is out over the back”), but “it’s worth the long haul to find Stephen Harris’s uninviting-looking old place as it offers inspiring cuisine” that many consider “the best ‘pub’ food in the UK”. “The decor has been tidied up a bit recently, but happily not enough to jeopardise its second most attractive feature: it is unforgettably ordinary! That there’s zero pretension contrasts spectacularly with the peerless kitchen”. “The culinary approach is not fussy or arty but the straightforward route produces something sublime (dab and smear practitioners take note!)”: “simple, unpretentious and fantastically flavoursome” dishes using “good local produce (including lamb)” and with “fish cooking a highlight, as are the oysters, both natives and poached rocks”. “The tasting menu is a real ‘tour de force’” with “every dish spot-on” (you have to order it in advance, but there’s now also a shorter one you can have on the day). “Good wine too at even better prices”. “Everything just seems to work together perfectly”.

“Pure magic…”, “I’d pay more than double…” – “Ben Crittenden manages to conjure up dishes full of flavour bombs and surprises” in the “tiny” 12-cover venue he built with his dad. His wife Sophie serves diners, and their no-choice tasting menu (Wed-Sat only) wins universal high praise for “stunning food in one of the most quirky environments possible”.

“Reads has reliably and consistently delivered excellent food and service over three decades and it is still a treat to visit if one’s budget allows!” – David and Rona Pitchford’s Georgian mansion on the north Kentish coast is a “wonderful, oldy-worldy type of place (great on a winter’s evening)” which provides “very stylish”, but also “homely” surroundings for a culinary blow-out with the “splendid tasting menu” rating special mention. Top Tip: “The lunchtime set menu is also particularly good value for money”.

“A superb view of the water and beautifully cooked fresh fish” – the twin key attractions of Mark Sargeant’s “fabulously located” and highly popular venue on Folkestone Harbour. It’s quite a “pricey” location, but for the vast majority of diners well worth it. Top Tip: “ask for a window table”.

“You could be forgiven if you thought you were eating in someone’s living room” at this “quirky”, “casual and basic” institution (est. 1856), where you eat “in a tiny back parlour that maybe seats 14-16 people”; and which “serves superbly fresh seafood” with “oysters a speciality”. “It’s not licensed, but there’s a good selection of wines offered in the off-licence opposite”.

“Amazing as ever”, agree the many fans of this family-run Chinese in the outer suburbs, which for years has been a “model of consistency” – “you’d never be embarrassed to bring friends here because the food is always exceptional”.

This distinctive wedding venue in an Arts & Crafts country house set in 17 acres (part of Pete Cornwell’s ‘I’ll Be Mother’ group) also functions as a restaurant which attracts consistently high ratings for its “great food and service in a beautiful setting”. There’s a “fabulous outdoor terrace and oh! the views”.

“In an oasis for food”, this cosy branch of the Kent-based ‘I’ll be Mother’ group is the epitome of a “great local” serving some “genuinely exceptional cooking”. Chef Simon Ulph moved to Jackson Boxer’s new London venture, St Leonards, in June 2018, with Megs Buchanan stepping in at the stoves.