Frog and Scot : Deal

The Frog and Scot is a popular small plates venue in Deal, so it’s best to book your table a few weeks in advance.  The bookings are timed for 1 hour 30 minute slots, which means you need to order all the small plates you want in one go (they’ll come out of the Kitchen in stages as they are prepared). It’s not really practical to order extra small plates if you find there are some dishes you especially like or if you want more than originally ordered.

Three Small plates per person is recommended.

We started with one of the bar snacks, some tasty ‘Cantabrian anchovies, tomato concasse, pickled garlic’ and ordered seven small plates for three people.

The quality of the dishes varied quite a bit on our visit. The stand out dish for me was the ‘Gnocco, burnt red pepper aioli, parmesan’. The ‘Bayonne ham croquettes, green romesco, basil’ and the ‘New potatoes, coronation mayo, coriander, pickled shallot’ were very tasty too. The ‘local heritage tomato carpaccio’ and ‘Trout tartare, kohlrabi, cherry, ponzu’ were fine, but the ‘Courgette ribbons, mint, pistachio, buttermilk’ and the ‘Burrata, charred peach, basil, toast’ were not so successful.

Time slot bookings are a bit of a pain if you’re looking to have a relaxing meal, ideally I’d have liked to have had time to order dessert and perhaps try one of their cocktails, but as we only had 15 mins minutes left in our time slot and rather than rush our dessert, we decided to just get our bill and have Cocktails elsewhere.

Our meal with a bottle of wine was about £40 per person.

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Le Pinardier : Deal

Le Pinardier in Deal High Street is a great place to chill if you’re into wine and cheese. It’s a Wine Shop/Bar with a fabulous selection of wines (mostly French).  There are several tables in the shop area and a few outside. We took refuge from the baking sun and grabbed a table inside on our visit. We ordered a cheese board (Comté, Brie & Camembert) and a bottle of Vouvray from the extensive wine list.  It wasn’t very busy, so we had excellent service and stayed for an hour or so, happily people watching.

Definitely recommend this place if you’re visiting Deal.

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Foliage : Ramsgate (moved to Broadstairs)

UPDATE : Ramsgate cafe closed May 2025 – Foliage moved to Albion Street in Broadstairs.

First visit Broadstairs cafe (July 2025) :-

We stopped by the new Foliage venue in Broadstairs and ordered cake & coffee from the bar. All the down stairs tables we taken, so we climbed the rather steep staircase to the upstairs room. Amazingly the waitress delivering our order managed the stairs while balancing a full tray!

The distinctive look and the menu are the same as the former Ramsgate cafe, although I’m not sure if it’s the same cake supplier as the selection on our visit was limited.

First visit Ramsgate cafe (July 2024) :-

The Foliage Cafe opened a few years ago and I’d never managed a visit until now as St Lawrence High Street is a bit off my beaten track. However I have to say that it’s definitely what I would call a “Destination Cafe”, that is somewhere I would now go out of my way to visit, it’s an absolute gem. We went on a Tuesday afternoon expecting it to be empty, it wasn’t. There was a steady stream of customers and I can understand why, excellent service, really good coffee and seriously good cakes are just some of the reasons to visit. It also has a lovely atmosphere based as it is inside a very attractive little Garden Centre and if the weather is nice you can also sit outside in the pretty garden area at the back. The Cafe is licensed and there’s an interesting range of Cocktails on the menu (they even run Cocktail making classes). They’ve started doing Cheese & Charcuterie boards as well and have fairly regular Live Music evenings. Foliage is actually only a few minutes walk from Ramsgate Station and Ellington Park, so if you’re in the area it’s so worth making the detour.

 

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The Cook’s Tale : Canterbury

My first visit to The Cooks Tale (aka The Ambrette) in Canterbury was an absolute delight. Not only were the rather delicious cocktails half price (part of their Thirsty Thursday deal), but the food and service was really good.  I’ve eaten at the now closed Margate Ambrette several time so I knew to expect some really good, innovative Anglo-Indian dishes. The food was even better than I remembered. I had the Dosai as a main course and it was fantastic. I regret not being able to finish the huge portion as every mouthful was a treat.

One of my companions ordered Chicken Supreme. The Cooks Tale’s take on this classic dish was beautifully presented and thoroughly enjoyed.

It was definitely not from the same continent as the version of the dish you typically think off when you see Chicken Supreme on a menu.

My other companion ordered the Lamb Fillet, Lamb Kebab dish and was delighted with the beautifully cooked lamb.

We finished off our meal by sharing a plate of chocolate samosas.

I should also make a special mention of the lovely amuse-bouches. The rather tasty pea soup with hot buttered naan bread and the theatrically presented stuffed popodoms – so good.

We went a la carte but there are also a couple of tasting menus available (including a vegetarian one) which based on the level of cooking I experienced, are likely to be somewhat special.

They also had a pianist playing in the background which was a bit odd at first but we got used to it as he wasn’t loud enough to disrupt our conversation.

This has to be one of the best restaurants in Canterbury, I know it’s top of my list for a return visit.

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Wyatt & Jones – Broadstairs meets Barcelona (Closed)

Wyatt & Jones overlooks Viking Bay and although generally I’ve found that there tends to be a negative correlation between ‘Food Quality’ and ‘Good Views’, specifically that ‘the better the view the more likely you are to be served mediocre food’. Wyatt & Jones is very much an exception to this ‘theory’.

I was especially impressed by thier small plates menu, I almost felt like I was transported to Barcelona, as I tucked in to our first plate of refreshing heritage tomatoes.

We ordered the chargrilled sourdough with potted shrimp butter, all the cold and all the hot small plates to share between 4 people, then added second plates of our favorites, the aforementioned tomatoes and a very moreish Welsh rarebit dish.

Everything we ordered was delicious, including a nice reasonably priced bottle of Viognier. The wine list had nearly all the bottles of wine available by the glass, so you could have a go at matching wines if you felt so inclined. Service was also efficient and friendly. Highly recommended.

 

UPDATE September 2023 : Restaurant has announced that it is closing. Now ’27 Harbor Street’, with same staff for more information click here.

 

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Pit Stop in Sandwich town for Le Weekend

A favourite breakfast venue of ours in Sandwich was the Beach Hut, but that was a while back and the location on Strand Street was taken over by the Smokehouse which didn’t seem to last very long, but we’d notice that there was a further change of ownership and the cafe was now called ‘The Pit Stop’. So when we made a visit to Sandwich for the ‘Le Weekend’ event, we made sure to make a pit stop and check out their breakfast offerings. They do several English breakfast variations, as well as, Omelettes, Eggs Royal, Eggs Benedict and various toast and sandwich options.

We had Breakfast 1 & 2, so between the two of us we had a nice range of quality ingredients. Nicely cooked bacon & mushrooms, plenty of black pudding & hash browns. An excellent breakfast all round and reasonably priced (just over £20 for two breakfasts & two coffees).

There is some nice outside seating, so it’s a great place to have a leisurely breakfast or brunch in the sunshine. Good service too, quick & friendly.

Le Weekend is an annual event in Sandwich where the town hosts a French Market and an Anglo- French Medieval Encampment. There is also Live Music and lots of stalls mainly in Market Street.

Several cafes (including the The Pit Stop) offer classic French menus over the weekend.

For more information see www.sandwichevents.org.uk

UPDATE : August 2024 – The Pit Stop is now closed.

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