Age & Sons – Eccentric & Professional (Closed)

We had been planning to do a post on Age & Sons for a while. When it opened last year it was seen as a place that could put Ramsgate firmly on the Restaurant circuit. The chef is Toby Leigh formally of Kensington Place and gastro pubs The Anchor & Hope and Heston Blumenthal’s Hinds Head.

Age & Sons is actually more than just a restaurant. It is spread over 3 floors, the top floor is the main restaurant, the ground floor is a more casual dining area (laid out a bit like a french kitchen) and the basement houses a cosy rather stylish cocktail bar. It is not the easiest place to find. We arrived on an off season Saturday night to a fully booked restaurant whose clientele consisted of well heeled locals, out of towners, people from the yacht club and foodies like us. I particularly like this places eccentricities – the eclectic range of “Granny” style side plates, the squeaky cheese trolley. It is definitely not one of these manufactured venues with catalogue decor, it has it’s own style.

I started with sweetbreads and damsons. While full of damson flavour  it did religate the sweetbread to merely a texture rather than a taste. For main course I went for Kentish lamb and my companion went for the pork (as far removed from the pork I had in Harveys earlier that day, as it is possible to get). The portion sizes were huge so this was more comfort/hearty food than any pretension of fine dining.

What is also refreshing is that in such a busy place the service was professional and friendly. Taking the time for example to enquire how we enjoyed some of the more unusual cheeses in our cheese course.  On that front we  particularly enjoyed the whiskey flavoured variety from Snowdonia.

On leaving we noticed just how buzzing the downstairs was. This really made for a great ambience and one that most restaurants would kill for.

Marks out of 10 – October 2009

Food 5.5

Service 6.5

Ambience 7

UPDATE :  July 2010, Age & Sons now have a much larger outdoor space for drinks and food, it’s a  good spot to relax in the sunshine.  It even does tea and cakes (not a big selection – they only had muffins on our visit, but they were actually rather good, especially the marmalade and ginger one).  They were also selling  jugs of Pimms and Ginger Beer, which makes for a nice change from the normal Pimms and Lemonade option.

UPDATE : August 2011

We had a late lunch out in the lovely courtyard.  Age & Sons has really upped its game. My Mushroom and Ricotta Ravioli was particularly good.

Marks out of 10 – August 2011

Food 5.9

Service 6.5

Ambience 7

 

UPDATE : August 2014

The Restaurant is now closed.

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Anchor & Hope – Time & Patience!

When aiming to eat in the Anchor & Hope “gastropub” (36 The Cut, Southwark) you will need time & patience. It is not an ideal venue for pre-theatre, unless you are very lucky.

The tables in the Restaurant section are for sharing.  We found the service was a bit hit and miss but the food certainly hit the mark, with its rustic style and good quality ingredients. My earlier experiences were before the recent change of Chef, however with the kind of reputation the Anchor & Hope has I would expect it to continue to deliver top class gastropub fare.

However if you don’t want the hassle of hanging around the busy bar, you always have the option of Tas on the opposite side of the street.

UPDATE: June 2010 – A recent visit does seem to indicated that the new team are keeping up the good work. I had a beautifully cooked lemon sole with tasty shrimps.

 

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