The tastiest restaurants in Whitstable
Few places are quite as defined by a single ingredient as Whitstable. The Romans loved the plump local oysters so much that they sent shipments of them back to Rome, and the Whitstable Oyster Company has been fishing Royal Whitstable Natives from the same beds since the 1400s. While the food scene here goes much further than the local bivalves, this is first and foremost a seafood place, which trades heavily on its history at spots like the pastel-pink Wheelers, founded in 1856. But Whitstable chefs are also well-placed to access the best farmed and foraged ingredients in the Garden of England. That partly explains why, unlike Margate’s exciting but largely nascent food scene along the coast for example, many of Whitstable’s leading lights have been quietly doing their thing for decades – like George Begg at Samphire, or Stephen Harris at The Sportsman, the legendary locavore boozer just out of town. No fripperies or excessive trendiness here, then – just the good stuff, done just right.
eye35.pix / Alamy Stock PhotoWheelers Oyster Bar
There may be no more iconic frontage in Whitstable than the pink-and-blue Wheelers. Opened in 1865 by local mariner Richard Leggy Wheeler, it spawned a group of Wheelers seafood restaurants in London. Those are long gone, but the original still stands – overseen by longtime owner Delia Fitt and chef Mark Stubbs, who has spent more than two decades perfecting his halibut viennoise, lobster lasagne with white crab ragout, or Guinness-battered oysters – all sourced directly from local dayboats (even most local restaurants use Faversham wholesaler La Mer). Inside, the tight-packed space is what Generation TikTok might refer to as “Coastal Grandmother”, with old clocks and older photos of local fishing boats. The cosiness demands booking well ahead. Rightly, because this is up there with the likes of the Company Shed on Mersea Island as one of the great British seafood institutions.
Address: Wheelers Oyster Bar, 8 High Street, Whitstable CT5 1BQ
Website: wheelersoysterbar.com
Sophie KnightThe Lobster Shack
At the end of a little road beyond the asphalt factory east of the harbour, sits a scene that could be a fantasy of New England: the black clapboard Lobster Shack, overlooking its own little beach and leading to a jetty with views out towards the faint silhouettes of the curious Redsand World War II sea forts. Owned by the Whitstable Oyster Company, which also runs the Oyster Shed on the harbour, local seafood is front and centre – lobster cooked four ways, a seasonal seafood platter, great scampi and chips – even if the app-based ordering system can be irritatingly fiddly (and an unwelcome reminder of pandemic dining). But this is one of the best locations in town: watching the sunset from the picnic tables on the jetty, or stripping off for a post-lunch swim (bring water shoes or sandals for prickly shells), feels like pure holidays.
Address: The Lobster Shack, The East Quay, Whitstable Harbour, CT5 1AB
Website: thelobstershack.co.uk
Samphire
While so many Whitstable restaurants go for the salty driftwood vibe, black and gold-fronted Samphire is a self-styled “modern Kentish bistro”, with wood flooring and a chalkboard menu, which looks inland towards the best of Kent as much as out to sea (though dishes like the skate wing with Kentish tomato Panzanella are excellent). Australian George Begg, who opened the place in 2006, is provenance-obsessed, sourcing game from Chilham, asparagus from Sandwich and organic vegetables from Chatham. The new head chef, Dubliner Mark O’Brien, has had stints at London meat temples Barbecoa and Smokestak – skills that play into Samphire’s epic slow-braised aged Kentish lamb racks and Porterhouse steaks with bone sauce and punchy salsa verde. Open all day, every day for brunches and £20 set lunches, this is a proper local restaurant that wears its seriousness lightly.
Address: Samphire, 4 High Street, Whitstable CT5 1BQ
Website: samphirewhitstable.co.uk
Sophie KnightThe Forge
Oysters weren’t posh to the Romans, nor to the Victorians who’d often knock back a couple with their stout at the pub – and they needn’t be in modern Whitstable, either. The Forge is just about the pick of the bivalve-serving shacks around the harbour – a black-painted corrugated iron shed just off the seafront walkway that advertises the basics on a chalkboard menu: fish and chips, ice cream, coffees or beers, and oysters by the single or dozen, happily slurped on picnic benches looking over the sea wall.
Address: The Forge, 1 Sea Wall, Whitstable CT5 1BX
Website: facebook.com
Sophie KnightWhitstable Oyster Company
Whitstable as a boujie food destination can really be traced back to the late Eighties when the Whitstable Oyster Company opened a restaurant at its red-brick Royal Native Oyster Stores building, where oysters have been shucked since 1793. The wood-beamed, maritime-industrial space is still the heart of the town, even if some locals grumble about the London-ish prices on a greatest hits seafood menu. Still, there’s little doubting the quality of dishes like comforting three-cheese crab gratin on toast, Biddenden cider mussels and local Thornback Ray wing with butter and capers, as well as oysters that might come straight, or with black truffle and Champagne. This is Whitstable as a pure one-stop hit – a bit like its most famous product.
Address: Whitstable Oyster Company, Horsebridge Road, Whitstable CT5 1BU
Website: whitstableoystercompany.comVC Jones of Whitstable
The old sign promising “fish luncheons and suppers” outside the black-and-white frontage of VC Jones also hints at the fact that this is a proper fish and chips shop – opened in 1962, and today one of the last in England to fry its produce in beef dripping, which was the standard way before World War II and brings a richer flavour to the batter. There’s more choice than at most chippies, too, with cod, plaice, skate, haddock, rockfish and scampi coming with crisp-fluffy chips. Expect queues, especially on hot days.
Address: VC Jones, 25 Harbour Street, Whitstable CT5 1AH
Website: vcjones.co.uk
Ashleigh JoyFarm and Harper
The brightest restaurant on the High Street, Farm and Harper’s bright pastel murals, Tsuki matcha lattes and toy sets for children could distract from the provenance and quality of the food. Phill Macgregor, who owns the place with his wife Sarah, is an alum of The Lanesborough and Barry Tonks at Bonds, who previously ran the award-winning Dove Inn outside Faversham. Here, the focus is on breakfast and lunch, from a Famous Farmer big breakfast to a fish curry or king prawns on sourdough for lunch – though the couple also hosts monthly Saturday ‘Food + Friends’ dinners, with one-off menus that might focus on bouillabaisse or Middle Eastern-inspired small plates.
Address: Farm and Harper, 25 High Street, Whitstable CT5 1AP
Website: farmandharperwhitstable.co.uk
Luke WoodsHarbour Street Tapas
It turns out that Whitstable and tapas go rather nicely together. Owner Lee Murray was already a well-known face on the Kent food scene when he opened this intimate but airy space on Whitstable’s main drag in 2016 and still sells the best Kentish produce at Murray’s General Store at the Good’s Shed in Canterbury. Much of the produce is local, then, but the focus is very much on straight-up Spanish tapas: just-right tortillas, ham croqueta balls or grilled octopus with spicy Canarian mojo picon, as well as more surprising house favourites like spiced lamb cutlets with tabbouleh or glazed Duroc pork ribs with chilli and coriander – washed down with bottles of Estrella Galicia or an Albarino from the same corner of Spain.
Address: Harbour Street Tapas, 48 Harbour Street, Whitstable CT5 1AQ
Website: harbourstreettapas.com
The Sportsman
The Sportsman has been going strong for more than two decades, being named Britain’s best restaurant more than once. Remarkable, really, given that outwardly it still looks like a salty, Sky-Sports-and-scratchings sort of a boozer, on a faintly bleak stretch of marshy coast near a caravan park at Seasalter. Remarkable, too, for the fact that chef Stephen Harris was a history teacher, punk musician and financier before he decided to pour his heart and soul into seasonal Thames Estuary locavorism, inspired by the fact that the land around Seasalter has been a centre of food production for more than a thousand years. He has remained remarkably focused, honing and perfecting dishes that feel like old friends – from the rich, tender slipsole with seaweed butter to an exquisite Montgomery cheddar souffle, or a cured trout fillet with taste bud-popping apple and sorrel granita. All the while, the excellent wine list has stayed at prices that put London to shame – just one reason that this is a fine diner with actual local regulars. The Sportsman is the Kent coast’s answer to St John or The River Cafe; a modern classic.
Address: The Sportsman, Faversham Road, Seasalter, Whitstable CT5 4BP
Website: thesportsmanseasalter.co.uk
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Birdies
If Samphire is the trendy locavore bistro, Birdies is the timeless French-style one; the one with red-and-white check tablecloths, friendly service and a certain cosy Nineties clutter. Philip and Sue Colthup opened on Harbour Street in 1993, and don’t seem to have messed too much with the decor or the richly comforting dishes on the serif-font menu – like a rich bouillabaisse, steamed saffron lobster, beef Wellington or Dover sole. These are the sort of homely favourites that locals come back for time and time again – evidence that a winning formula needn’t be tinkered with.
Address: Birdies Restaurant, 41 Harbour Street, Whitstable CT5 1AH
Website: birdiesrestaurant.co.ukJoJo’s
JoJo’s became something of a cause celebre during the pandemic, when developers threatened to buy the large Med-style restaurant on the beach at Tankerton, only to be thwarted by a crowdfunding campaign backed by the likes of Tom Kerridge, Jay Rayner and the photographer Rankin. The family-run restaurant is widely beloved in part for the warm welcome from owners Nikki Billington and Paul Watson, who moved here in 2010 after first opening a restaurant in their home. “We don’t do nowt fancy,” they write on the restaurant’s website – though really that undersells the quality of hearty mezze plates, fish and chips or mutton and feta koftas, most sourced locally and sustainably.
Address: 2 Herne Bay Road, Whitstable CT5 2LQ
Website: jojosrestaurant.co.uk
Joe JoslandPearsons Arms
Whitstable has some good salty pubs, including the Old Neptune right on the beach. But the similarly white-weatherboard Pearson’s Arms, is just about the pick of them for food, with a focus on reliable classics: moules mariniere in Kentish white wine (Phillips also runs the restaurant at Tenterden’s Chapel Down vineyard), say, or a 32-day-aged Scottish ribeye with triple cooked chips, followed by a Kent-focused cheeseboard or house Eton mess. For all that the weathered wood walls and roaring fire might suggest a pint of Seafarers or house ale, the cocktails are serious here, too, from a peach liqueur Old Fashioned to a crisp Whitstable Fizz with Prosecco, mint and elderflower.
Address: The Pearsons Arms, Horsebridge Road, Whitstable CT5 1BT
Website: pearsonsarmswhitstable.co.uk