Samphire, Whitstable, Kent.

A table with my name on it - what a lovely touch.

Samphire is a lovely little restaurant in the lovely little seaside town of Whitstable, down on the Kent coast. The food is a touch on the pricey side - and I did feel a little cheated when asked to pay in excess of £15 for a dish of pork belly, which although delicious is after all a fairly cheap cut - but overall I think it's worth it.

Everything we ate was good; some of it, outstanding. The service was excellent. In this respect I think Samphire has it just right. Service is friendly but not over-familiar. A server is there quickly should you require, but they don't hover around you as you're eating. 

Anyway, on to what we ate...

Potted ham hock with piccalilli and toast.

Yum. Just....yum.

This was awesome, just awesome. The best version of this dish I think I have ever tried. The home-made piccalilli blew my mind. 

Pork belly with sweet potato.

Salad leaves in gravy? Hmmm...

This was probably the low point of the night. It was okay, but overall the dish was far too sweet. The rocket with gravy thing was a bit weird too - perhaps this would have worked better with vegetables rather than salad.

Duck breast, cabbage with bacon, mashed potato and pumpkin marmalade.

Quack.

This was very good. The cabbage contained bacon, but was liberally vinigared, so it still managed to cut through the richness of the duck. I wasn't too fussed about the pumpkin marmalade.


If you're in Whitstable I would recommend checking Samphire out.

Samphire
4 High Street
Whitstable
CT5 1BQ
01227 770 075
www.samphirerestaurant.co.uk