Samphire

British·
££££
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Good to know

Average Price
££££ - £30 - £49
Cuisines
British
Ambience
Cool, Cosy, Fun
Food Occasions
All day dining, Breakfast, Brunch, Dinner, Lunch, Sunday roast
Special Features
Vegetarian options
Perfect for
Child friendly
Food Hygiene Rating

About

Describing itself as a ‘Kentish Bistro’, Samphire is one of Whitstable’s most popular restaurants and serves up a comforting line up of modern British dishes with the odd international influence.

Owner and executive chef George trained as a chef in Australia before working in London. In 2004, after moving to Whitstable, George and his wife decided to open their first restaurant together and joined forces with head chef Billy Stock to create their version of a neighbourhood eatery, right in the heart of this picturesque seaside town. Billy’s experience spans stints in some of London’s top restaurants, including St JOHN, The Marksman and Rochelle Canteen.

The combined CV’s of Samphire’s chefs ensures food is unfussy and delicious. As you might expect there’s a strong seafood focus, with the local area’s bounty playing starring role in the show. Pick between small plates of oysters, sardines or a whipped cod’s roe dip with toast before indulging in some fresh plates of the season’s best veggies – think sprouting broccoli with roasted shallots and romesco sauce or pumpkin with lentils and curd. Carnivores need not be disappointed either, with carefully sourced plates of high welfare meat also making their way onto them menu by way of combinations like roasted quail with celeriac and bay.

Comfortable, neutral surrounds create a warm and cosy atmosphere with a modern design edge and the friendly and knowledgeable are always on hand to guide guests through the menu and make suggestions.

With supper, reasonably costed set lunches, brunches, Sunday roasts and children’s specials all on offer, there’s something to please no matter what time of the day you happen to be passing. To accompany the food there’s the choice of a whole run of international wines at fair price points too. Fun cocktails like a Lemon Sherbet or an Espresso Martini complete the line-up along with beers and high-end soft serves.

Samphire is featured in

Location

Samphire, 4 High Street, Whitstable, Kent, CT5 1BQ

01227 770075 01227 770075

Website

Opening Times

All day
Mon 09:00-21:00
Tue 09:00-21:00
Wed 09:00-21:00
Thu 09:00-21:00
Fri 09:00-21:30
Sat 09:00-22:00
Sun 09:00-22:00

Reviews

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4 Reviews 
Food/Drink
Service
Atmosphere
Value

Anon

28 September 2021  
Food & Drink 5
Service 5
Atmosphere 5
Value 5
Lovely restaurant in Whitstable

We have just had a perfect evening at Samphire, restaurant in Whitstable. The food was absolutely excellent, as was the wine and the Whitstable premium ale. Ashley is the perfect host and made our evening all the more enjoyable. We have no hesitation in recommending Samphire to anyone looking for a fabulous seafood restaurant in Whitstable. John and Sandra

Anon

09 August 2020  
Food & Drink 5
Service 5
Atmosphere 5
Value 5
Good enough for Tom Kerridge!

I just loved this restaurant. Located on the corner just a walk away from the beach. Lovely decor and handwritten chalk boards displaying the weekly menu. We went to town on ordering as it was my husband's birthday, highly recommend the oysters (so delicious we ordered two lots) we shared the fish and the chicken mains and finished off with the cheese board. Staff were lovely and felt very safe considering all of the lock down regulations. Can't wait to go back. So cool to see Tom Kerridge in there as we walked past on Sunday!!

josie M

12 August 2015  
Food & Drink 4.5
Service 4
Atmosphere 4.5
Value 4
Samphire Whitstable.
Picking a restaurant from a list rather than recommendation is daunting but we were pleasantly surprised on reaching Samphire. The restaurant is small and welcoming and the food delicious, all locally sourced produce so some things are limited - as was the monkfish when we visited but the mackerel was a fine substitute. All in all, a good time was had by all there, regulars and first timers like us. Very happy we tried it and we will be visiting again.

Joe B

20 March 2013  
Food & Drink 3.5
Service 3.5
Atmosphere 4.5
Value 2.5
Samphire, a work in progress
Excitement and expectation often surrounds news of a new chef in a popular restaurant. Which new dishes will arrive? Will the style of food be changed? However, the transfer process can also be an upheaval as new ingredients need to be sourced and new menus designed. I went along to the trendy Samphire restaurant in Whitstable, a place I have had very good meals in the past, following news of a new boss in the kitchen. The atmosphere in Samphire is always excellent. Old-style wooden tables, candlelight and the buzz of customers with good background music fills the air. The menu is concise and balanced between meat, fish and vegetable-based dishes, with adventurous options available. We started with an appetiser board of olives, marinated tomatoes with fried almonds and an oil and vinegar pot for the slices of white bloomer that accompanied it. I couldn’t say with certainty that the bread was baked on the premises, while for £5 I thought it could have been warmed. For my first course I went with the leek vinaigrette salad topped with brown shrimps. Four cut leeks were topped with a delicious dressing, which was sharp but did overpower the shrimps a little. My guest went for the fennel and salami salad with blood orange and goat’s cheese. The over- generous oil dressing really detracted from the salami flavour and saturated the fennel. The blood orange was replaced with a normal orange in a dish that won’t live long in the memory. For our main course I went for the sumptuous Monkshill Farm pork belly on a bed of creamy mashed potato and savoy cabbage. It was accompanied by a generous-sized portion of crackling and a delicious apple sauce that sweetly complemented the pork. This was more like it! The pork was cooked to perfection and melted in the mouth – it was superb. My guest went for the leek gratin with poached egg and grain mustard. A quick taste confirmed that the poached egg was very nice and the mustard flavours an extra kick. It wasn’t a bad dish, but my guest wished she had gone for the ‘less plain’ braised ox cheek on the menu. The portion sizes were very good, as has always been the way at Samphire, and so on this occasion we decided against dessert and had another drink to soak up the atmosphere. The service is still very good and the dishes are still at the top end of what we had come to expect from a restaurant with a good reputation, but we found that attention to detail in making sure dishes had just the right balance was a little off. The bill came to £62.80. With a new chef and a new menu, things were always going to take time to bed in and be exactly as desired by the new maestro in the kitchen. I am looking forward to giving Samphire another try in the near future
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01227 770075 01227 770075

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