Lol, anybody got any Margate recs? I will somehow be spending a few nights here in September. Some of the restaurants look great?!?!?!
Already got a meal at the Sportsman booked, which is a jaunt, but has somehow been on my list for years. Never thought I’d make it there.
anybody got any updated Margate recs?
need to know more about the annual September Margate trip
lol the long and short of it is that there’s some really great publicly accessible golf courses out there. Went to Margate two years ago, loved it so much that I decided to return. Unfortunately ate nowhere good due to time constraints/Margate restaurants being closed Monday-Wednesday except the Sportsman in Seasalter, which is a fever dream of a restaurant. Random, unremarkable pub with remarkable food. This is the chef/restaurant that kinda most directly inspired Noble Rot.
Noble Rot the restaurant in London?
looking forward to hearing about this. been wanting to go since 2008, but never found myself around that part of the UK.
Noble Rot in London (Conduit, Soho, Mayfair) does a slip sole with smoked butter as an homage to The Sportsman’s signature dish. Noble Rot varies it up, sometimes with seaweed butter, paprika butter, tomato butter, etc.
Yes, exactly. Stephen Harris, the chef at the Sportsman, actually wrote the foreword to the Noble Rot wine book. (Wine from another galaxy.) It’s actually possible that he’s the executive chef there. Not sure how closely things are intermingled.
ha! very relatable to me - trying to figure out where to eat in Ames Iowa when I go to play at this tennis court
lol okay I’ll throw together a quick review. I had first heard of the Sportsman in the mid 2010’s and also thought I’d never ever make it out there. A damn miracle to discover that it was a short drive from Margate / Royal St. George’s. I’ve been twice in three years now. My first meal there was a revelation–one of the best meals I’ve had in my life when you account for expectations/setting, etc. I’ve been searching for restaurants cooking that type of food ever since. (King in NYC has come closest.)
It’s a funny place because it doubles as a local working-class pub. First time I was there, scores of people came in to just have a beer on their patio/verandah situation. As such, the wine list is laminated (just did a Sancerre because I wanted an easy white for my sister-in-law who rarely drinks. Sancerre Côte des Embouffants, Roger Neveu, 2022.)
Service is very personal, albeit not the most fine-tuned. Had a good laugh with a waiter when she told me the oysters were from Jersey. When I asked where that was, she admitted to not knowing so we pulled up a map together and found it, ha. Close to France! I for some reason thought it was off England’s west coast.
Anyways, we did the 5-course tasting menu. This photo is from my pal who went a few days after me. Menu is all but the same, though he got the slip sole in seaweed butter, mine was in espelette.
Snacks were wonderful, if a bit scattered, lol. An incredible lamb skewer (that rivals anything that an LA kebab shop puts out) was served right after this goofy little tomato cheese puff. Their bread plate is as good as I’ve had anywhere. Their famous soda bread is quite the bite for an American palate, and their focaccia is perfect. The recipe is in their cookbook! I’ll have to try it sometime.
Anyways, did the poached rock oysters with caviar. Indulgent, but still refreshing and local feeling. Lovely way to start.
The slip sole was next. Again, here’s a photo of my friend’s in seaweed butter. Mine was in an espelette butter. Frankly, this is the real reason to go to the Sportsman. It is a revelatory dish, the fish lifting floating upward from all these tiny bones, perfectly moist, coated (in my case in the espelette butter.) Just rich enough. One of my favorite cooked seafood dishes ever.
I had the roast pork loin with crackling and mustard sauce. It was very good but it definitely fell short of the slip sole and oysters and snacks. (No photo of that one.) This dish feels perhaps too British, lol. Would appreciate a bit more lightness to it.
Dessert, we split the greengage soufflé and the raspberry and almond tart. Both were quite good. A treat to have greengage plums, which are tricky to find out here.
I was quite happy with the meal. The Sportsman really shows that local, ingredient-focused cooking works anywhere, not just in California. The ethos is very much: here’s our food cooked simply and with great care. I hope you like it. The more and more I eat, the more drawn I am to places like this one.
I’m not certain that the Sportsman is catch a train from London good, but if you’re ever close, I think you should go. Also, there’s a real fun weekend of eating and drinking if you combine Margate with the Sportsman. Angela’s and Dory’s alone are worth the visit. Margate books is a wonderful little shop too.
lol that is so cool. are clay courts that rare? Or are they that rare in Iowa? love trips like these where something a tad ridiculous like this becomes the impetus for a journey. My friends and I do something we call “dog tracks of the 395” in which we go play all the extremely bad to mediocre golf courses on the 395 on the way to Mammoth. It’s a good time.
speaking of tennis-related things in the mid-west, I played golf in Wisconsin at a place called Sand Valley and they had the most beautiful grass courts I’d ever seen. I could have spent hours and hours here. Also played something called court tennis there and it was such a blast.
Yeah, “real” red clay courts are pretty rare in America in general, and let alone ones that are open to the public. And those grass courts at Sand Valley are on my bucket list too!
nice rundown @set0312, thanks
yeah, this style of restaurant is very appealing. i wish we had a Sportsman style or probably more likely Noble Rot style place in LA. fantastic wines, with some rare ones by the glass, with simple, seasonal “Franglish” food that’s well priced. go for a glass of Raveneau and oysters (Stephen Harris made an “Oysters Raveneau” specifically to pair), or build a meal with some Iberian pig, comte tart, slip sole, grilled fish or grilled game, bread and achovies, etc. but i digress..
sounds lovely. i had the Noble Rot version with espelette and loved it. simple but iconic dish.
and that’s a nice quenelle, too.
yes, I remember reading about their Monkshill farm pigs cured in house and use of local salt.
I’ll take your word on the Raveneau, lol, but yes, we need a lot more of this. It’s hard to find anything close to an LA analog. Maybe Baby Bistro? There really isn’t much. I don’t even know of a wine bar in LA as serious as Noble Rot? Couple that with their food program and I’d be at said spot often! FWIW, I prefer the Sportsman to Noble Rot. It’s Etxebarri levels of rooted in its place, which is of course so cool.
Side note but that part of England (Kent, the southeast, whatever) eats so incredibly local. I went to a place called Dory’s in Margate ( Dory's menu — Angela's / Dory's ) a few years back and the chef was apologetic that the scallops were from Cornwall. Every other thing on the menu was from Kent. Just an extraordinary commitment to sustainability and local eating.
