I'm going to wrap up my posts about my hometown (or home area anyway) with a little trip to Wyatt & Jones. It's my family's favourite restaurant and no trip home is complete without a visit.

(Unfortunately my last weekend at home was therefore incomplete; are you listening Mum?!)

The restaurant is tucked down by the harbour arm in Broadstairs and resides in a traditional flint building, characteristic of the local area. Tables in the lower half of the restaurant boast views across Viking Bay and the neighbouring cliffs and once, during the 2015 general election, Mum and I even saw Nigel Farage carve a campaign trail across those golden sands from our table (he quickly beat a hasty retreat when the locals saw him coming). 



Inside, it's a middle-class dream; Farrow & Ball-esque shades of grey, a hipster array of bare wooden furniture, and tables decked with coolly effortless botanical arrangements. Oh, and bare bulb light fixtures and an obscure arrangement of vintage mirrors of course. Yet despite all of these ever-so-on-trend decor decisions, the atmosphere is relaxed and (dare I say it) authentic rather than overly-polished or forced.







But of course the food is the real reason for coming back time and time again. The drinks (not pictured) also deserve a mention, especially the basil-infused Bramble cocktail which tastes like Autumn and Christmas.

The menu is split into light appetisers, starters, mains, sides and desserts and is subject to daily variations. I started with the blue cheese and leek fritter (below) from the light appetiser menu, a hot fresh delight of gooey salt and sweetness. The anchovy toast is also a firm favourite as a light nibble and it's thoroughly recommended that you order some of their homemade bread for the table, which comes in all sorts of flavours such as potato and rosemary, earl grey, and bacon.


As a main, I had the squash, beetroot, courgette and goats cheese salad which was quite honestly one of the best dishes I've ever had. Warm, tender chunks of vegetable nestle amongst freshly-fried croutons and huge slabs of soft, gooey goats cheese, with a handful of leaves thrown in for good measure. It's hearty, filling, tasty and at least one of your five-a-day (tick, tick, tick!). Here's a picture of it when it arrived and then another of it halfway through so you can appreciate all the delightful colours hiding underneath the greens.



Their veggie options are always excellent and well thought-out which is refreshing to say the least. Whilst I can't comment on the meat from my own experience, the rest of my family religiously eats meat when we visit and considering it's their favourite restaurant, all I'll say is that it must be good.


But even if you've stuffed yourself silly with the delicious savoury options, you'll want to make room for dessert. Whilst many other excellent restaurants can flop disastrously when it comes to the sweet stuff, the offerings at Wyatt & Jones are delectable. Past favourites include dark chocolate souffle with bitter marmalade ice cream (bring me one now please). They also do one of the most incredible sticky toffee puddings we've ever eaten, which is saying something considering we are hardcore stp fans and never pass up a trip to Cartmel (the home of stp) when we're up in the Lakes.


(Bad photo, sorry - you know all those blog advice posts saying that all you need to start a blog is an iPhone? Don't listen to them. Unless you have a better iPhone than my poor old 5S. And probably better photography skills than me too...)


I hope I've convinced you that Wyatt & Jones is worth treating yourself to when taking a break on the Isle of Thanet. It's somewhere we go to celebrate whenever we have the tiniest thing to celebrate and as such is full of lots of happy memories for us. I'd truly recommend taking the time to explore away from Margate and especially making sure you leave room for dessert.

Wyatt & Jones
23-27 Harbour St. Broadstairs
01843 865126