My husband, Geoff and I spent a few days away in Kent last week. We stayed at the same beautiful and peaceful B&B as we did last year, Capel Court in Horsmonden.
We took a daytrip to Canterbury and booked ourselves onto a guided tour around the city with Canterbury Tourist Guides, which I must say, was excellent. Adrian, our guide extended the tour by an hour, he was very knowledgeable and interesting!
In the early evening we headed to Kathton House, a fine dining restaurant in the small quiet village of Sturry, about 10 minutes away from Canterbury. We received a friendly welcome, were shown to our table and each given a glass of English sparkling wine, a gift from our daughter, Helen (and the other half of livelifelovecake) as it was our 35th wedding anniversary that very day. What a lovely surprise.
Kathton House had a separate vegan menu for myself, two choices of each course, all of which sounded very tasty.
Fresh warm, homemade bread rolls were served. Black tea, cinnamon & raisin and wholemeal. Mine came with olive oil & balsamic vinegar, whereas Geoff had two types of butter, salted and fennel. We especially loved the black tea roll, only really because it was something different and very flavoursome, but both were great.
We then had an amuse-bouche each, I don’t recall what was on the cracker, although red onion springs to mind. Whoops, I wasn’t paying attention.
For starters, Geoff had pan fried scallops served with golden beetroot puree, beetroot & apple vinaigrette and black pudding crumb which he said was excellent.
I had the grilled baby courgettes served with spiced chickpea and aubergine, lemon dressing. It tasted SO good.
A palate cleanser of mango & cucumber sorbet was given to us. Geoff wasn’t quite so keen so left his. They were two very strong flavours, I wasn’t sure whether I liked it or not but ate it all anyway.
For mains, pan fried duck breast and duck leg croquette served with black cherry puree, crispy greens, pickled cherries and a sweet and sour jus. The duck was moist and the cherries went well and again Geoff enjoyed it very much.
I went for the courgette dish again. This time, grilled marrow served with courgettes, sautéed oyster mushrooms and cashew crumb which was absolutely delicious.
Dessert time, Geoff had the trio of rice pudding arancini – strawberry, chocolate and vanilla rice pudding arancini served with creme patissiere.
I had the lovely chocolate mousse served with raspberries and instead of the raspberry sorbet I asked for the rose sorbet, which should have been served with the crumble. Oh it was divine. The chocolate mousse was smooth and rich and the sorbet was to die for.
I finished my meal off with an excellent glass of Pedro Ximenez sherry. Syrupy, figgy and so sweet but I loved it. Also, the restaurant kindly presented us with a long plate with ‘Happy Anniversary’ written in chocolate along with two pieces of fudge, all of which were vegan.
We really liked Kathton House, it was formal but not stiffly so. The service was very good, the staff were very friendly and our evening was close to perfection. They have a guest room and cater for weddings and events. If we’re ever in the area again – which I’m sure we will be as there’s lots more to see in Canterbury – we’ll definitely pay them another visit. We thoroughly recommend it.
Service 9
Quality 9
Value 9
Ambience 9
Return? Yes
Overall 9/10
Living life, loving Kent
A x