This is exactly the kind of pub I would usually drive straight past. That is, if I hadn’t driven for two hours to get to it. Not to mention that I’d booked two months before and had been planning the outing since April.
Yes, I am a food snob and this does not look like an enticing place to eat:
I might feel differently if they turned it inside out:
Or displayed those little seals of approval more prominently:
Or put the menu board outside:
But they don’t need to do any of this. With a Michelin star and a two month wait for weekend bookings, they can go on doing exactly what they’re doing. They are doing it very well indeed.
My friend, Mark, and I had been planning our trip to The Sportsman for ages. In April he kindly offered to take me there to celebrate the completion of a mammoth essay. We took the earliest Saturday booking (June), but as the date got nearer we had to cancel because of other priorities. We were then unable to get another booking before August. After such a long wait, not to mention all the rave reviews, we had high expectations. We weren’t disappointed.
Service at The Sportsman is friendly and relaxed, which is as it should be. This is a pub and the prices, which are very reasonable for Michelin star food, reflect this. It would have been helpful if the staff had told us that there were no paper menus and that we had to come inside to look at the board. It would also have been a nice touch if our waitress had known something about the wines when asked, but I shouldn't really expect that level of service in a pub. (In the end I chose the Esk Valley pinot gris from Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, which was a steal at £18.95 and went very well with all the seafood which was to follow.)
The food is what you are really here for. The focus is on seasonal, locally sourced produce. In an interview with The Staff Canteen, Stephen Harris, co-chef and co-proprietor, says “the surroundings of the pub are what dictate what we eat”. He explains that for him foraging is not just the latest food trend:
“… for taste I just ended up using what’s around me, so on my beach, which is 50 yards away, we go up there three times a week and we pick sea purslane, we can pick sea lettuce, sea vegetables, sea beet, sea aster. We've got all the hedgerows around here, so we've got a lot of wild food and it’s now called foraging and cool, I'm happy with the fact that foraging is a fashion but here it’s a way of life.”
You can certainly taste the sea in his dishes. It was encapsulated in the delightful poached rock oyster with pickled cucumber and avruga caviar, which I had as an amuse.
I would have had happily shared half a dozen, but Mark doesn’t like oysters. He is a texturalist. Yes, I just made that up. I mean to say that he doesn’t like textures, or at least he is very particular about them. He once had to excuse himself from the dinner table with his eyes after I convinced him that eating a scallop was a good idea. His palette, it turned out, did not agree. When he returned he explained to me that it was the texture he didn’t like, not the flavour. It made his stomach turn. It probably didn’t help that the scallop had merely flirted with the grill.
For starters we shared the crab, carrot and hollandaise and the warm smoked salmon fillet with oyster mayonnaise. We both liked the crab best – it was light and fresh and, as with the oyster, it screamed salty air and sea spray.
The hollandaise was so light and thin it was barely detectable, which was ideal since a traditional hollandaise would have overpowered the delicate crab meat. The julienne carrots brought crunch and sweetness to the dish. It didn’t need anything else.
The salmon, likewise, oozed freshness. It was light and delicate, but it could have done with longer in the smoker. I loved the pickled vegetables, which brought texture and acidity to the dish, but the oyster mayonnaise was very runny and its bitter flavour didn’t really enhance the dish in anyway.
Mark had the grilled maple cured smoked pork loin with wholegrain mustard tartare for mains. I was instantly jealous when I saw it:
I had thought about ordering the pork, but was turned off by the “smoked” bit. However, like the salmon, it was not overly smoky. In fact, most of the smokiness came from the paprika it was crusted in. For those who don’t know, pork and paprika are the key ingredients in chorizo, which is possibly my favourite sausage, so I was destined to love this dish.
The mash which accompanied it was suitably creamy and smooth and the tartare sauce, which had sounded on paper like a strange addition, brought it all together. Studded with vinegary capers and gherkins, it at once counterbalanced the salty meat and creamy mash and melded together with them through the creamy mayonnaise base.
Fortunately, Mark has the appetite of a bird, so I got to eat most of his main as well as my own, which was the seared thornback ray, brown butter cockles with sherry vinegar dressing.
My ray was perfectly cooked, the crisp outside giving way to soft and supple flesh. The cockles were juicy and salty. My only complaint would be that the dressing was too vinegary, which masked the flavour of the brown butter. Nonetheless, it was a well rounded dish.
We were stuffed after this, but Mark always has room for something sweet. He went for the warm chocolate mousse, salted caramel and milk sorbet for dessert. It was full of lovely contrasts; warm and cold, bitter sweet chocolate and salty sweet caramel.
I had the cheeseboard, which wasn’t especially memorable. There were no condiments and I don’t remember much about the cheeses.
I do remember that the last of the Esk Valley went down very well with it. It is often hard to match one wine to a cheeseboard, but a hint of sweetness and complex flavours – honey, peach and pear – stood up to the range of cheeses on the board, without overwhelming them.
I have read that the tasting menu is the best way to do The Sportsman. If the a la carte is anything to go by, it must be superb. I would have liked to do it, but this was Mark’s treat and I didn’t think it would be his cup of tea. (A tasting menu is bound to hold far too many new and unwelcome textures, particularly if it’s heavily seafood focused). Just be aware that you need to book it at least 48 hours in advance.
The bill came to just over £100 for three courses each and a bottle of wine plus tip. Given the minor scruples, I did find myself questioning whether the food was of a Michelin star standard. After some thought I have concluded that it is. The care taken over the selection of the ingredients is clear in every dish and there is finesse in their cooking of them. But more importantly, a restaurant which receives a Michelin star is defined as “A very good restaurant in its category”. This is a pub and it was the best pub grub I’ve had in a long time. I’ll be back, for sure.
The Sportsman: Faversham Rd, Seasalter, Whitstable, Kent, CT5 4BP; 01227 273370; contact@thesportsmanseasalter.co.uk
Lunch: Tues-Sat 12pm-2pm, Sun 12pm-2.30pm; Dinner: Tues-Sat 7pm-9pm
Starters from £6.95 to £12.95; Mains from £18.95 to £22.95; Tasting menu £65.
Photos of venue and blackboards courtesy of Mark Hough.