This was stop number two on our Sunday Ramsgate pub crawl. The Mariner, not surprisingly, has a…read morenautical theme. It looks rather nice and was weathered, yet clean and tidy. The men's room, down a narrow staircase, was quite sanitary. Most importantly, of course, is the beer. They had a decent selection. The pints I had were all at the proper temperature (which was cold for what I was drinking) and were poured all the way to the top in nice glassware. The service was very good. And the people were friendly. Add this to the enjoyable company I was keeping, and this made for a great visit.

Great food. Terrific service. Our go to for a quick meal with options for everyone- including the…read morevegans?

So, fish (especially fishy fish) is pretty much my culinary kryptonite. It had been decades since…read moreI had been out for "fish and chips". I would rarely try a bite of someone else's order. My response usually ranged from indifference to active dislike. So, when my friends in England suggested fish and chips at Shakey Shakey, my expectations were rather low. Boy, was I ever pleasantly surprised. Every order here is accompanied by a simple lettuce and parsley salad (nice), tomato and cucumber salad (tasty), and cooked onions in a balsamic and oil sauce with spices (frickin' amazing). We also had some sides that included a mildly spicy sausage, pickled onion, mushy peas, and gherkin. All were good. The chips (fries) were tasty, and there were an abundance of them, but I wish I had asked for them to be cooked extra crispy. I had a bite of my friend's haddock. It had good flavor and very good texture. My cod, however, was a blank canvas upon which the very essence of "fish-n-chips" was painted in masterful strokes. It was cooked perfectly, with flaky flesh and crispy batter. The favors were mild, yet thoroughly enjoyable. It was served searingly hot from the fryer, and was as close to perfect as this non-fish aficionado could possibly want. I had expected to tolerate this dish, instead it was the best of its kind I have ever enjoyed. The owner and family were wonderfully friendly. The service was excellent. All this, and pricing that was more than reasonable.

We stayed in Whitstable for a few days. A lovely small town. Great location and lots of…read morerestaurants. We looked forward to dine here the first night. We knew there are no reservations, you just wait in line until a table of your liking gets free (inside our outside with a view). We arrived around 7pm and waited for a table outside. It only took about 20mins, which was less than expected. Our Bulldog was welcome as well. Got a table with amazing sunset views. Breathtaking. Sadly the location and the sunset were the only highlights that night. We enjoy fish and seafood. All over the world. Normandy, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Thailand, Japan. And so on. We've had our share of great and not so great fish and seafood. Sadly the food here belongs to the latter. Visually it was a feast for your eyes. But sadly not for your taste buds. The lobster was pretty small and very dry. Overcooked and overpriced. The oysters just ok, nowhere near irish, french or scottish quality. Not creamy enough. The shrimps were fine. But nothing near great. Best to drown them in the sauce and Mayo that came with The seafood platter was all cold food - but we knew that before ordering, nothing wrong with that. It's just the quality that was missing overall. The salmon was possibly the worst. Low quality, smelly fish. Seasnails were ok, but the small shrimp not. Just tried one. Fries came with the lobster. Soft and soggy. There was also bread and salad. I enjoyed the bread and butter the most of the whole meal. Which is a sad statement. Had some wine with our meal. 20cl mini-bottles of a quality that's best to forget. Staff was very very busy, but ok. And as I said, the views are amazing. But you could grab some take-out food anywhere and sit down somewhere on the Whitstable beach and get the same view. We really wanted to enjoy this place. But quality wasn't there. And the prices for that really way too high. Whitstable is a place to come back to one day. The Lobster Shack isn't.

Where do I start. We queued up outside to be told to be told to find our own table and then we had…read moreto order via an awkward app that charged for sending in the order. We ordered a pint of lager, a glass of prosecco, 6 oysters; a whole lobster with chilli and chorizo, a prawn and lobster roll and because the app wasn't clear, extra chips and a side salad. The £6 pint of warm lager and £8 glass of cheap prosecco came with and in plastic glasses. This was the highlight of our meal. There was no lobster detectable in the lobster and prawn roll and the prawns were almost frozen. The chips were damp and arrived in a paper tray; these are not twice cooked potato sticks of excellence, these tasted straight from the freezer to the fryer. My girlfriend wanted some ketchup to go on the damp chips, but it needs to be ordered via the app at 20p per sachet plus ordering fee. The bill at this point was North of £80 and they want 25p for sauce sachets. The salad was a limp, uninteresting mix of lettuce and cucumber with an unpleasant gloopy vinaigrette over it. The £37 lobster arrived and it was small, dried out and tough. I didn't even know it was possible to dry out a lobster while cooking it, perhaps it had been split lying under a heat lamp for half an hour. The oysters hadn't arrived. I'd had enough. So I called over a waitress. I explained my lobster was dry and tough and the oysters hadn't arrived. She literally just shrugged, that's it, nothing else. We asked if we could see the manager. A young man came over and asked with a surly, aggressive manner what the problem was. I explained that the lobster was dry and actually tough and he almost sneered "do you want another one or a refund?". No apology, no sorry, just a replacement or refund offer. I asked for the refund. I then went on to ask when the oysters were coming. To which he responded that the food delivered in whatever order it came out of the kitchen. I explained that I'm fine with this but the starter shouldn't arrive after dessert has arrived or one has left the restaurant. Instead of an apology what I got was a defiant "I've got three people shucking oysters" Which he had, at that moment, for 25 of the previous 30 minutes it was one guy working on his own. I could see him from my table. This is a case of the manager thinking that his problems should be mine when in fact my problems should be his. I am after all, the one paying for the service that he is failing to deliver with a bad attitude. I didn't mention any of the other issues with the food as the angry manager just didn't seem interested customer satisfaction or service. He left our table instructing me to go to the counter and ask for a refund before we left. My oysters must have been prioritised as they arrived on a plastic tray five minutes later. I ate the oysters which tasted nice, but had their revenge on me half an hour after we left, which was surprising as I can eat anything without issue. Perhaps there's something in the old saying about only eating shellfish when there is an R in the month. Neither of us needed to use the toilets when we were there, which is great because you need to queue outside for them. We left the Lobster Shack with the chips, salads and lobster uneaten on the table; the table service here is just delivery and clear up after you have left. All over we had an appalling experience. Even after the refund I'd ended up spending £45 for some warm drinks, half a dozen oysters and a prawn bun. It could have been turned around with a polite, friendly apology of some sort. So often what could have been a poor experience is saved by good staff who understand customer service. They don't here. The location is great, the building is great it has the ambience of a West Coast surf bar. That's where the good stuff stops. The barely existent service is surly and . unpleasant, the food awful and awfully expensive. Warm drinks in plastics cups. This is not a West Coast surf bar. I can't imagine it gets any business from locals, it's a place tourists go, regret and never return to. I certainly won't be going again and I've been eating at the parent restaurant, the Whitstable Oyster Fishery Company for 30 years.

Had a really great dining experience here last weekend, would definitely recommend booking ahead as…read morethe restaurant is quite tiny. Came on Friday which is sushi night, everything was delicious, especially the soft shell crab roll. Took almost 2 hours from start to finish of the meal as each item is brought out as it is cooked, so make sure you have time to spare, but it is worth the wait! Was a bit pricey for the amount of food we received, but very nice quality.

Special little restaurant--book ahead! Only opened a few months ago. Gorgeous seafood, fab wine,…read morecharming team. Minor feedback for the kitchen: greens could be dressed. Everything else was perfect. You are a beam of wonder in a small town with limited dining options. Thank God you arrived! You made our visit.

Yep, this place is great. We were wandering along the seafront looking for a place to have our…read morefirst plate of oysters and spotted this place with a few tables out front. Very casual. On the board, they advertise various kinds of oysters, fish and chips and half lobsters. They were out of the cheapest oysters so we got the local tressels, half dozen for £10. Still a good deal as they are much more in London. We also ordered a raspberry wheat beer. As we waited, we spotted the fish and chips which is ENORMOUS. Seriously, if you can, order that too. The half lobster looked pretty good too, and a great deal at £13.50. Our oysters were large, fresh and delicious, so good we came back later for another round. I was thrilled with the place. Definitely would come back for a visit.

A+ casual beachside dining. Sitting back in deck chairs in the sun with fabulous raw oysters, fish…read moreand chips and lobsters. Great experience and a very relaxed atmosphere. They also serve local beers here. I had the kentish ale which was very smooth.

Having been unsure of where to go for dinner on saturday night in Broadstairs, my 4 friends and I…read moreopted for Bread & Roses. We arrived at roughly 7:15pm tempted in by the inviting black board offering fresh and home made classics in what appeared to be a lovely, homely setting. On being sat at one of rougly 10 tables, we were informed by our personable young waiter that we had come at just the right time as the restaurant would usually fill up in no time at all Flicking though the menu of simple and tasty sounding staples, we opted for an excellent 2008 organic Chenin Blanc from S.Africa, well priced at £18.50. The waiter then informed us of the extensive list of specials, mainly fish that had been caught locally. My partner opted for a salad of avocado and bacon for starter. Our two friends both plumbed for the Duck's liver parfait and I went for soup of the day, which I was informed was tomato & Basil served with crusty bread. For mains, we ordered grilled sardines (twice), dover sole and I went for whole turbot. Having had a long day walking along the coast in the Kent sunshine, this seemed like the perfect place to end a wonderful day before catching the 21:57 back to London. Slowly the restaurant started to fill up around us around us. A large group of around 8 took up there reserved table near by as did a number of other 8pm'ers. Having been happily nattering through the day's events, we hardly noticed that the starters were yet to arrive. Eventually, they did.. The Parfait was a generous slice of deep sweet duck liver, served with a small pot of onion chutney with (rather disappointingly) two slices of wholemeal sliced supermarket style bread.. A mere blip I thought..Next my partners salad arrived; a tiny oval plate crowded with masses of lettace leaf, hiding some ungainly chunks of avocado with bacon, that rather than being chopped into little pieces looked like it had been through a shredder! Too much haist in that there kitchen.. and alas, unseasoned!! When my soup arrived, I was right to fear the worst.. A deep red soup with tiny flakes of basil were disguised as homemade by the swirl of cream that sat on top of the soup. On first taste, I instantly recognised the familiar flavour attacking my taste buds.. I put all my emphasis on instantly when I tell you the familiar nature of the soup!! The young waiter then left us, too hungry/polite to complain, to get on with the starter. Expecting the homemade crusty bread that had been a much heralded accompaniment to both my soup and my partner's salad would be moments away, I waved the waiter over after realising it was not forecoming.. I'll check with the kitchen our waiter announced, looking increasingly flustered, he returned moments later and declared sorry about this but the kitchen forgot your bread.. Oh I responded a little baffled well, can you get it from them?. But sir, they cook it freshly with each order, now I was really thrown, this simply didnt add up as I tried to calculated the bread cooking time vs starter prep.. but I'll ask them to put some on now.. OK, thanks I replied, still somewhat confused. As I got toward the end of my bowl of instant soup, the bread arrived for my partner and I.. It was at this point that I realised what cook it freshly actually translated for in the world outside of Bread and Roses, the translation was again homage to the supermarket, this time a part bake at home baton. Clearly, rushed and anemic looking, sat unhappily in a basket waiting to be torn apart. The part dough-part bread experiance at least helped what was to come ie, not much.. I was starting to get that sinking feeling as our plates were cleared.. Surely not, I thought, somewhere that promises so much can't be this bad. I stayed silent to keep the mood up, kind of like a child that knows father christmas isnt real but doesnt want to kill the illusion for mum and dad. I remember that time well and was starting to get that feeling again! 10 minutes passed and my sprits (with a little help from the vino) began to pick up. they're just grilling fish I pondered, that's easy enough & its going to be spendid when it arrives.. half an our passed by and I could help but notice things getting slighly out of hand. I could hear unhappy dinners and apologetic staff. The four or so tables that had arrived way after us were being served mains.. It all was decending into chaos. I nervously check my watch. It was 9pm.. Ok, I thought, plenty of time to eat our fishy treats and dash to the station. Our now apologising parrot of a waiter returned. things have been a bit manic in the kitchen he conceded, but it wont be long now He reassured us. I pointed out that the last train left in under an hour leaving us stranded were we to miss it oh, dont worry about that, you'll be finished in good time he lied. A further 15 minutes lapsed and the mood at the table was distinctly uneasy.. Brave faces were kept by all, our waiter included as he declared 5-10 mins now guys,

Great little village green pub, tucked away in brightlingsea, would recommend this place to…read moreeveryone!!??,

Fantastic service. Such polite staff. Amazing food and AMAZING view from their back garden Easily…read more5 stars.

Really excellent dinner. Aviation cocktail top of menu for wife's birthday happiness…read more House cured salmon a bit puny on the plate, but tasty. Pressed chicken a good salady starter. We went with whole lobster special and Dover sole pan fried. Really enjoyed both. Preferred paprika fries to truffled chips. Wife presented with birthday candled dessert lemon tart, a perfect ending. Highly recommend.

Rocksalt created a perfect evening for us: Amazing food, delicious cocktails, smart friendly…read moreservice. I can't think of anything I'd want to improve on: Fresh local fish, beautifully presented in a friendly atmosphere that can't be duplicated. Well done.