The Restaurant Guide for Wine Lovers
Lazy Elephant
Lazy Elephant is a sharing-plates restaurant in Sandwich whose wine list is as adventurous and local as its kitchen. The programme earns its standing on distinctive, low-intervention buying with Kent at its heart — English sparkling and still wines, orange wines, natural reds and an unusually deep sweet-and-fortified tail — offered generously by the glass, the carafe and the bottle, and genuinely built to suit the spiced, umami small plates. It will most reward the curious drinker who wants to graze, share and try a Georgian red or a Kentish orange wine they will not have met before.
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The Sportsman
Whitstable, Kent
Modern British gastropub, seafood-led
The Sportsman is a celebrated seafood-led gastropub on the north Kent coast where the cooking changes with the day and the tide. Its wine programme achieves real mutual elevation — a fairly priced, well-travelled list that meets the hardest plates on the menu, from salt-cured salmon to artichoke, with the right glass, and keeps a genuinely deep Sherry and dessert shelf behind it. It will most reward the wine lover who wants serious, honestly priced drinking in an unbuttoned setting and is happy to be led by the glass.
Read the assessmentRocksalt
Folkestone, Kent
Seafood and grill, modern British
Rocksalt is a harbour-side seafood-and-grill kitchen in Folkestone whose wine list, an AA Notable Wine List holder, is a real match for the day-boat cooking. The wine programme achieves genuine mutual elevation — a Kent-deep, coastal-first list that answers the menu's hardest plates fluently by the glass and finishes with a proper Sherry and dessert tail. It will most reward the wine lover who wants local English sparkling and crisp coastal whites drunk in sight of the boats that landed the fish.
Read the assessmentSargasso
Margate, Kent
Coastal small plates wine bar
Sargasso is a harbour-front small-plates bar whose low-intervention wine list is the reason to book and whose short coastal menu is cooked to suit it. The wine programme achieves real mutual elevation — the saline, unoaked, characterful bottles are precisely what its seafood plates want, and a by-the-glass Sherry answers the hardest of them — held back only by the absence of any sweet or fortified wine for the puddings. It will most reward the curious drinker who enjoys grower and natural wines and wants a list with a point of view rather than a safe one.
Read the assessmentFifteen Square Metres
Broadstairs, Kent
Small plates, entirely gluten-free
Fifteen Square Metres is a tiny Broadstairs small-plates restaurant with an entirely gluten-free kitchen and an adventurous, globally-drawn menu. The wine programme punches well above its size — a compact, low-intervention-leaning list that answers the hardest plates by the glass and reaches from English sparkling to orange wine and a proper dessert line. It will most reward the curious drinker who likes a short, personal list and is happy to be led by whatever is open on the night.
Read the assessmentBuoy and Oyster
Margate, Kent
Seafood restaurant
Buoy and Oyster is a family-run Margate seafood restaurant whose compact, commercial wine list is chosen with real attention to the plates it serves. The wine programme earns its place through genuine food-matching and unusually helpful communication rather than through depth or rarity, with a broad by-the-glass offer that lets everyone drink to the dish. It will most reward the seaside diner who wants a well-judged glass alongside good seafood without studying a cellar.
Read the assessmentShesells Seashells
Folkestone, Kent
Seafood - oysters, lobster, moules
Shesells Seashells is a generous, unpretentious Folkestone seafood restaurant whose drinks list is a wholehearted, almost entirely Kentish affair. The wine programme does its everyday job well — crisp local whites and English sparkling that flatter the shellfish, nearly all available by the glass — while staying too short to answer the harder plates or to finish on anything sweet. It will most reward the diner who wants to drink Kent wine with Kent-landed seafood and is happy to explore a glass at a time.
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