Fordwich Arms

“Highly skilful and inventive creations” - AA Inspector
CANTERBURY, KENT

Our Inspector's View
The 1930s country boozer with a terrace and garden looking over the River Stour was begging for a makeover, and that’s just what it got when high-flying young chef-patron Dan Smith took the helm in 2018 and immediately turned the place into a foodie destination. The updated stripped-back style looks the part without detracting from the period charm of its oak-panelled dining room, cosy open fires and 1930s-vintage bar. Smith’s cooking is firmly in the new-wave modern British camp, allying sharp technique with intriguing combinations of first-class materials. Spitfire ale sourdough and rye bread with smoked pork fat and braised onions is a storming start, before poached Whitstable oysters that come pointed up with diced apple, caviar and light creamy sauce. Main-course venison of buttery tenderness is served as fillet and confit with celeriac, damson, smoked bone marrow and a full-throttle jus. For dessert, perhaps, baked St Clements cheesecake with Cointreau granita.
Awards, Accolades & welcome Schemes
Facilities – at a glance
Vegetarian menu
Tasting menu
Private dining
Wheelchair access
Features
- Seats: 60
- Private dining available
- On-site parking available
- Wheelchair accessible
- Accessible toilets
- Assist dogs welcome
- Days Closed: Monday
- Lunch served from: 12
- Lunch served until: 2.30
- Dinner served from: 6
- Dinner served until: 9
- Wines under £30: 4
- Wines over £30:
- Wines by the glass: 13
- Cuisine style: British
- Vegetarian menu
Also in the Area
About The area
Discover Kent
The White Cliffs of Dover are an English icon – the epitome of our island heritage and sense of nationhood. They also mark the point where the Kent Downs AONB, that great arc of chalk downland stretching from the Surrey Hills and sometimes known as ‘the Garden of England’, finally reaches the sea. This is a well-ordered and settled landscape, where chalk and greensand escarpments look down into the wooded Weald to the south.
Many historic parklands, including Knole Park and Sir Winston Churchill’s red-brick former home at Chartwell, are also worth visiting. Attractive settlements such as Charing, site of Archbishop Cranmer’s Tudor palace, and Chilham, with its magnificent half-timbered buildings and 17th-century castle built on a Norman site, can be found on the Pilgrim’s Way, the traditional route for Canterbury-bound pilgrims in the Middle Ages.
In the nature reserves, such as the traditionally coppiced woodlands of Denge Wood and Earley Wood, and the ancient fine chalk woodland of Yockletts Bank high on the North Downs near Ashford, it is still possible to experience the atmosphere of wilderness that must have been felt by the earliest travellers along this ancient ridgeway.
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