Rating
Appeals to
Oyster lovers (and sea-fooders/eat-fooders in general)
People who like top-quality food served in a relaxed manner
Cuisine
Seafood (British)
In A Word
Fishy!
Background
A few weeks ago I decided to take a chance with the legendarily bad British Bank Holiday weather and attempt a walk from Canterbury to Whitstable. Fortunately the weather held (just), unfortunately we got pretty lost on the way and the walk ended up taking about two hours longer than it should have…
There was (naturally) a gastronomic incentive for this journey, as I had managed to secure a table at one of the most famous sea-food restaurants in the South East: Wheelers Oyster Bar. Whitstable Bay is renowned for its oysters and there is a very famous festival in July every year devoted to them, which I am determined to go to one year
Wheelers itself is a Whitstable institution and has featured on a number of TV programmes recently, including ‘The Hairy Bikers’ and ‘Britain’s Best Dish’.
Impressions
Wheelers is located just off Whitstable’s main High Street (about a fifteen minute walk from the train station)and has a rather charmingly presented old-fashioned pink façade.
On entering you pass through a small bar area, which does food for take away orders and small dishes (which will almost certainly be packed).
Continuing on you pass into the real deal, the Oyster Parlour, which is set out like it could be someone’s front room. It is very small and can probably only seat about twenty people at any one sitting, which is why I said that I was so glad to be able to get a table on an August Bank Holiday weekend.
It is a very down-to-earth and homely environment, as far away from stuffy London fine dining as you can get.
Dishes
There was only one place that I was going to start on this lunch – OYSTERS! I ordered six Rocky Oysters with a Bloody Mary Granite, Cucumber and Mico-celery. I wanted to have the oysters the way that I have always liked them best – raw. The oysters were of impressive size and the simultaneous warmth of spice and temperate coolness from the Bloody Mary Granite complimented them nicely.
I was a little disappointed to find out that these weren’t Whitstable Bay Oysters (apparently they weren’t available yet, they were starting to come next month – clearly I hadn’t done my research properly!) and that the ones that I had eaten were from Ireland. Still, just means I’ll have to come back another time to taste the Kentish ones…
For the main courses I thought that we should push the boat, we were in a sea-food bar after all. We ordered two dishes to be shared between us. The first was undoubtedly the star: a Lasagne of Kentish Lobster, with Leek and Wild Garlic Ragout, Lobster Bisque, Wild Mushrooms, Tenderstem Broccoli and Shavings of Aged Parmesan. Wow!
We went for the medium size of this dish so it came with two Lobster Tails and two Lobster Claws. The Lobster meat was impressively meaty, juicy and sweet and delicious. The Bisque was intensely and deeply flavoured and the Wild Mushrooms were a wonderful addition.
For the second dish we chose the Halibut Roasted with a Chorizo Crust on a Smoked Prawn Paella with Squid Ink Paint, Piqiou Pepper Puree and Crispy Squid. The Halibut was beautiful and tasty as would be expected, but the most interesting part of this dish for me was the smoked prawn paella.
I’d never had prawns that had been smoked before, but they really added an interesting depth to the dish.
Oysters? Lobster? We really did eat well at this lunch and as you can see from the pictures the food was presented very nicely indeed, contrasting completely with the simple setting we were eating in.
Drinks
Wheelers do not have a licence to serve alcohol but does allow BYO. There is an excellent off-licence called The Offy just over the road that has a great selection of wines that you can buy and cart over to the restaurant.
I picked up a lovely bottle of 2012 Sepp Moser “Rohrendorf” GrünerVeltlinerKremstal DAC Reserve for £14.99, which was a perfect match for sea-food. This is why BYO restaurants can be great – I would have probably had to spend £45 on that bottle if it were on the restaurant’s wine list!
Conclusion
It was certainly worth getting lost on our walk into Whitstable to find this gem of a restaurant. The hype that surrounds it is completely justified, so don’t delay and book a table!