The Blue Pelican
Deal, Kent
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If there's a more unusual eating venue on the east Kent coast, we've yet to hear about it. Plenty of restaurants aspire to a vibrant, arty look but few achieve it with even half the dash of this tiny, smart-casual beachfront townhouse – but then it is related to The Rose, that stylish pub with rooms on the High Street. Drawing inspiration from the Japanese izakaya, Luke Green is a quietly authoritative figure in the open counter kitchen, sending out plate after plate of aesthetically evolved cuisine. The chef spent five years in Tokyo and his fusion of new-wave Japanese cuisine with European undertones sees crisp, delicate puntarelle tempura teamed with bottarga and sauce gribiche, as well as chargrilled squid skewered with cavolo nero and served with XO sauce. It’s all about visual flair, great technique and sweet, salty, punchy umami hits: grilled chicken thighs with wild garlic and ponzu; a large chicken tsukune meatball served with a smoky hedgehog mushroom and sherry broth; soramame (broad bean) tofu with fresh peas and wild garlic in a gloriously limpid broth; vividly flavoured pickles and ferments. Nor should you miss the vibrant cucumber and seaweed salad. In a meal littered with highlights, a bowl of simple steamed rice was heavenly – we've never tasted better. There’s just one dessert – a light set custard of kumquat and kinako (roasted soya bean flour), but that’s not why you come here. Kind prices extend to the short drinks list, which is a primer of what to sip right now – be it cocktails, Japanese whisky, sake or natural wines from England and Europe. Service is friendly, and we left vowing to go back for the sharing plate of pork katsu with castelfranco and sesame dressing.
