couple made some pragmatic decisions to keep the doors open, scrapping their plans for a tapas restaurant and offering a set price menu instead, opening every day of the week that customers wanted to book.
Thankfully, their arduous work didn’t take too long to pay off: in 2017, Ben won the Good Food Guide’s Chef to Watch award and the restaurant received a beaming review from Guardian critic and Thanet resident Marina O’Loughlin.
Stark
The restaurant – despite being named after the fictitious family in HBO’s Game of Thrones, touts the slogan: ‘Good food, laid bare’ reflecting both the décor and the food at Stark.
Customers wishing to visit the lavatories must head to the pub down the road, where, thankfully, The Wrothan Arms’ landlady Jackie is happy to accommodate.
Diners (all ten of them) are then left with no choice but to order a six-course tasting menu, with no exceptions made for dietaries, allergies or dislikes.
Alone in the kitchen, the chef uses high quality ingredients, of which, thanks to his set menu policy, none go to waste. Each dish comprises just three ingredients.
The restaurant’s most popular dishes, according to the guide, are the chef’s crab with carrot and yolk; beef with celeriac and walnut and rhubarb with pistachio and goat’s curd.
