The Gallivant Restaurant
New Lydd Road Camber Rye East Sussex TN31 7RB
There have been quite a few restaurants on this site over the years, but the restaurant part of the Gallivant restaurant with rooms has really nailed it – like the rooms, exuding a cool, New England-meets-Scandinavia vibe that makes the most of what is an amazing beachside location. The food, too, is a cut above what went before, and indeed what you can find for miles around, with an emphasis on fresh, locally sourced ingredients – 95% of which are sourced within ten miles of the restaurant. Run by Oliver Joyce, there's a marine feel to the menu (as you might expect from its location virtually on the beach), with beautifully cooked fish fresh from the catch of two local fisherman, plus beef and lamb from a Winchelsea butcher that is reared outside on the nearby salt marshes – along with a great selection of local ales and English wines from several nearby vineyards (including an unrivalled selection of English sparkling wine). They do a good-value fixed-price menu for lunch, and host regular gourmet suppers with a theme or perhaps with a name chef. Either way the food is delicious – think smoked haddock and mussel chowder followed by pan-roasted cod, or sea bass escabeche and salt marsh rump of lamb, Bouillabaisse or Dungeness dover sole– but this is no starchy fine dining establishment. Basically, it's an unpretentious place that just happens to serve great food, with service that is as relaxed as it is attentive – something, we reckon, that every restaurant should aspire to.
