Rocksalt

A morning meeting at the old Pfizer site near Sandwich ended early enough that I had the option of finding somewhere different to eat in Kent or head straight back to London. Unfortunately Brad Pitt was too busy with filming of his zombie movie World War Z on site so a third option of lunch with him had to be shelved.

The idea of driving down to the south coast and with it the thought of lunch at Rocksalt won out.  Rocksalt is Mark Sargeant’s first independent venture since leaving Claridge’s and the Gordon Ramsay group of restaurants. It’s interesting that he has shied away from the path of many of his peers and opened in Folkestone rather than London. It’s difficult to fault the setting of the restaurant or its stunning design. Perched on the edge of Folkestone harbour, huge picture windows in the main dining room give a wonderful view out to the channel, although unfortunately the tide was out on the day I was there. The emphasis is on using quality local ingredients to produce fairly simple dishes.

The long, sweeping main dining room with its bare wood floor has a mixture of semi-circular booths on the back wall and smaller intimate tables have the full benefit of the view. Decor is minimal and is mainly limited to mirrors on the grooved back wall above the booths. There is a terrace available for the summer months but it wasn’t practical for the crisp, clear November weather. 

One thing Rocksalt doesn’t ration is bread and very good bread it is too. As the order was taken a slice each of crusty sourdough bread and black olive bread was delivered with a small dish of salt-garnished butter.

I opted for taramasalata as a starter.  A generous pot of the homemade spread came with two more big chunks of the wonderful breads. The smooth creamy taramasalata was a revelation with its fresh taste and gentle smokiness. 

The Rocksalt fish soup followed. I had envisaged a clear soup with chunks of fish and what came was quite different. The dark orange blended soup was based on husk, gurnard and conger eel. It came served with a mild cheddar cheese, rouille(?) and croutons. The soup was simply delicious and was the perfect hearty dish after a stroll round the windswept harbour. I thought this was excellent.

For me, the main didn’t quite live up to the expectations set up by the starters. The very strong smoked coley really needed the mellowing influence of the poached egg, spinach and hollandaise sauce to succeed. The poached egg was gorgeous with its oozily intense yellow yolk but it was easily overwhelmed by the fish. Ordering a side of the lovely seasoned beef dripping chips was definitely recommended to provide more balance for the fish.

I’d wanted to try the blood orange posset but had eaten enough by this stage so unfortunately had to pass.

Overall verdict.
Rocksalt is a lovely venue for lunch. I’m always happy to eat fish and would love to explore other items on the menu. That said, I’m likely to be more content paddling about in amongst the starters than wading out into the mains.

Would I revisit Rocksalt?
Definitely.  I hope to swing by on a warmer day to try the terrace. Consulting the tide tables would be good to see how it looks at high tide.


Overall Rating - 3/5