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Whitstable · Kent · Since 2019

Harker’s Table

Thirty-two covers in an old net loft, four minutes from the harbour. The card is written each morning after the boats land, so what you are reading is what is in the kitchen tonight.

Tonight's menu 01227 000 000

Whitstable from the air: the town, the harbour, the working boats and the row of beach huts along the shore.

Dinner

Wed–Sat, 6–9.30pm Sun, noon–3pm

The room

32 in the room, 6 at the counter

Where

Harbour Street Whitstable, Kent

32 coversand six more at the counter
Written each morningafter the boats, before the doors
Six suppliersand every one of them named
Closed Monday, TuesdayWednesday to Sunday otherwise
Two dozen oysters opened on a tray of crushed ice, with lemon and three small pots of dressing.

The kitchen

Thirty-two covers and one card

I cook here. There is no head chef to hide behind and no second site, so what goes on the card is what I can get hold of in the morning and cook properly by seven.

The boats land four minutes from the door and I am there when they do. Some mornings that is plaice and skate and a box of brown shrimp. Some mornings it is one gurnard and a great many mussels, and the card gets shorter. That is not a concept. It is what there was.

Half past eight is when it gets written, at the counter, before anybody else is in. The rest of what you eat comes from six people I have dealt with for years, and they are named further down, because a supplier worth having is a supplier worth naming.

Nell Harker Chef and owner, since 2019

Who brings it

Six of them, and the furthest is eleven miles

Pollard & Kemp

The day boats. Plaice, skate, gurnard, and whatever the weather allowed.

Whitstable harbour

Cheyne Orchard

Cherries, apples, quince, and the last of the gooseberries.

Faversham, 8 miles

Blean Hill Farm

Hogget, chicken, and every egg in the kitchen.

Blean, 6 miles

Nether Hardres Dairy

Butter, cream, and two of the three cheeses.

Nether Hardres, 9 miles

Sarre Wall Growers

Everything green, cut the same morning it is cooked.

Sarre, 11 miles

Reculver Mill

Stoneground flour for the sourdough and the pastry.

Reculver, 7 miles

Find us

Four minutes from where it lands

We are on Cutter Yard, off Harbour Street, in what was the net loft. Black weatherboard, blue door, one step up at the front and a ramp beside it.

The harbour is four minutes on foot and the huts at Tankerton are twenty, which is where most people go once they have finished lunch.

Open
Wednesday to Saturday, 12 to 2 and 6 to 9.30 Sunday, 12 to 4
Closed
Monday and Tuesday, both services
Covers
32 in the room, 6 at the counter
Address
9 Cutter Yard, off Harbour Street Whitstable, Kent CT5 1AQ
Getting in
Level entry by the ramp, accessible WC, and no step to any table
Children
Welcome until 7, and there are two high chairs
Dogs
At the counter and the two front tables
Corkage
15.00 a bottle, and we will decant it for you
Parking
Gorrell Tank, four minutes. Nothing on Cutter Yard itself
Address
9 Cutter Yard, off Harbour Street Whitstable, Kent CT5 1AQ
Parking
Gorrell Tank, four minutes. Nothing on Cutter Yard itself
Access
Level entry by the ramp, accessible WC, and no step to any table
Whitstable harbour: working fishing boats moored against the quay in front of the black timber sheds.
Rows of painted beach huts on the grass above the shingle at Tankerton.

Book a table

Eight weeks ahead, or ring me

For six or more, or anything on a Saturday night, the phone is quicker and I can tell you what is likely to be on the card by then.

Or ring the restaurant 01227 000 000

Nothing on this page posts anywhere. It is a demonstration, so the form has no address to send to and no table is held.
Ring 01227 000 000

Photography: John Fielding from Norwich, UK ( CC-BY-2.0 ) , T.Tseng ( CC-BY-2.0 ) , unknown ( PD )