insideKENT Magazine Issue 42 - September 2015 | Page 56

FOOD+DRINK Kent’s Top Lunch Spots cont. Hythe Brasserie Pork & Co www.hythebrasserie.com // Hythe www.porkandco.co.uk // Canterbury Hythe Brasserie offers classical cuisine with a contemporary twist. Simple, warm décor creates an intimate ambiance and is complemented by firstclass service without fuss to create a great dining experience. Light and tasty lunches are prepared using seasonal ingredients for optimum freshness. The main menu is complemented by specials, which change daily. And what a menu! Dishes include garlic and herb-crusted New Zealand mussels; freshly battered cod, chips, and minty peas; hot chicken bap with mango and chilli salsa; and green bean and rocket pesto linguine. Described as “the finest pork you ever did have” Pork and Co in Sun Street, Canterbury, has a lot to offer. The sensational pork comes from pigs that are all free range, and all rolls and breads are homemade. Many of the excellent ingredients come from Pork and Co’s very own smallholding too. The menu includes 14-hour, slow-roasted pulled pork rolls, homemade brioche buns, slaws, sauces, exquisite crackling, sausage rolls, Scotch eggs (made with their own freerange eggs), macaroni cheese, and salt beef in a homemade seeded bagel. Pork and Co is exactly right for the pulled pork revolution the country is currently experiencing. Thackeray’s www.thackerays-restaurant.co.uk // Tunbridge Wells Along the upper reaches of the London Road, facing the common, stand a number of villas where spa visitors would have stayed in the 18th century. Amongst the oldest of these is one that is weatherboarded, tile-hung and built in a traditional Kentish style; this was William Makepeace Thackeray’s home. This is Thackeray’s restaurant. The lunch menu here is refined and elegant, delicious and delightful. It includes layers of smoked salmon with lightly curried butter, coriander, anchovy, apple and horseradish; pecorino and bacon croque monsieur with tomato and rosemary fondue and fine lettuce; and chargrilled rump of Kentish lamp with Moroccan-style cous cous, apricots, mint, tomato, red onion, and ‘Ras al Hanout’ spice, as well as many other intriguing and mouthwatering dishes. Café Nucleus www.nucleusarts.com // Chatham, Rochester & Maidstone An oasis of calm in the heart of Chatham, the award-winning Nucleus Arts Centre is