Category: Out door seating

Njord – Scandi Style : Cliffsend Pegwell

Latest visit (September 2025) :-

Njord had to close for several months this Summer due to flooding, but thankfully it’s now open again, completely renovated and with a new chef and new menus. We popped in for breakfast, ordered a Full English and Chef’s Toast (almost a Full English on toast – it didn’t exactly match the menu description as it included Chefs rosti rather than pickled red onion, but I was fine with that). I also couldn’t resist some post breakfast Apple pie. It’s great to see this excellent cafe back on its feet.

The (seasonal) 69 Open-Top bus can be used to get here from Ramsgate, the Viking Ship bus stop is only a few minutes walk from Njord.  

First visit (May 2024) :-

I’ve wanted to try out Njord for a while now, I mean a Scandi style place overlooking Pegwell Bay is so intriguing. So we headed out on a lovely sunny day (it’s only a few minutes away from Ramsgate by car or bus) and about a 40 mins walk if you’re feeling energetic!

Njord is in a great location on the edge off the Pegwell Bay nature reserve, it’s rather lovely inside, with a mix of comfy lounge style seating & coffee tables, dining tables with bench seating and bar stools at the window overlooking the bay. There is also some outside seating and lots of bike racks for cyclists.

The breakfast/brunch menu is mainly muffin, sourdough & croissant based dishes. We rather fancied the less conventional breakfast of Cochon Pulled Pork with Sundried Tomato & Chorizo Tapanata and Poached Kentish Free Range Eggs on a toasted English Muffin with Hollandaise sauce & chilli flakes. However they’d ran out of pork and were doing a pulled Chicken recipe instead, so we ordered that and Americano Coffees. The Coffees were served quickly and were excellent, I even had some left when the breakfast muffins arrived, the pulled chicken muffins tasted as good as they looked too, nicely spiced from the Tapanata and very filling.

Njord is also a Bar with an excellent drinks menu, lots of different brands of rum and gin is always a good sign. They also serve a few cocktails to enhance your breakfast/brunch experience.

The cakes at the Bar looked really good as well, they’re from the Beardy Baker in Canterbury, so I’ll certainly be back to try those.

Attractions in the area include the aforementioned Pegwell Bay nature reserve and the Viking Ship Hugin, which is a great photo opportunity and I guess sort of in keeping with the Scandi style at Njord.

 

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Staple : Ramsgate

So nice to see a business like Staple Stores commit to Ramsgate. Moving from thier tiny shop at the bottom of York Street (which they have  converted in to a soft serve ice-cream shop called Scoop), they’ve taken over and revamped the former Corby’s Tea Rooms at 18-20 York Street. Which means they are now a proper café with plenty of tables inside and outside in the courtyard.

On our visit we had some of thier excellent coffee and shared a pastry for breakfast, you pick the pastries yourself and pay at the till. We bought two different pastries, a coffee yum yum and a filled cruffin, planning to share them, but we were so full from just one pastry, we had a takeaway as well. Staple are very much geared up for takeaway, with lots of pre wrapped items.

The Ramsgate café is open every day from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm.

On subsequent ‘takeaway’ visits we’ve tried lots of different cookies (all good) and  a lovely mango custard & strawberry tart.

They also moved their bakery operations to nearby Manston Business Park in March this year and have another café and shop there.

Staple : Westgate-on-Sea

If you’re in the area, the original Staple in Westgate-on-Sea is worth a visit. You won’t find it in passing as it’s well hidden down an alleyway (St Mildred’s Walk) off St Mildred’s Road. Friendly efficient service and the usual selection of Staple treats.

 

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Frog and Scot : Deal

The Frog and Scot is a popular small plates venue in Deal, so it’s best to book your table a few weeks in advance.  The bookings are timed for 1 hour 30 minute slots, which means you need to order all the small plates you want in one go (they’ll come out of the Kitchen in stages as they are prepared). It’s not really practical to order extra small plates if you find there are some dishes you especially like or if you want more than originally ordered.

Three Small plates per person is recommended.

We started with one of the bar snacks, some tasty ‘Cantabrian anchovies, tomato concasse, pickled garlic’ and ordered seven small plates for three people.

The quality of the dishes varied quite a bit on our visit. The stand out dish for me was the ‘Gnocco, burnt red pepper aioli, parmesan’. The ‘Bayonne ham croquettes, green romesco, basil’ and the ‘New potatoes, coronation mayo, coriander, pickled shallot’ were very tasty too. The ‘local heritage tomato carpaccio’ and ‘Trout tartare, kohlrabi, cherry, ponzu’ were fine, but the ‘Courgette ribbons, mint, pistachio, buttermilk’ and the ‘Burrata, charred peach, basil, toast’ were not so successful.

Time slot bookings are a bit of a pain if you’re looking to have a relaxing meal, ideally I’d have liked to have had time to order dessert and perhaps try one of their cocktails, but as we only had 15 mins minutes left in our time slot and rather than rush our dessert, we decided to just get our bill and have Cocktails elsewhere.

Our meal with a bottle of wine was about £40 per person.

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Le Pinardier : Deal

Le Pinardier in Deal High Street is a great place to chill if you’re into wine and cheese. It’s a Wine Shop/Bar with a fabulous selection of wines (mostly French).  There are several tables in the shop area and a few outside. We took refuge from the baking sun and grabbed a table inside on our visit. We ordered a cheese board (Comté, Brie & Camembert) and a bottle of Vouvray from the extensive wine list.  It wasn’t very busy, so we had excellent service and stayed for an hour or so, happily people watching.

Definitely recommend this place if you’re visiting Deal.

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Foliage : Ramsgate (moved to Broadstairs)

UPDATE : Ramsgate cafe closed May 2025 – Foliage moved to Albion Street in Broadstairs.

First visit Broadstairs cafe (July 2025) :-

We stopped by the new Foliage venue in Broadstairs and ordered cake & coffee from the bar. All the down stairs tables we taken, so we climbed the rather steep staircase to the upstairs room. Amazingly the waitress delivering out order managed the stairs while balancing a full tray!

The distinctive look and the menu are the same as the former Ramsgate cafe, although I’m not sure if it’s the same cake supplier as the selection on our visit was limited.

First visit Ramsgate cafe (July 2024) :-

The Foliage Cafe opened a few years ago and I’d never managed a visit until now as St Lawrence High Street is a bit off my beaten track. However I have to say that it’s definitely what I would call a “Destination Cafe”, that is somewhere I would now go out of my way to visit, it’s an absolute gem. We went on a Tuesday afternoon expecting it to be empty, it wasn’t. There was a steady stream of customers and I can understand why, excellent service, really good coffee and seriously good cakes are just some of the reasons to visit. It also has a lovely atmosphere based as it is inside a very attractive little Garden Centre and if the weather is nice you can also sit outside in the pretty garden area at the back. The Cafe is licensed and there’s an interesting range of Cocktails on the menu (they even run Cocktail making classes). They’ve started doing Cheese & Charcuterie boards as well and have fairly regular Live Music evenings. Foliage is actually only a few minutes walk from Ramsgate Station and Ellington Park, so if you’re in the area it’s so worth making the detour.

 

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Vincent’s : Ramsgate

Vincent’s is a gem of a cafe in Ramsgate, one you would struggle to find without local knowledge. It’s located in Spencer Square in the little hut overlooking the Tennis Courts, I didn’t even realize that it had inside seating, but it does and it’s surprisingly spacious. It’s a friendly place serving good Coffee and homemade Cakes. The outside seating is on both sides of the hut, so you can also sit overlooking the rather stunning Vincent van Gogh sculpture.

Spencer Square leads into Addington Street where you will find some interesting independent shops, see the Addington Street section of the Ramsgate Shopping Guide for details.

Vincent’s is also located at the start point for the Vincent van Gogh self guided walking trail.

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