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.

Return to Top Page

 

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.

Return to Top Page

Eating and Drinking Guide (Deal)

Updated August 2024

Deal is a coastal town with quaint streets and houses.

The Deal Eating & Drinking Map shows the locations of some of the Restaurants, Cafes and Bars in Deal including the ones described below.

Le Pinardier – 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. Good for people watching.

The Black Douglas – A friendly and relaxing spot on the sea front. This coffee house serves excellent Coffee and interesting Sandwiches, Savoury dishes and Cakes.

Pop up Cafe – A pleasant place to stop when visiting Deal High Street, the staff are friendly and helpful. The baked goods are made on the premises. The Pop up Cafe is much larger than it looks from the outside. There is also a small seating area outside, although the view of Poundland is not as appetising as the cakes.

Frog and Scot – A popular small plates venue.  The bookings are timed for 1 hour 30 minute slots. Three Small plates per person is recommended. Click here for a full review.

Deal Saturday Market

Worth a browse, it does tend to get very busy though. Look out for the Cheese & Wine stalls.

 

For information on places to Eat and Drink in nearby towns and villages, see the East Kent/Thanet Guide.

 

 

 

Return to East Kent/Thanet Guide

Return to Index for No Expert Guides 

Return to top page

 

Chequers Kitchen Restaurant & Cooking School – A Foodie Oasis between Sandwich and Deal

Chequers Restaurant is located in a former pub near the Royal Cinque Golf Course. The pub has been turned into a rather lovely Restaurant and Cookery school. We first spotted it while walking from Sandwich to Deal. Our original intention was to time our walk so we could have lunch in Deal. However with at least an 1 hour or so left to walk to Deal we started to spot the signs for Chequers – 1 mile away, then 1/2 mile away. So we thought we would check it out. Wow, what a treat for a couple of foodies to find in the middle of nowhere, it was like spotting an Oasis in the Desert. We have popped in for lunch a couple of times now and its always been a delight.  Lots of locally sourced food influenced by Chef Pieter van Zyl’s South African background.

On our last visit we ordered 3 small dishes to share. Beautiful Tempura prawns with Chef Pieter’s sweet chilli sauce (I keep ordering them when I visit because they are so good), Spanish Omelette and really tasty Cape Malay pickled fish along with warm homemade bread. The Chef also gave us a taster of Vichyssoise which was perfect for a warm day. Then for dessert we ordered ice cream. Not just any ice cream, it was Taywell ice cream. Their Honeycomb ice cream is seriously good.

Chequers do lots of interesting events and cookery demonstrations so it’s well worth checking out their web site –www.chequersrestaurant.com.

UPDATE Sept 2015 – Focus now on Cooking School and only doing food now for special events. Bar is still open, so it’s a nice place to stop for a drink or some ice cream.

Return to top page

No Expert does Deal

On a beautiful sunny spring day we headed for the sea side town of Deal, the recent winner of the Telegraph’s High Street of the Year award.

We had already done a bit of research so had our lunch and afternoon tea spots picked out.

Digging the – Allotment Cafe : Now Poppys Kitchen : Closed

For lunch we headed for the Allotment Cafe, somewhere you would  be lucky to find in passing. It’s tucked away in the back room of a High Street shop. It is a pleasant spot with a wall decorated with foodie goodies and a small outside seating area.

We shared a Mezze and a cheese plater. The food like the Cafe name suggests is very ingredient focused. The Salads were fresh and tasty, the Olives in the Mezze were huge and succulent and the sweet pickle and pear served with the Cheese was a treat. We would definitely recommended this place.

Delighted with the – Keep House Tea Room : Closed

With its own little light museum, this new Tea Room opposite Deal Castle is a bit special. The room is modern, stylish, and quirky.

They do a range of Teas and Tisanes (Herbal Infusions), which are served in pretty China cups. It’s a lovely spot for Afternoon Tea, especially on a sunny afternoon with the light streaming in. We had a pot of Peppermint Tea and a piece of their delicious Dutch Apple Cake and Rhubarb and Custard Cake, both of which were delightfully light and moist. There are also several nice extra touches like the tiny almond biscuits and chocolate cake delivered unbidden with the Tea and the packs of Fizzers included in with the bill.

Other treats

We also popped into the ‘No Name Shop’, for some bread and cheese – their Walnut Bread is excellent.

Return to top page