Quex Park Cafe, Canterbury

A while ago I met up with John and Ellie for a brunch in town.  There are a number of wonderful little places to go to, but I needed somewhere with parking close by so I could get in and out as quickly as possible as I was on my lunch break from work.  John and Ellie, both being teachers, had a bit more time on their hands due to the holidays so could make it a much more leisurely pursuit and planned some shopping following our catch up.

Quex have opened their most recent venture on the north end of Canterbury high street.  Located near the City wall in the old pub/bar premises that has, in most recent years, housed a number of different ventures, the re-purposed building fits the rustic and local brand of Quex perfectly.

Exposed brick work and floor boards combined with sturdy, unpretentious furniture fill this surprisingly spacious cafe which is flooded with light throughout.  You get two stunning views of the Cathedral from inside, one of which is via a picture window.  Quex boasts that this is one of the best views of the Cathedral in Canterbury and it is pretty special.  If you can book this table, do so!  Speaking of booking, I would recommend you do so where possible.  We got there just in time; minutes after we took our seats at midday the cafe filled with tourists, business people and families.  It's not surprising; the menu is fresh, tempting and ridiculously reasonably priced.

Quex have always been about excellent food, locally sourced and sustainably produced and their Canterbury venue is no different.  You know that your sausages were provided by Nick in Sandwich, the eggs come from Simon and Austin in Birchington and Derek would have prepared your fish. Knowing the names of the people who are sourcing your food is strangely comforting and so much more preferably than an anonymous chain restaurant.

I had a perfectly cooked poached egg in hollandaise sauce on a salmon fish cake (thanks Simon, Austin and Derek!), with a side salad of Rosary goat's cheese, potato and pine nuts.  These items aren't advertised together (and are probably designed as two full meals...), but complimented each other perfectly.  This was not intentional I hasten to add, I was just craving poached egg and goats cheese and this was what I ordered to get both.  It was just completely fortuitous that it worked!  I normally require tabasco on a poached egg as well, but this one was divine, it needed nothing else at all.

With the addition of a fresh orange juice (driving + going back to the office after lunch meant no alcohol), the entire meal came to £15 for me.  I couldn't finish it and didn't have dinner that night either as I was still so full.  Quex has that effect on me - their sandwiches are enormous as well!

The others also ordered big portions as they didn't want to have to cook that night.  John went for the chicken and vegetable pie with a beautifully flaky puff pastry lid which came with fluffy mashed potatoes and steamed green vegetables and Ellie had one of their sandwiches. 

Food was delicious, service was attentive and the prices are extremely reasonable.  You also have the added benefit of the miniature farmers market in the building as well, including fresh produce as well as long life items - handy for when I don't have time to go out to Birchington to get to Quex for some of the other local items I love!

Quex are renowned for their breakfasts, which are enormous (just look at the one that Steve once got his hands on), and also do student nights on Monday's.  On Thursdays they have steak night and if you fancy something a bit lighter, on Friday's they put extra fish on.  There is a traditional Sunday roast and the menu changes on a regular basis.  There is even a micro-pub in the cafe which specialises in a varied selection from the local micro breweries, including bitters, Meade, fruit gins and local vodka's, something which will excite quite a few of my friends!

Finally, if you have a Tastecard, Quex also do 2 for 1 across all courses.  I need to get my hands on one!

I really, really love this place.  It's unpretentious, amazing quality and good value.  What more could you ask for?  If you have graduation coming up I would strongly recommend you consider bringing your nearest and dearest here for a pre or post-congregations meal, and possibly some Dutch courage if you are nervous about walking up to get your certificate!

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La Trappiste

It's been a week since I'd seen Ellie and Claire.  A week.  Now that may not sound like much to you but when you are used to seeing each other at least 3 times a week this feels like an absolute age.  I'm not being melodramatic when I say that a few more hours would have resulted in palpitations and profuse sweating.  This was a friendship medical emergency and we needed to get lunch together stat.

We organised the date, I promised to do a bit of online research into where we should go (too many choices), utterly failed to make good on that promise (too much to do at work) and in the end Ellie made the decision for us.

Photo courtesy of imagekind.com

Photo courtesy of www.geograph.org.uk

La Trappiste.  Or, in, Ellie's words, the Belgian place that does nice chips.  It's an olive green cafe shaped like an scalene triangle that is sandwiched right between Chambers and The Chocolate Cafe.

La Trappiste shouldn't really work.  It's a bar, restaurant, coffee house, bakery (including bespoke celebration cakes), patisserie, breakfast joint and baking school all under one roof.  By anyone's measure that's a lot going on, and yet, somehow, it all fits.  By their own admission they are 'not just a resturant' and I get the feeling that they might be a bit insulted if you were to describe them as such!

I've heard mixed things about La Trappiste.  Some reviews have absolutely raved about it; others have described the food as mediocre and the service as less than stellar.   I've never been before so it was with a fair amount of trepidation that I made my way up the soggy highstreet one Sunday afternoon, trying to keep my umbrella the right way round (umbrella's and Canterbury don't mix.  We always tell the students not to bother and just bring a hooded coat - I don't know why I don't listen to our own words of wisdom) and wondering where on earth everybody was.  It was the last weekend in January and the city appeared deserted.  This could have been the torrential rain or the fact that most people were waiting to be paid, but it was a little eerie how quiet everywhere was.

I got a text just as I was running up the highstreet to say that the girls were upstairs in the gallery.  This space is huge, with a glass floor that you can look through to see people below in the bar (don't stand on it wearing a skirt), a huge glass ceiling that just pours light in and a terrace that acts as a suntrap in the summertime overlooking the bustling highstreet.

Decor wise.  It's...eclectic.  The life size sculpture of Botticelli's Birth of Venus hanging on the wall complete with painted toe ring, with her modesty covered by what looks like a cheap nightie bought in a charity shop and painted, was just weird.  I'm not an artist but this was just baffling.

 

The rest of the decor was along similar lines and just made me a bit puzzled.  The murals crossed greco-roman mythology and attitudes with early Christian monastic engravings, all in a tribute to beer. Downstairs felt more in keeping with the continental feel of the restaurant, with mismatched booths padded in green leather and wood fixtures.  The decor does makes you smile which I like.  The longer I sat upstairs the more I loved it.  It's nice to see somewhere where there is a ton of personality and clearly a huge amount of effort has gone into hand painting the walls.

In the toilets (what is it about Canterbury's restaurant toilets that always have the interesting features?) there are stone carved murals which have the appearance of having been uncovered and preserved.  It would have been nice to have had a bit of background information to these but alas, I could find none.  As a side note in the toilets they also have a big bag of useful things for parents with babies when they need to change them, like wet wipes and spare nappies.  It's a really thoughtful little touch - I'm not sure if they have them in the men's as well, but I would hope so (is it obvious that I work in an equality field?).  In case you were wondering, I don't normally take my camera to the toilet.  I just came out to get it when I saw the wall murals.

So anyway, enough of what the place looked like, onto the food!  First up, the drinks menu, which also gave a little bit of background to La Trappiste.  I love the fact that you can get traditional drinks like dandelion and burdock or sarsaparilla here.  It makes it feel a bit more olde worlde. 

The menu is enormous, with oysters and pigeon breast to burgers and Belgian beef stew, fish and chips, steak frites, risotto, tarts and of course mussel pots in a variety of flavour options.  Claire went for the traditional moules frites with garlic, white wine and cream.

I went for the BBQ pulled pork and cheese roll with chips and jalapeno's.

While Ellie went for a burger in a foccacio bun.  All the meals were simple, straightforward and filling with good flavours.   My pork could have done with a little more heat and the jalapeno's a little more vinegar to cut through the sweetness of the BBQ pork but it was still tasty.  Claire's mussels were fresh, plump and tasted of the sea and Ellie's burger was cooked perfectly and clearly freshly made. 

After having our scraped clean plates cleared away we then moved onto dessert from the patisserie counter.  I can't exactly remember what Ellie had but there was chocolate and raspberry mousse involved.  It was nice but again I could have done with more fruit kick and a bit more bitterness in the chocolate (I pinched a couple of forkfuls off her). I'm a bit hard to please with regards to patisserie as, to be honest, I'm not that big a fan of it (I would much rather have a hot chocolate fudge brownie or a slice of lemon tart, hence the reason I didn't order dessert and just pinched a taste of the others to try it) so I'm probably being unfair here! Claire had Coffee Choux which, I must admit was divine, and just look at that delicate piping work.  Again I only had a taste as I don't normally like cream cakes but this was lovely.

We stayed and chatted all afternoon as the rain pounded down outside until the light started to fade slightly and we realised with shock we had been sat there for coming up to three hours.  All credit to the staff, they were attentive and ensured we weren't left waiting for service without crowding us or making us feel like we had to leave.  To be honest, there was barely anyone else there so I would have been irritated if we had been forced out!  It may be different when there is greater pressure on tables.

Overall, it's not the best lunch I have ever had in Canterbury but it was also certainly not the worst by a long stretch and it was reasonably priced.   I feel a bit of a soft spot for La Trappiste.  It is quirky and has character and I like that about it.  Would I come back again?  Absolutely - I want to road test the steak and that huge beer and ale selection I spied behind the bar as we left...

Oscar and Bentley's

I've been friends with Léonie for 11 years now (eek!) - we lived together at University in our final year with three other girls and managed to not fall out with each other once.  She disappeared a couple of times in the following years (once to Wales and once to India of all places) but we have always been good friends and she has crashed on our spare bed after nights out more times than I can count.  If I am utterly honest about it I looked forward more to us pulling out the sofa bed in the living room, wrapping ourselves in duvets with gigantic mugs of steaming tea and watching back to back re-runs of My Super Sweet Sixteenth whilst fighting off the hangover.

Lé has always been a vegetarian but has, in the last few years, also been required to switch to a GF diet.  She is also tee-total these days but we don't talk about that.

Oscar and Bentley's, the home of glamorous, gluten free food in Canterbury, was the ideal place to take her for an afternoon treat one cold winter's afternoon.

Lé finds it really hard to eat out as so many places don't fully cater for gluten-free so it was brilliant to take her somewhere where she didn't need to worry about anything on the menu and, for once, could choose from any of the options without having to ask staff what is GF friendly.  This makes for a very happy Léonie!

Oscar and Bentley's has been open for nearly a year and is owned by one of the Canterbury Players!  We get around a bit...

You can book and reserve tables for special occasions; there was a 50th birthday party going on when we were there and I'm fairly sure they had been working their way through the extensive wine, beer and champagne menu (which include a GF beer made from malt and hops!)

Katherine and Sarah, the owners, are sisters whose mother was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease and therefore has an intolerance to gluten.  They both worked tirelessly to make sure that this intolerance did not affect their mother's enjoyment of food and cake.  There was, and still is, a distinct lack of options for people who are on GF diets,  something that, while getting better, is still difficult as gluten is such a common binding and structural agent in cooking and baking.  In doing so they realised that there are a lot of people out there who share the same dietary concerns as their mother who would also benefit from their creativity and baking genius.

Oscar and Bentley's was born.

All of the cake's and bread are fresh and baked daily in the store and there is a real emphasis on locally sourced ingredients and produce. 

I have been in a few times and it is always busy.  It does a fantastic mixture of luxury cakes and muffins, all road tested by Sarah and Katherine as well as a full bistro menu, including breakfasts, beef carpaccio, potted duck, wraps, salads, omelettes, burgers, risotto, steak and even a red Thai curry!  The menu is seasonal and varies throughout the year.

It is located just off the highstreet, opposite Debenhams and from the outside, Oscar and Bentley's resembles many of the other historical pubs and coffee shops in Canterbury, with its lead window panes, wrought iron street lamps and stained glass, but inside it is an entirely different matter.  There are no dusty wooden beams and dark corners in this little slice of GF heaven.

Sparkling chandeliers, etched glass mirrors and luxury fabrics in a decadent colour scheme provide a light, modern but still intimate cafe.

We settled in out of the cold and were quickly approached by the waitress who demonstrated an impressive knowledge of the goodies available.  I will be back here for lunch at some point but for now we focused on cake.  We have our priorities straight clearly.

I dug into a white chocolate rocky road slice; gooey and sticky and chewy and moorish and not at all like other gluten free food I have eaten.  It had flavour and texture!

Lé had a (raspberry I think) and almond frangipane - light, moist and not dry in the slightest - an impressive achievement without gluten.  I've tried to make frangipane (with gluten it must be said), and have found it ridiculously difficult to do perfectly so I applaud anyone who can!   This particular one also held its structure and didn't crumble to pieces when Lé stuck her fork in it, a definite positive!

We both got stuck into pots of tea - Jasmine for me and Earl Grey for Lé.

Topped off with bottles of ginger beer for added spice!

We had a relaxed and unhurried afternoon.  At no point did we feel under any pressure to hurry up and leave.  The waitresses were attentive but unobtrusive and the prices were very reasonable.  I think that the bill for 2 pieces of cake, 3 pots of tea and a ginger beer came to £15.  You can also buy and order the cakes and pastries so you can enjoy excellent quality GF cakes at home! Oscar and Bentley's is gathering quite a hoard of loyal followers who rave about it (just check out Tripadvisor) and Katherine and Sarah are also regulars on the food fayre scene, popping up with delectable nibbles of cake and pastry for people to try and converting people to the concept that a GF diet does not mean boring, at least not anymore! 

I'm lucky in that I have no food allergies or dietary requirements and so have never had to look through a menu and discard the majority of the items because I can't eat them.  I can't even imagine how that must affect your enjoyment of dining out, or even dining in.

It felt wonderful being able to take Léonie somewhere where I knew that she and I could look at the same menu and she could have anything she wanted, knowing she was safe and wouldn't be suffering the next day.

Now that is a priceless feeling!

Chambers

In 1629 a man lived in Canterbury called Robert Cushman.  A puritan and married to Sarah Jekel, Robert and his wife were living in Sun Street.  However, this was not the peaceful existence Robert has hoped for.  Being a puritan he had been excommunicated from the Church of England, an awful fate as you were cut off from God and to rub salt into his wounds he had spent time in the dismal cells of the Westgate Towers.  Disillusioned and unhappy with the way Puritans were being treated in England Robert commissioned a ship, a certain ship called the Mayflower.

You may have heard of it.

The negotiations were drawn out and lengthy and Robert managed the deal at a little hostelry located on 59 Palace Street.

This is 59 Palace Street as it looks today.

Chambers is a tiny little restaurant just around the corner from the Cathedral.    There has been a cafe or hostelry on this spot since the 1550's, making it one of the most ancient gossip houses in Canterbury. 

Chambers is so close to the Cathedral that if you are lucky you can get the table upstairs with this view.

It's pretty spectacular and well worth heading upstairs to eat or drink just to see if you can be lucky enough to get the seat.  The Cathedral view isn't the only reason to visit though.  In the little courtyard are these green doors, which, if you are really lucky, will be open when you visit.  It's the Masons yard and it's not accessible to the public at all.  In the 1600's this was where people would have left their horses to be fed and watered whilst they fed and watered themselves in the hostelry.  In fact, under the rules of being located on Cathedral land, if any horses and carriages do come to Chambers they are fairly sure that they would be obliged to offer them hay!

If the doors are open then you will be privileged to see the masons hard at work just as they have been for centuries, sawing and carving the Cathedral stone by hand, stone that is bought in from Caen, France.  This is art in motion, coming to life before your eyes.

Upstairs there is one of the most photographed paintings in Canterbury.  It used to hang outside the shop but was recently bought inside as it is now irreparable.  It shows the Mayflower, the ship that carried the pilgrims to America and the ship whose hire was negotiated in these very premises.  

The building itself is tiny and crooked with slanting floors, low ceilings and a mishmash of furniture.  It still has the feel of Restoration England about it although it has clearly been refurbished numerous times over the centuries.

Inside the unisex toilet upstairs is another piece of history - a monk's bolt hole.  Deep down in the cellar there is a secret stairway which leads up, out and across to the Cathedral grounds and its many hidden tunnels.  During the reign of Henry VIII and during the persecution of the Catholic Church monks used the many secret passages hidden in the bowels of the Cathedral to escape certain death.  It is believed that the doorway in the toilet is linked to the cellar and acted as an escape route out of the hostelry and into town and safety.

So enough history, lets get to the important information - the food and drink!  Chambers serves a blend of British and American food, fully embracing the role it held in the past in shaping America.  I had a peach smoothie and Steve opted for one of the best vanilla milkshakes he has ever tasted.  Both drinks were delicious, smooth, creamy and refreshing.  My smoothie was full of fresh peach pieces and blended with apple juice.

To eat Steve and I both went for the pancake menu.  Steve opted for good old fashioned American pancakes with maple syrup - three huge pancakes that he couldn't quite finish dripping with maple syrup and dusted with icing sugar.  You can see how badly the floor slants by the fact that all the maple syrup is pooling on one side of the plate!

I had pancakes as well but went for smokey pulled pork with hot sauce (great big slices of jalapeno peppers and tender, falling apart pork) with two eggs, sunny side up and yellow, runny yolks with two pancakes and maple syrup.  This was delicious, I could happily eat this for lunch for a week solid!

Portion sizes were enormous and I couldn't quite finish my pancakes either, much as I wanted to!

Chambers is a wonderful little cafe that doesn't seem to get the coverage and publicity it really deserves although I must admit there was a steady stream of customers and it seemed to be particularly popular with tourists and teenagers. 

If you are not in the mood for pancakes then there are cakes and cream teas available, full cooked English breakfasts, burgers (the Elvis Burger with peanut butter looked intriguing) and traditional cafe food as well.  Prices are extremely reasonable and there are so many things to discover inside that it is well worth a visit!