Restaurant Spy

I was born in Whitstable a fair few years ago, long before it was 'discovered' by 'celebrities' and trendified the way it is today. I do not live there now and it has been enormous fun watching it evolve from a real, albeit a bit down at heel, little port to the voracious tourist trap it is now, ready to suck the lifeblood out of any DFLs (Down From Londoners) it can get its fangs into.

It’s a long seven years since we last visited the Himalayan Gurkha, and, since then, the dusty old restaurant with its ponderous service has been re-furbished and re-launched.

My partner and I and our toddler decided to go for lunch at The George and Dragon in Westerham. We had been there before and it had previously been reasonably priced, not great, but at least that.

What do All Bar One, Harvesters and Toby Carvery have in common? They are all owned by Mitchells and Butlers, a vast pub owning company with a number of “brands” of pubs and eating houses. They also own O’Neills and Nicholsons too and, until recently, Hollywood Bowl bowling. What is this all about?

Ah, Ironbridge, one of my favourite places in the UK. An Eley’s hand-raised pork pie the size of your head and the tastiest in the country, and a museum for every occasion.

Winner of the 2005 Hotel award in the "utterly enjoyable mild eccentricity" category, the Hundred House Hotel certainly ticks all of the boxes in the “nutty” stakes.

It's sad that it took me so many years to discover the overwhelming beauty of the paintings of Marc Chagall. A speculative poke around the net for information on him threw up his association with the village of Tudeley in Kent and, in particular, the frankly astonishing church windows in the All Saints Church in the village designed by the great man.

I have long enjoyed the Duke of York. It is a pub on the Pantiles with none of the other pretensions of the establishments that surround it, a pub that has a fire going on a winter's day, is never snooty about kids and has a menu that seems as if it was written in the Seventies.

We booked a table here for 8pm last Friday after hearing the upstairs had gone through a big refurbishment. I have always been a big fan of the downstairs bar, and have spent many a work lunch there taking advantage of the unbelievably good value 'poor man's lunch' - £6 for delicious Tom Yum Soup and a plate of mixed meat fried rice.

It was a warm Friday evening when we arrived in Faversham. Traffic wise we had definitely picked the wrong weekend as the Kent Show was starting and there were tailbacks all along Detling Hill, but we managed to arrive in good time for our 8pm table.