Chapter One

Keen out-of-town prices combined with pleasingly elegant decor, capable service and clever cooking make Chapter One well worth a drive down the A21. Chef/patron Andrew McLeish fashions all-manner of worldly-wise dishes from top-drawer materials and the result is vivacious Michelin-starred food with a high degree of culinary technique. The kitchen deals in exquisite plates loaded with big, bold flavours: starters of braised veal tongue with pickled shallots and sauce gribiche or mackerel rillettes with scorched cucumber, Greek yoghurt, horseradish and mustard ‘frill’ might give way to crispy cod brandade with poached egg, braised oxtail with salt-baked celeriac or Josper-grilled Ibérico pork shoulder and braised cheek with roasted carrots and roscoff onion. “McLeish also uses venison he has personally culled”, says one who knows. The bread is “to die for”, while appealing puds might include milk chocolate and praline mousse with hazelnut cream and raspberry sorbet. With “first-class service” and sommeliers on hand to help with food-matching selections from the extensive and “fairly priced” wine list, Chapter One is “great every time”.

Chapter One is committed to serving diners award winning food with impeccable service, all in the heart of Kent. Regarded on many lists as one of the country's top restaurants, and led by chef and managing partner Andrew McLeish and his team, Chapter One is truly what it means to enjoy first class dining. You'll have options to dine in the brasserie, enjoy cocktails at the bar, or enjoy a romantic evening on the terrace.

The menu at Chapter One does change depending on the seasons and what is most readily available, but there are always delicious dishes to choose from. Your starters may include the veloute of Jerusalem artichoke with poached hen's egg, the roe deer tartare with confit egg yolk, honey mustard dressing, crispy venison belly and smoked mayonnaise, and the carpaccio of Galician octopus with avocado puree, harissa mayonnaise, chorizo oil and lemon dressing.

Next up are the mains, which include a roast confit Sladesdown duck leg with roscoff onion tatin, English pickled walnut and prune puree, hispi cabbage, malt vinegar pearls and duck sauce, along with steamed wild halibut with crushed Jersey royals and poached grapes, and a cauliflower cheese crostilliant with pickled cauliflower, buttered wild asparagus and Twineham Grange veloute.

The sides sound especially delicious, and we'd struggle not to order them all. Choose from green beans with shallot butter, grilled hispi cabbage with miso and harissa dressing, potato and olive oil puree, crispy Anna potatoes with aged parmesan and buttered Jersey royal potatoes. Desserts are special, too, with choices of manjari chocolate marquise with carmelia ganache, coffee cannelloni and calamansi sorbet, along with a mille-feuille of raspberries with sable breton, ginger beer jelly, vanilla cremeux and rhubarb sorbet.