Rocksalt – a good excuse for a day trip to Folkestone!

Both Phil and I enjoy weekend breaks to the coast, and most of the time we explore the Jurassic coast – a 3.5 hour drive but completely worth it.  This time round we decided to instead have a weekend at home and explore a restaurant that has always been on our list – Rocksalt.

Every now and then you find a hidden little gem – Rocksalt is one of them!

The restaurant sits beautifully in Folkestone harbour overlooking fishing boats as they come in and out of the harbour.  It makes for a perfect day trip from London with only a 53 minute journey from London St Pancras to Folkestone.

As you walk into Rocksalt there is a chef’s window where you can see the chefs cooking away – I love it when restaurants do this – you just feel an instant connection to the food.  We were greeted with a very warm welcome and showed to our table overlooking the harbour – this certainly was a good start to lunch.

Phil chose a lovely ripe and fruity wine for our table.  It was a carafe of French wine, Picpoul de Pinet Domaine Cap Cette 2017 Languedoc – very drinkable. 

We were presented with a delicious sourdough bread sourced locally – from Docker, a bakery in a shipping container on the other side of the harbour.  It’s nice to see local businesses supporting each other!

The menu is great with a wide selection of seafood and it also has some meat and vegetarian options.  We have a friend that doesn’t eat seafood at all and it always limits the seafood restaurants (which we love!) that we can go to.  With Rocksalt this is a thing of the past!

With plenty on offer we eventually decided on our starters – Phil had succulent garlic, chilli and coriander Atlantic prawns which made for a very good combination of flavours. 

I had baked mussels perfectly accompanied by crispy bits of smoked bacon and slithers of apple shavings.  I love mussels and it is a dish I grew up with and I have never tasted as delicious, soft and flavoursome mussels as these – perhaps it’s their freshness – highly recommended. 

The waiters were very attentive and super friendly. 

They came to change the bowl a few times as it filled up with all the mussel shells!

I was then presented with a delicious fillet of brill, potted cockle butter and purple sprouting broccoli – it was such a harmonious plate of flavours.  The cockle butter perfectly tied the different elements on the plate together.

Phil went for the skate with a creamy bacon and wild garlic sauce – I’m not particularly fond of skate but this was delicious!  I take back everything I have said about skate before! A bit of truffle mash finished our mains off beautifully.

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Dessert was next and plenty of options on the menu made this a tough choice – Phil had a white wine poached pear, vanilla rice pudding with a ginger biscuit crumb.  Again, I don’t even like rice pudding but will go back to Rocksalt just for this dish! It’s an amazing bowl of comfort and perfectly ended the meal.  With summer around the corner, I wonder whether this bowl of comfort will stay on the menu but definitely a winter winner! 

I went for the burnt cream with Yorkshire rhubarb and ginger – a classic combination and it was our waiter’s favourite!

We both left very happy and went on to explore the area.  There is a lovely walk along the harbour to Sunny Sands beach where a mermaid looks out at the sea and dogs are out for their daily walk. 

The Harbour Arm sits on the promenade on the other side of the harbour.  It’s filled with little places to have a drink, something to eat and listen to music! 

Overall a lovely day out, beautiful views, amazing food – highly recommended!