Cast your mind back to 2011. We were all pretending to understand what planking was, Charlie Sheen was having a very public meltdown, and Margate? Well, Margate was still struggling to shake off decades of seaside decline. Then Turner Contemporary opened its doors, and something rather extraordinary began to happen.
Fast forward to 2025, and this once-fading Victorian resort has transformed into what food critics are calling Britain’s most exciting coastal food destination. London chefs are abandoning eye-watering rents to open ambitious restaurants overlooking golden beaches, day-boat fishermen deliver their catch directly to kitchens, and getting a table at the town’s hottest spots requires a quite tedious level of planning.
Drumming home a point, the inaugural Margate Restaurant Week in February sold out faster than Glastonbury tickets tend to, which tells you everything about the town’s burgeoning culinary credentials. And, indeed, how cursed those bloody spreadsheet syndicates have made getting a ticket to the Big G in recent years…
What makes Margate special isn’t just the quality of cooking (though that’s undeniably brilliant) but the spirit of the place. This is a town where Michelin-recognised sophistication sits comfortably alongside seaside fish and chips, where ageing hipsters and retired party animals serve natural wine next to fourth-generation cockle sellers, and where a meal might cost you £3 or £300 depending on your mood. It’s gloriously unpretentious, fiercely creative, and utterly addictive.
We’ve eaten our way through the Old Town’s narrow streets, queued for tables at harbour-side shacks, had our polystyrene cup of prawns nicked by seagulls, and discovered some true gems in Cliftonville’s Victorian terraces, all in the name of this guide. From sustainable seafood champions to pasta perfectionists, Vietnamese street food to LA-inspired tacos, here are the best restaurants in Margate.
Bottega Caruso
Ideal for dogmatic, delicious pasta perfection…
Grace Dent called Bottega Caruso ‘heroically wondrous’, and whilst we don’t agree with the adverb and adjective combination, we’re in complete agreement with the sentiment. This tiny Campanian osteria on Broad Street is genuinely one of the UK’s best Italian restaurants, so much better than the thousand cacio e pepe purveyors in the bigger cities, with a regional focus that keeps things really interesting rather than restrains them.
Owners Simona Di Dio and Harry Ryder aren’t messing about. Alongside head chef Thom Eagle (whose Substack is ace, by the way), they make fresh pasta every morning using Di Dio’s grandmother’s recipes, import artisanal products from her beloved Sannio region, and maintain standards that are reassuringly dogmatic. The converted pub seats barely 20 people (only 6 or so tables), creating an atmosphere so intimate you’ll know your neighbours’ life stories by dessert. Or, perhaps, your neighbour will be feeding you their dessert…
The menu changes with the seasons and what’s good at the market, but certain dishes are regulars. A mainstay is the polpette di pane al sugo – ‘meatballs’ made using bread instead and served with Simona’s family recipe for slow cooked tomato sauce. It’s absolutely incredible, the polpette boasting the most satisfying bounce, the sugo rich but still tasting vital rather than rusty.
Of course, the fresh pasta dishes are the highlight, and we’ve had a few seafood versions in our time at Bottega Caruso that have made a mark; a version of pasta con le sarde using mackerel, and a spaghetti con la spigola with locally caught wild sea bass and imported Datterini tomatoes both live long in the memory. The latter dish perfectly exemplifies the approach here; use local, seasonal ingredients when they are at their very best, and complement it with imported Italian products that are simply too good to leave behind in Bel Paese.
Here’s the catch: booking opens 60 days in advance and reservations are essential weeks in advance, as tables vanish faster than limoncello at an Italian wedding. Open Wednesday to Saturday only.
Website: bottegacaruso.com
Address: 2-4 Broad Street, Margate CT9 1EW
Angela’s
Ideal for when sustainability meets sublime seafood…
There’s always a moment at Angela’s when you realise you’re experiencing something rather special, whether it’s your first or your fiftieth time in the intimate, unassuming dining room. Perhaps it’s when chef Rob Cooper emerges from the kitchen to explain why today’s turbot was caught using a specific technique to preserve its texture. Or maybe it’s when you taste that turbot, served simply with white beans and green sauce, and understand why less really can be more.
This compact 26-seat bistro on The Parade has become Margate’s most difficult reservation since earning the town’s first Michelin Green Star for sustainability. Owners Lee Coad and Charlotte Forsdike, who took over in 2017, operate with a philosophy that’s refreshingly straightforward: source the best possible ingredients from local waters, then “don’t mess them up.”
The daily-changing blackboard menu depends entirely on what fishermen land each morning, meaning you might find gurnard one day, john dory the next. What is guaranteed is the restaurant’s commitment to sustainability, which goes beyond sourcing. Everything from the natural wines to the sourdough (from local bakery Oast) reflects an ethos of supporting small producers and minimising waste. Even the simple interior, all white walls and tables made using recycled plastic waste that somehow look like marble, keeps focus firmly on the plate.
Prices reflect the quality of the product – starters average around £10, while mains push £30. But when you’re savouring perfectly cooked brill with samphire that was growing on Thanet’s marshes yesterday morning, a sense of good value still presents itself. Book weeks ahead and pray for calm seas – rough weather means slim pickings on that blackboard. But that’s all part of the fun.
Open Tuesday to Saturday, with lunch from 12pm and dinner from 6pm.
Website: angelasofmargate.com
Address: 21 The Parade, Margate CT9 1EX
Dory’s
Ideal for casual seafood excellence with a seasoning sea breeze…
If Angela’s is the sophisticated older sibling, Dory’s is the fun-loving younger brother who knows how to party. This seafood bar on the High Street puts you right in the action with counter seating overlooking Margate’s main sands – close enough to hear the waves, far enough to keep your chips dry when pitched up at the handful of tables outside the restaurant.
In 2019, the same team behind Angela’s opened this more casual spot to showcase a different side of their seafood obsession. Here, small plates rule supreme, designed for grazing while working through the wine list. Smoked prawns arrive with a ramekin of daffodil-yellow aioli, a crab tart is as pretty as a petal, prawn cocktail uses smoked prawn oil in the dressing, and the daily crudo features whatever pristine fish caught the chef’s eye that morning. On a recent visit, that was slices of raw bream dressed with gooseberries. Delicious.
What we love about Dory’s is their generous accommodation for walk-ins, particularly on the bar stools. Unlike its reservation-dependent sibling, you can rock up here on a Thursday lunchtime or Saturday evening and snag a counter seat (though weekend evenings do get busy). The kitchen stays open until 10:30pm (last orders 9pm, mind), making it perfect for those long summer evenings when you can’t quite tear yourself away from the beach’s orbit.
The wine selection – chiefly, but not stubbornly, organic – focuses on small producers making interesting bottles that pair brilliantly with seafood. There’s always a couple of intriguing by-the-glass organic numbers scrawled on a wall mirror, for those keen to be told what to do. Staff know their stuff too, happy to guide you toward something crisp and mineral to cut through the richness of those smoked prawns.
Be warned that Dory’s is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays – a common Margate quirk that catches out many visitors.
Website: angelasofmargate.com
Address: 24 High Street, Margate CT9 1DS
Sargasso
Ideal for harbour-side dining that lives up to the hype…
When Ed Wilson and Josie Stead of critically-acclaimed Hackney restaurant Brawn announced they were opening a place in Margate, interest was certainly piqued in London’s food scene. When that place turned out to be Sargasso, positioned dramatically on the harbour wall, everyone understood why.
A quick-as-a-flash recipient of a Michelin Bib Gourmand confirmed that Wilson and Stead were onto a winner, and then, in March 2025, things were kicked up several notches further when chef William Gleave was appointed as chef patron.
Yes, that William Gleave of P. Franco, Bright and Hill and Szrok fame, one of the UK’s most gifted chefs, with a natural touch that gives you absolute confidence in just about anything listed on the Provençal-leaning menu. If you do need to direct that confidence, start with the Cantabarian anchovies and pickled boquerones on toast – a double-header of the good stuff that’s umami-heavy but beautifully balanced. The squid sandwich is an absolute showstopper, too; a pillowy bun that can barely contain a generous handful of deep-fried tentacles and aioli.
Dip deeper with a plate of boiled asparagus with chunky romesco sauce, or grilled scallops served in their shell and dressed in a particularly assertive green sauce. Yep, as we said, basically anything you order is going to be on point here, such is the inherent skill and good taste that Gleave wields.
The setting provides the perfect seasoning. Housed in a former boat shed, diners watch fishing boats bob past while tucking into some of the finest seafood from the North Sea. Sargasso has attracted rave reviews in several nationals but don’t let that intimidate you – the atmosphere remains refreshingly unstuffy.
The winelist follows that theme, with a bright and breezy approach in keeping with the location and fish-forward menu. Wine on tap – including a Loire Muscadet and Domaine Plaisance rosé – keeps things refreshingly casual (and affordable), while the wider selection leans heavily into natural producers with a particular fondness for volcanic wines from Mount Etna and playful bottlings like Calvez Bobinot’s ‘PIAK!’ rosé, which is an absolute banger of a bottle (at £55, you would hope so).
Summer sees the outdoor seating area come into its own, effectively doubling capacity and offering some of the best views in town. Even on blustery days, there’s something romantic about being this close to the elements – just bring a jacket.
Open seven days a week, Sargasso has become the anchor (sorry) of Margate’s harbour dining scene, spawning several neighbours but remaining the destination that started it all.
Website: sargassomargate.com
Address: Stone Pier, Margate CT9 1AP
Buoy & Oyster
Ideal for special occasion slurping with a view…
Buoy & Oyster, occupying prime real estate on the High Street with gorgeous views of sand and water, could easily coast (ahem) on location alone. Instead, this two AA Rosette winner delivers on every front, from the open theatre kitchen to sunny beachfront pergola, all the way to the excellent food.
Head chef Craig Edgell has created a menu that somehow satisfies both the sustainable seafood crowd and Sunday roast traditionalists, the Bloody Mary nursers and the champagne special occasionalists.
The signature Buoy Bowl – a generous compilation of king prawns, calamari, and battered fish with chips and garlicky aioli – feeds two very happy people for a reasonable sum (right now, £28, but subject to change upon the whims of the tide). There are also whole grilled lobsters, local oysters that get the respect they deserve, bottomless mussels on Wednesdays and, yes, there are even excellent options for vegans.
The interior works perfectly – special-occasion smart yet beach-casual comfortable. Huge windows frame the view (book a window table if you can), while the buzz from the open kitchen adds a gentle bustle of activity without drowning out conversation.
What really impresses us is the consistency. Whether you’re here for a milestone birthday dinner or a casual Tuesday lunch, the standard never drops. Open daily from noon to 9pm, it’s become our go-to recommendation for visitors wanting a ‘restaurant’ experience with that essential Margate personality.
Website: buoyandoyster.com
Address: 44 High Street, Margate CT9 1DS
Manning’s Seafood Stall
Ideal for keeping it real with cockles and whelks…
You can keep your tweezers and your tasting menus – sometimes what the soul craves is a pot of bracing cockles eaten while watching the tide roll in. Manning’s has been fulfilling this precise need since 1962, making it as much a part of Margate’s DNA as candy floss, questionable tattoos and Carl Barat.
This isn’t a restaurant; it’s barely even a stall. What it is, though, is seaside eating at its most pure. Maldon oysters for £1 each (yes, really), cockles doused in malt vinegar, whelks for the slightly more adventurous, and those glorious pots of hot garlicky mussels that make your breath unsuitable for polite company.
The beauty of Manning’s lies in its complete lack of pretension. No Instagram-baiting décor, no artfully arranged microgreens, just honest seafood served by people who’ve been doing this longer than most of us have been alive. Stand there with your little wooden fork, prodding at shellfish while seagulls eye your pot optimistically, and tell us this isn’t exactly what a seaside holiday should taste like.
Find them on The Parade near the clock tower and just seconds from the Turner Contemporary, though honestly, you could probably just follow your nose. Cash only, no seating, zero glamour – and absolutely essential Margate eating. Bring a few cans or even a bottle of something fizzy and sit on the three picnic tables opposite. Or even better, on the seawall, your legs dangling down and swinging like a kid.
Open daily 10:30am-6pm.
Facebook: @ManningsSeafoodStall
Address: The Parade, Margate CT9 1DD
Peter’s Fish Factory
Ideal for fish and chips without the tourist tax…
In a town whose tide is rising with natural wine bars and small plates concepts (not that we’re complaining, some are excellent), Peter’s Fish Factory stands as a beacon of deep-fried democracy. This family-run chippy has been serving what locals (and we) consider the best fish and chips in Margate, all for the price of a pint in that there London.
You read that right; a medium cod and chips here (medium is pretty fucking massive, it should be said) costs just £7.50 and is of sparkling, spanking quality.
The secret? Well, there isn’t one really. Just squeaky fresh fish, beef dripping for the chips, and a batter recipe that achieves a gorgeously copper colour when cooked and a pretty impressive shatter on first bite. This is democratic dining at its finest, where everyone from Turner Prize winners to actual turners queue at the same counter, and jostle for a spot on the ragtag collection of garden furniture just outside the restaurant.
What we particularly appreciate is how Peter’s has resisted the urge to gentrify. While restaurants around them add sourdough and sriracha to everything, they’ve stuck to their guns, with the only accoutrements pickled onions, pickled eggs, and, er, pickled gherkins, just as it should be.
Open daily 11am-11pm, takeaway only.
Instagram:@petersfishfactory
Address: 12 The Parade, Margate CT9 1DS
Thao Thao
Ideal for Vietnamese street food classics in a pretty Margate side street…
Nathalie Nguyen’s Vietnamese café might be tiny – we’re talking eight tables and knocking-elbows-with-strangers tiny – but what it lacks in space it makes up for in sheer deliciousness, serving up the kind of food that makes you close your eyes on the first bite and start planning your return visit. Or, indeed, a flight to Vietnam, depending on your ambition…
The bánh mì are legendary, and at £11 for one stuffed with five-spice pork belly, they represent one of the best value lunches in Margate (yes, we know you can get one for a fraction of the price in Hanoi, but that’s beside the point). That pork has been marinated for hours, the pickled vegetables provide the perfect acidic counterpoint to all that lovely fat, and the baguette (from a secret supplier Nathalie won’t reveal) achieves that distinctive parched-earth crust; essential to a proper banh mi. Yes indeed, there’s no French baguettes subbed in here lazily, thank the lord.
The sweet, fragrant vegetable curry is gorgeous, too; heady from dried spice and luxurious from coconut cream, it’s enough to lift the spirits on one of Margate’s surprisingly frequent dreary days. There is, of course, Vietnamese coffee, served ‘phin’ style for those with the patience to watch it drip through. It’s worth the wait.
Décor is largely utilitarian, just as it should be, because who wants to eat noodles in an armchair anyway? There is some snake-themed artwork (Nathalie was born in the year of the snake), to be fair, and the irresistible aroma of star anise and cinnamon that wafts out of the open door like a come hither finger made of white steam on a cartoon. It’s enough.
Open Thursday to Monday for lunch, with dinner service added on Fridays only. Fair warning: that bijou size means waits are common, but as they say in Vietnam; “Kiên nhẫn là mẹ thành công”. Patience is the mother of success.
Website: thaothao-kitchen.com
Address: 18 King Street, Margate CT9 1DA
High Dive
Ideal for Los Angeles glamour meets Margate grit…
High Dive wants you to know it’s not trying too hard, which is exactly how you know it is. Opened December 2023 on the High Street, the restaurant name is taken from ‘high end dive bar’ apparently. Fortunately, the interior by Vacuum Studio doesn’t do things by similarly confusing halves. Instead, it’s full-throttle in here; think Miami Beach meets Memphis Group, with highly pigmented colours that shouldn’t work but absolutely do, and 1980s brass bamboo cutlery that makes every meal feel like a celebration. It’s the kind of space that makes you want to dress up, order cocktails you can’t pronounce, and pretend you’re infinitely more interesting than you actually are.
The Los Angeles-inspired menu brings sophisticated Mexican vitality to Margate’s oft grey skies. You know you’re in good hands when the tortilla chips arrive in various shades of masa harina, just out of the fryer and puffed in all the right places. A delicate dice of pico de gallo is all you need to affirm High Dive is the real deal.
The hits continue apace. Crab tostadas feature a brown crab mousse and picked white crab salad that balances funk with freshness. The tacos here (the tortillas use heirloom corn imported from Mexico which is nixtamalized, milled and baked by Masafina in London) are outstanding. The fish taco might be billed as ‘classic’ but this isn’t your usual Baja California situation. Instead, griddled hake is dressed in red adobo – a marinade that walks the tightrope between smoky and spicy without tumbling into either extreme. Guacasalsa (the portmanteau game is strong here) and pickled citrus onions provide the acidic counterpoint every good taco needs.
The bar seats offer the best people-watching, particularly when Margate’s creative crowd descends for weekend sessions. From that bar, the team keeps things tight with just three cocktails, but what a trio they are, including a Dirty Horchata that tastes like dessert with a tequila kick, and a Spicy Old Fashioned that swaps bourbon for Jameson with chili liqueur.
The whole thing – food, drinks, vibe – feels playful without being cloying, and carefully executed without losing the essential sense of fun that makes Mexican food so life-affirming. Do be warned, opening hours at High Dive are less loose; only Thursday and Friday evenings and Saturday midday ‘till late.
Website: divemargate.com
Address: 121 High Street, Margate CT9 1TJ
Sète
Ideal for Parisian cave à manger culture, at the coast…
Natalia Ribbe set out to “take the wank out of wine” (more oenophile than onanist, then) and succeeded so thoroughly that Sète has become our favourite place to drink in Margate. This wine bar-restaurant-bottle shop hybrid in a former sweet shop brings Parisian cave à manger culture to Northdown Road, just with a ferocious sea breeze blowing you through the door, rather than the aroma of freshly baked bread beckoning you in.
The focus on female winemakers isn’t a gimmick but a genuine passion, resulting in a list that surprises even seasoned wine connoisseurs. Can’t decide? The team guides without condescending, finding bottles to match both your palate and pocket. The ‘Apéro Hour’ runs 4-6pm Monday-Saturday with all (yes, all) wines by the glass at £5. We regularly adjust our schedules – and, indeed, our next day’s schedule – accordingly.
The set menu offers genuinely silly value, too: £20 for two courses, £23 for three. That might buy you pâté en croûte that’d make a Lyonnais grandmother proud, Toulouse sausage over braised green lentils, or onion tart with comté mousse that has us still trying to recreate it at home many months later.
The space itself charms without trying too hard – original features retained, simple furniture, walls lined with bottles begging to come home with you. Garden seating expands capacity in summer, though winter has its own appeal when you’re inside with candlelight and something robust in your glass.
Sète is closed on Sundays.
Website: setemargate.com
Address: 238 Northdown Rd, Cliftonville, Margate CT9 2QD
Forts Café
Ideal for trying the UK Latte Art Champion’s take on breakfast…
Will Pitts won the 2019 UK Latte Art Championship, which might seem like niche boasting until you taste his coffee. Try it at Forts Café on Cliff Terrace (a steep climb but with gorgeous sea views as your reward), which has become Margate’s caffeine headquarters.
But dismissing it as just a coffee shop would be criminal negligence. The food earns equal billing, in our minds at least. Korean fried chicken is as crispy as you’d hope, with that sweet-spicy glaze that triggers endorphins. Sadly, the plate hasn’t been given the same artistic treatment as the coffee; the accompanying gochujang mayo is just a boring ol’ perfunctory zig zag. Guys, with your talent, you’re missing a trick here!
Nduja fried eggs on sourdough provide the kind of breakfast that sets you up for whatever Margate throws at you, and the sandwiches – oh, the sandwiches. These aren’t sad triangles in plastic boxes, but doorstops stuffed with ingredients that taste fresh and alive.
The space offers a particular kind of Margate magic – unfinished in parts, comfortable in others, with mismatched furniture that, when you zoom out, feels harmonious and whole. Local artists’ work adorns the walls (and yes, it’s for sale), laptops compete for plug sockets, and the coffee machine hisses like an angry dragon.
Open every day until 4pm, Forts provides reliable service in a town where opening hours can be… creative. It’s become our default meeting spot, morning fuel stop, and afternoon refuge.
Instagram: @fortscafe
Address: 8 Cliff Terrace, Cliftonville, Margate CT9 1RU
Oast
Ideal for the UK’s best cinnamon buns…
Yes, we realise we’ve done this all topsy-turvy by ending with two breakfast spots, but we don’t make the rules. Actually, we do make the rules here, but anyway…
We don’t hand out any baking awards either, but we’re calling it all the same: Oast makes the best cinnamon buns in Britain. This Northdown Road bakery is known across town and beyond for these burnished spirals of joy – spiced, generously glazed, with that perfect pull-apart texture that has you reaching for another before finishing the first.
That’s not to say Oast is a one-bake-wonder. The sourdough loaves have that tang and structure that comes from long fermentation and bakers who actually give a damn. Saucisson-gouda croissants shouldn’t necessarily make sense but absolutely do, while seasonal specials keep regulars guessing what delicious madness emerges from the stone ovens next.
But even more than that, what really confirms the quality here is how Oast has become part of Margate’s food ecosystem. Their bread appears on restaurant tables across town (Sète uses theirs exclusively, Angela’s and Dory’s too), creating a web of quality that raises standards everywhere. That’s the thing about Margate’s food scene – it’s collaborative rather than cutthroat, with everyone understanding that better neighbours mean better business. We love it.
Open Thursday through Sunday only, 8:30am-2:30pm, queues form early and items sell out fast.
Website: oastmargate.com
Address: 68 Northdown Rd, Cliftonville, Margate CT9 2RL
From one seaside town to another, we’re now off to Deal, Kent, for our next feed. You can come along if you like…
