Rye Scallop Festival week always means the local restaurants make a special effort and put on a special menu. We took our time getting there, rolling through the beautiful Kent and Sussex country lanes in the sunshine. As we drove out of Tenterden towards Smallhythe we were accompanied for several hundred yards by a green woodpecker who kept pace with us across the fields, flashing bright green, red and gold in the sunlight, surely a good omen!
Having had a look at Webbe's website (www.webbesrestaurants.co.uk) before our visit today I was really looking forward to the seven course scallop tasting menu for a long lunch. Imagine my disappointment when we discovered that it was only available in the evening. Not the best start then. Fortunately for all concerned there were a number of scallop starters available, as well as a stunning sounding main course scallop dish.
The restaurant itself is in a sympathetically converted four story brick building that dates from 1907. Although it isn't on the main High Street, Webbe's is close enough to the centre of town, but being a bit off the beaten track it gives you the feeling that you've stumbled across a bit of a hidden gem. Lunch is served in a small, open plan dining room on the ground floor. Much of the cooking and all of the dish assembly happens in the corner of the room in full view of the diners, which gives one a certain confidence in the chefs. There is an eclectic mix of art on the walls, including a fantastic block of polished black stone that is packed with fossilised mussel shells.
Our waitress didn't smile much, but was very polite and efficient indeed. As I may have mentioned before, I like it when a waiter or waitress is professional enough not to have to write your order down, and not to have to ask who is having what when they bring dishes out. Not only did they manage this, but it was particularly impressive as there were only two waitresses and the maitre d' covering around fourteen or fifteen tables, some of which seated six or eight. The maitre d' was quick to come and explain the thinking behind not offering the tasting menu after I expressed my disappointment that we wouldn't be able to order it. But we'd gone all that way to eat scallops, and we were damn well going to order some off the lunch menu anyway!
Starters cost from £6 to around £8, and there was a lot of variety for a lunch menu. As well as half a dozen scallop dishes, there were half a dozen other interesting sounding dishes to choose from including a warm locally made goats cheese with beetroot salad that looked stunning. In the continuing quest to find new dishes we both ordered something to start that we wouldn't normally think about. I had scallop, potato and watercress chowder. (I never order soup, but I'll make an exception for chowders!) I should have thought to hang on to some of the delicious home made bread we had been served with to dip in it, but i hadn't. The chowder was delightful. Simple, big on flavour and texture, and full of big chunks of scallop and baby new potato.
As good as the chowder was, it just couldn't compete with Dee's dish of three of the biggest scallops I'd ever seen, served on a slice of fried black pudding and caramelised apple with a cider reduction. It was beautifully presented and unbelievably tasty. The flavours just combined to give a sweet start, really good "mouth-feel", and a slightly earthy finish from the black pudding that cut through the sweet scallop meat to perfection. A really well balanced dish, a delight to eat. Neither of us are particularly fans of black pudding, and I can be a bit funny about fruit in savoury dishes so this is high praise indeed!
I'm sure there were other main courses we could have ordered, but I didn't look beyond the very top item. Can you guess what it was? Well done, no surprises, more scallops! We both ordered the same thing, pan fried scallops with pancetta, mashed potato, watercress and silver skin onions. Five massive scallops nicely arranged around a piped cone of mashed potato on a bed of cress and onions. When the plate arrived in front of me I thought I was in for something really special. To be fair, it wasn't bad, it just needed....something. The mash was made with some white pepper, and that was the dominant flavour. Everything else was quite a delicate taste, and although the saltiness of the wafer thin and nicely crispy pancetta complimented the sweetness of the scallops, the whole dish needed a little seasoning or another dominant element of some kind. Don't get me wrong, everything was perfectly cooked and precisely presented, and a light sprinkle of salt made a vast improvement, it's just a shame at this level of cuisine that it was needed.
To Dee's delight there was a pear and blackberry crumble with custard and vanilla ice cream on the desert menu, so she didn't have to think too long and hard before she was ready to order. The crumble arrived piping hot in a little Le Crueset style dish, with a little jug of home made custard and a ball of delightful home made ice cream. The fruit was soft but not overcooked, sweet but not too sugary, and the whole thing worked perfectly presented as it was on an olive wood board.
I chose the citrus mousse with blood orange sorbet, which was lovely...but it wasn't a mousse. It was a lemon creme brûlée. A very good one, but not what I was expecting at all. The highlight was the sorbet, which is making my mouth water as I type this! Absolutely delicious.
I know it's a little thing, and some of you will think I'm being picky, but the white plate my desert came on had a grey ring around the inside where it was worn from being stacked with other plates a lot. I'm not suggesting it was dirty, it certainly wasn't, but if you look closely at the photo you can clearly see it. Not very appetising. Now that I look closely at the photos of the starters and main courses I can see that the whole set of crockery is overdue for replacement.
So, over all impression? Pretty good. The food came to £58, which included a vast amount of enormous scallops, so I think it was very good value for money. The wine list was very good, if a little pricey, and the service was good. I think the status as our favourite restaurant in Rye is still The Landgate Bistro's to lose next week, if I'm honest, but I'd like to come back here and eat in the more formal setting of the upstairs dining room before I make my mind up. Would I recommend it to a friend? Yes. No hesitation. It wasn't perfect, but it was very good, and at that price I think it was a bargain.
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