The Knowhere Guide

Eating and Drinking in Canterbury, Kent*

Canterbury, Kent Pubs, Cafes, Coffee Shops and Restaurants

Food

• 'Kudos' chinese restaurant behind the cinema, amazing atmosphere in an olde English building with live Piano music and the best fried won-ton in Kent.
• Cafe des Amies is the best Mexican restaurant I have ever eaten in (or i was a few years ago). Also Marlowes for a very informal, friendly meal and Westgate Kebebs for the compulsory Friday night doner.
• Subway, just opened in the high street opposite |Oranges and Hubble & Freeman, does great subs (french bread sandwiches) with pretty much any topping you like, and pleanty of extras, fairly reasonable price too.
• The `Ask Restaurant` I`v seen Bruce Forsyth`s daughter there with friends...Also Tankerton Tel!!!
• Westgate kebads rock when you are pissed after clubbing! Try Marlowe`s for excellent cuisine - bring yer own wine.
• Marlowe's, Fatty Arbuckle's, Westgate Kebabs is the busiest in town! With food it's a case of look and ye shall find!... can't avoid them! Ask Pizza Pasta was great in 97.... many of them change hands frequently.
• Morelli's (all over the shop) Fungus Mungus is no more - there is an Anatolian restaurant in its place Cafe Des Amis (Mexican food, v. authentic, near the Westgate, v.popular)
• Fungus went away a year or so ago - due to bad management, bit of a shame really Instead we get a Kebab shop (virtually opposite Westgate Kebab), then to counter this the Owners of Westgate, convert Uncle Sams (chippy) in to another Kebab shop - toally ridiculous!
• Pilgrem's hotel for good food and not too pricey. Opposite the marlowe theatre. Mac donalds is open late.
• Fungus Mungus is closed now, but has been replaced with Okabiasi Kebab shop. They even let you barbecue your own kebabs
• Fungus Mungus at Westgate for excellent vegetarian food.
• Fajitas at Marlowe's (the cafe not the theatre) are highly recommended - they do a reasonable range of veggie food too. But save it for birthdays as it can get quite pricey (or share).
• For Pizza check out the Pizza Place in Westgate - loads of unusual ones, including a BLT (scrummy) and a Farmhouse-flipover (yummy!)
• Above the Canterbury Tales pub there is the best Mexican in the world.

Pubs

• Simples has live music, check out the free for all on Sunday nights-you have to take the good with the bad! The Penny is good, I think you have to be a student to enjoy it though. The Cherry Tree just off the high street is nice but it can get a bit cramped. Apparently the Cardinal's Cap has recently had a makeover and it's not as sweaty as it used to be-yes, quite nice now so I hear. Nobody seems to have mentioned the Firkin, near the buttermarket, Cathedral bit. Its a nice pub, quite big and you can sit outside during the summer months and soak up some sun. Please, I implore you, don't go to the Carpenter's Arms, you won't enjoy yourself.
• 'Oranges' on the high street for serves Oranjeboom lager in an orange and blue environment. Very fresh...
• Carpenters arms has become the new grunger spot of the moment, now that the cardinals cap got overrun by neo-nazi bikers.
• its got tobe the cherry tree
• "Fusion" is a new café/bar/restaurant type venue just down the road that separates the Hägen-Das cafe and Wax Lyrical. Very popular with the students, probably because it is the only pub in Canterbury that stocks the 90%ABV triple distilled Knockeen Hills Poteen (www.irish-poteen.com as far as i know). Great new place well worth checking out!!! And defintely no fresh faces....students plus.
• Lighthouse bar at the university has decent food and cheap booze Woody`s at the university has Sky Sports on a large cine style projector
• Seven Stars - not as good as it was when Marcus was there, but still OK. Wetherspoons, The Miller's Arms - they let you take your beer and grub into the nearby park, right by the river.... many a fun evening is spent there!
• Watershed is gone. Bishops Finger is good. 4 pint pitcher for price of 3 pints.
• Merefields (quite cheap and has a nice atmosphere) Cherry Tree (just off high st. - very friendly)
• Too many "Irish" pubs - even Shepherds Neame are in on it! Big horrible Wetherspoons opened up last year, attracts an enormous amount of people. Cherry Tree is nice if you can avoid being threatened being glassed by the barstaff! The Tap (part of the Falstaff) is good for a quiet pint.
• loads, if yu don't like one move on. try The cherry tree, simple simons, o'neills, the bishop's finger, the moon and stars, etc. etc. etc. Plus Woody's at UKC and Darwin bar in Darwin college on campus.
• Oranges, a new bar on the High street in Canterbury, slightly expensive but classy and cocktails are cheap on Happpy hour
• The water shed is now closed, so don't go looking for your 2 pint jugs there. Instead you can get a 2 pint jug for 7 pounds in the Round House by Canterbury East station
• There's the Bat and Ball, next to the cricket ground (good during the tea break) and the New Inn in Havelock Street which has a good beer selection.
• Simple Simon's (near Northgate somewhere - best policy is to get a cab or you'll get lost) especially on a Thursday (jazz night) Open fires, low beams but surprisingly few old codgers in the corners.
• The Millers Arms pub in St Radigunds in Anters has a sax playing boyfriend to accompany the landlady, Helen. This is the best pub in town - go there if you dare and tell Rodders that you wouldn't want to be him.
• Best pub to go to if you're a learner-drinker: The Dolphin, with novelty cult bouncer "Carlos" -- until you've met him your life is incomplete...
• The Watershed serves brill two pint pichers of cocktails for just a fiver which can keep you going all evening, although on many nights the place is closed for a private party. These are very easy to crash if you smile at the guys on the door.
• Canterbury Tales opposite the Marlow serves cherry beer which is brill, fab & cool. The pub is nice too - no noisy juke boxes.

Cafes and Coffee Shops

• STARBURGER!!!!!!!!! the worst service, food and customers ever, but its still our beloved hangout.
• Loads of coffee shops in Canterbury but they are all full of day trippers from France etc.
• New AROMA shop just opened...very nice...
• Cafe Rouge - Upmarket tourist ripoff opposite Oranges bar
• Marlowe's, Whittards (with Hagen Dazs ice-cream too...mmmmmmmm!), Canterbury is full of places to eat and buy clothes... and little else!

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Credits

Last updated: 2007-08-14