Dev Biswal, chef patron of The Ambrette award-winning restaurants in Margate and Rye, has opened The Ambrette @ Canterbury- with more openings on the horizon.
The TV chef, who champions a ‘curry-free menu’ of south Indian style dishes utilising locally sourced seasonal ingredients with a modern twist, has secured the site of the former Beer Cart Arms in the city centre.
Biswal, who still spends several days each week in the kitchens, has now moved from Ramsgate to Canterbury as a more central location to his growing operations:
“Canterbury is a fantastic historic town with a great food heritage and perfect demographics for my style of cooking. We have over 2,000 people on our customer database with a Canterbury postcode who have already made the trip to the restaurants in Margate or Rye.”
The Ambrette @ Canterbury site, with seating for around 100, will be larger than the existing the restaurants in Margate and Rye. “We plan to explore all-day dining with an Indian accent and offer breakfast and afternoon teas,” said Biswal.
The Ambrette@Canterbury – Tasting Menu
H&C News has heard much about Dev Biswal and The Ambrette in recent years, and was therefore delighted to be invited to sample the Tasting Menu just days before the official opening.
As with any opening, it was apparent that a familiarisation process was underway, but it is already apparent that Canterbury has not only acquired a new restaurant that will attract locals and visitors alike, but that it will provide a genuinely new and enjoyable dining experience for the city.
We reproduce the Tasting Menu below: whilst opinions varied at our table on individual dishes, it was noticeable that plates for each course were invariable cleared – as they were at neighbouring tables. Food critics may analyse to their hearts content, but the best testimonial from diners is empty plates!
Dishes that attracted particular praise included the Dosai, Soft Shell Crab, Red Lentil and Celeriac Soup (‘delicious’ and ‘delightful’), and Fresh Fish of the Day (the sauce of South Indian Spices and Coconut being the ‘perfect accompaniment’). Every diner will have a different opinion, but will certainly enjoy these dishes.
TASTING MENU
Welcome Cocktail
Lager, sparkling wine, elderflower, lime, mint
Pickled courgette khandvi,
Kentish gooseberry chutney
A savoury delicious chickpea flour pasta – a popular Western Indian snack
Dosai with gently spiced potatoes, mustard and onions
Coconut, pineapple and green pea chutney
Soft shell crab, tempura of rock samphire
Sea purslane salad, crab raita, home-made crab and beetroot cake
Breast of wood pigeon smoked with cloves and marjoram
Rosemary and cinnamon poached peach, game pate, pigeon roulade, garlic and tomato chutney
Red Lentil and celeriac soup
Foraged water celery stem with clove and cinnamon essence
Fresh fish of the day, locally grown sea spinach
Served with mung lentil kedgeree, fennel and cumin chutney and sauce of South Indian spices and coconut
Kentish venison loin cooked “sous-vide” pan seared
served with locally grown Kentish pears
Hickory smoked fennel potatoes, apricot chutney sauce of tamarind, apricot and ginger
Popping meadow sweet sorbet
Scented wild camomile
Ambrette’s Dessert Platter
Saffron jalebis, white chocolate silk, rose and vanilla crème brulee, blackberry and cinnamon ice-cream
£44.95 Tasting Menu
£64.95 with matching wines (100ml served with every course)
Expansion plans for Ambrette
Biswal hopes to open a fourth restaurant, somewhere between Canterbury and Margate specialising in seafood and vegetarian cooking, with the emphasis on gluten and allergen free foods. The chef has also set his sights on locations in Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells, Brighton and London, as part of his planned expansion.
Canterbury will also serve as a training and development site, with centralised production of marinades and sauces, to ensure consistently high standards across the group, as operations expand.
Biswal trained at the Dubai Sheraton, before moving to London in 2003, aged 26, for spells at Mangoes and Eriki. With fine-dining restaurants rarely working as scalable concepts, the chef is fully aware that others have tried to expand and failed. He has also tried to distance himself from the ‘fine-dining’ tag bestowed on him by food critics and customers alike.
“We are a mid-market restaurant with mid market prices,” he insists.”
As resident chef on the Channel Four TV series ‘Superscrimpers’, Biswal regularly shows viewers how to prepare gourmet meals on a budget using cheap ingredients, left over and wild plants forged for free.
The two existing Ambrette restaurants are recommended by all the leading guides including Michelin, AA, Waitrose Good Food and Harden’s. Their numerous accolades include the prestigious Taste of Kent’s ‘Best Restaurant’ award.
The Ambrette @ Canterbury, 14-15 Beer Cart Lane, Canterbury, Kent CT1 2NY
T: 01227 200 777
The Ambrette, 44 King Street, Margate Old Town, Kent CT9 1QE
T: 01843 231 504
The Ambrette @ Rye, 24 High Street, Rye, East Sussex TN31 7JF
T: 01797 222 043