Recommendations for food & entertainment in Dover

[firstjourney]

Looking for Harters or anyone else to chime in. Harters, I asked last year and you gave me a stellar recommendation for fish & chips in London- Masters Superfish was exactly what I was looking for. Again, I thank you! In August I will be spending a few days in Dover before cruise, looking for some good English food, don’t need anything fancy, I much prefer casual, non touristy little local joints. Also any tips for finding some live music in the evenings (preferably rock or jazz but any live music is good music in my opinion) Thank you!

[Harters]

Hi there. Pleased to read you enjoyed Masters.. I'm afraid I'm not going to be much help here. It's some years since I stayed in/near Dover as I've not been crossing to France recently. But, I've always regarded Dover as a food desert I'm afraid.

 

The best I can come up with from personal experience is Rocksalt in nearby Folkestone. I know it's changed hands since I was there but a look at the  website indicates it's still very much a seafood restaurant, playing heavily on local produce and locally landed seafood.  

 

Will you have a car for your stay? That would obviously open up a wider selection within a easy drive but not great if you're having to rely on public transport or a taxi. 

 

 

[John Bull]

A local who's not been around on Cruise Critic for a year or more is @PhilbeachTraveller

That may have alerted his e-mail. Hi Phil, hope all is well with you. Can you help out?

 

We've passed through Dover quite a few times heading for France, but we're not locals.

There will certainly be a local scene, but since you'll be there for a few days your best bet is to ask around when you're there. 

For your first evening try the Table-Table restaurant/pub attached to Premier Inn on Marine Parade. Nice atmosphere, decent menu, good food, sensible prices.

 

Here's a local music venue

https://www.thebookinghall.com/

Now you know as much about the local music scene as I do 😏

 

JB 🙂

Edited April 23 by John Bull

[Harters]

17 hours ago, John Bull said:

try the Table-Table restaurant/pub attached to Premier Inn

I do not usually diss other people's food recommendations - we all have our own tastes and likes/dislikes. But, let's be honest here, Table-Table is probably the bottom end of Premier Inn's several restaurant chains. It is the antipathy of the non-touristy little local joint that firstjourney is looking for. Go if you cannot find anything better in town - but looking at Tripadvisor restaurant listing will probably find you several better.

 

And, yes, I have eaten in this particular Table-Table when we stayed at the Premier Inn some while back. In more recent years, we've stayed at the PI on the outskirts of town and have once eaten at their adjacent Beefeater restaurant which was, at least, OK. 

[John Bull]

14 minutes ago, Harters said:

I do not usually diss other people's food recommendations - we all have our own tastes and likes/dislikes. But, let's be honest here, Table-Table is probably the bottom end of Premier Inn's several restaurant chains. It is the antipathy of the non-touristy little local joint that firstjourney is looking for. Go if you cannot find anything better in town - but looking at Tripadvisor restaurant listing will probably find you several better.

 

And, yes, I have eaten in this particular Table-Table when we stayed at the Premier Inn some while back. In more recent years, we've stayed at the PI on the outskirts of town and have once eaten at their adjacent Beefeater restaurant which was, at least, OK. 

 

 

Diff'rent folks, diff'rent experiences 😏

 

We stayed and eaten at P.I. Dover Central just the once.

Good value and perfectly satisfactory for our needs.

We've found Beefeaters to be variable, no good ones handy for us altho we've been known to be tempted by the occasional good-value promo.

 

Yes, I had considered mentioning in my post "expect the clientele to be mainly folk who are travelling". And I'm pretty sure the same applies to Beefeater Dover. So now I mention it, but only - as I said - for the first evening. Then the OP can get local opinions for the rest of their stay.

 

TripAdvisor means a lot of side searches to rule out cafes etc, to find menus & prices, and difficult or time-consuming for those without transport to figure how convenient they are.

And for visitors from foreign lands it's difficult to differentiate between local hostelries and corporate national chains like Table-Table and Beefeater.

 

We know our local favourites, and when travelling we rarely bother with T/A.

But now you've goaded me 😄 into digging into T/A  Dover.

Their third-rated (the top two are Asian restaurants), and also highly-rated on Google, the White Horse pub is quite convenient in the town just off the main through-road and sensibly-priced. No website but almost-certainly not a chain pub and more likely to have a local clientele.

 

JB 🙂

No commission was earned for this post 😏

[Harters]

I'd forgotten that we have had lunch at this place in town, having caught a mid morning ferry back from France and before setting off north. Basic "pub grub" type food but my recollection is that it was better than you'd get in the chains. 

 

https://www.cullinsyard.co.uk/

[Harters]

54 minutes ago, John Bull said:

And for visitors from foreign lands it's difficult to differentiate between local hostelries and corporate national chains like Table-Table and Beefeater.

Not when you have Google, JB. All is quickly revealed.