Places To Eat In Kent: The Lazy Elephant, Sandwich

It’s a difficult time to run a restaurant at the moment, and against a complicated business backdrop I’ve also found that it is rare to find a new opening that is truly excellent. The Lazy Elephant in Sandwich has excellence in spades. It’s the kind of place I love: a restaurant and wine bar where you can eat as much or as little as you want, from a small plate with a glass of something local, to a massive, multi-course blow out feast. The dining room is relaxed and cool, the staff are lovely, and with the food at my first lunch there they did not put a foot wrong.

They have a set lunch menu (excellent value 2 courses for £19, or 3 courses for £24 with two choices for each course) and a main menu that spans nibbles, bar snacks, starter-sized small places, pasta, mains, sharers and sides. As I said, as much or as little as you fancy. Being a lunch where we had things to do later in the afternoon, and where we wanted to sample a couple of things, we went for 2 bar snacks, a starter and a pasta to share, followed by dessert, which, guided by our server was just the right amount of food.

The wine list is just how I like it – not too big but with a decent amount of choice, with a good balance of by the glass / bottle, local / international wines – and my glass of effervescent Portuguese vinho verde paired beautifully with our first bar snack, a scallop thermidor each. Sweet, juicy and well cooked usually I think seafood is ruined by the addition of thermidor, but there the scallops were enhanced rather than drowned, a good balance of flavours. Order one of these each.

The other bar snack we chose is another must-order are the Crown Prince Squash fritti served with a drizzle of hot honey and just enough shredded mint to lend aroma to every few mouthfuls. Squash is not supposed to be this light, crisp and addictive. But these are. It’s a generous portion for a bar snack, you get four pieces so one to get with up to 4 of you on the table as a sharer.

After much deliberation from the starters section we went for the buffalo mozzarella topped with smoked leeks, truffle (not enough to overpower, just enough that you’d miss it if it wasn’t there) and breadcrumbs. Creamy, light, flavourful. A very, very good dish.

The pasta course was stupendous, a rich, creamy, generous portion of brown crab cacio e pepe with a lovely hit of lemon just discernible at the end of each mouthful. Get this, and if it is no longer on the menu by the time you sit down at The Lazy Elephant, order another pasta dish as the quality of this means you’ll be missing out if you don’t.

Literally the only thing that was not perfect was our doughnut bites with berry compote and clotted cream for dessert. They were deliciously light, warm and the accompaniments went well, but the portion was way to generous, only order these as a sharer!

Unknowing that the doughnuts would be so big we also got the vanilla mascarpone with poached pear and crumbled amaretti biscuits, a sort of deconstructed cheesecake, which was lovely. Understated, but well balanced flavours perfect for someone who likes something sweet, but not too much at the end of a meal.

You can book a table at The Lazy Elephant here!

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