Where We Eat: Sargasso in Margate

Having a birthday in late December is a bit of a pain. Everyone’s caught up in Christmas parties, the social calendar is overloaded, and even if you can round up a group, most restaurants are only offering their “festive sharing menu” (guilty)!

So for Alina’s birthday (17th December, if you want to know) we snuck off for a couple of days in Margate. We ate very well, including a brilliant meal at Sète, where the Sète menu (pun very much intended) is excellent value…although you do need to go to Margate to take advantage, which slightly blunts the savings!

The most poignant meal was at Sargasso out on the harbour arm, where we enjoyed the plate of anchovies pictured above, along with a host of other perfectly executed seafood dishes and a few carafes of very well judged natural wines. All exactly what you’d expect from the team behind Brawn, about which we’ve raved before!

In truth, the poignancy relates less to the restaurant and more to a Jay Rayner review back in 2022 where he talks about exactly this plate of anchovies. He reminds us that whilst the dish itself is simple; good anchovies, neatly plated and dressed in very good olive oil, the story runs deeper…in his own words:

“…there is so much more going on here; something that goes to the very heart of the best restaurants. It is an expression of exquisitely good taste.”

I remember reading that line at the time and thinking it hit the nail on the head. It helped put into words something I hadn’t quite been able to explain…that beyond the food and drink, beyond the room and the music, a good restaurant expresses a point of view

It says: this is what we like…we hope you like it too!

Not everyone will. And that’s fine. But when someone walks through the door, looks at the menu, listens to the music, reads the wine list, eats the food…and feels like it’s all in tune with what they enjoy…they feel seen and understood!

It’s something we think about all the time at Wilson’s. We want every decision, from the art on the walls to the wine in the fridge to feel intentional, to reflect our tastes, align with our values and sometimes to express a point of view

A big part of Wilson’s is us sharing what we like, and we hope that enough people agree with us to keep it going!