Gilberts Cafe & Deli — Restaurant in Canterbury

A wonderful, no excellent little gem of a café come bakery come delicatessen nestled at what i'm told is the 'bottom end' of Whitstable High Street. I think that just means further away from Harbour Street.

My family and I started coming here around a year ago, when we lived in London but were looking to move down (back, in my partners case) here. One of my concerns was that - maybe - most of the restaurants would cater exclusively for the tourist crowd. Offering 'safe bets' and facsimiles of the same menu up street and down. Not the case with Gilberts.

The food is exceptional, inventive, dare I say it; clever. The ingredients are well sourced and where possible; local. And the atmosphere is simply delight. For the owners have by the barrel what's missing from a great deal of similar establishments; a love of their craft and a gift of the gab. We've spent an hour in there before with just a cup of tea, without even a thought given to the amount of time we've exchanged. Time spent infusing food with memory. The best thing is, if you really like what you're eating, chances are you can buy a secret ingredient or two from the pantry as well. Well, maybe the best thing is actually meeting the locals there and catching up when your paths cross again.

So if you want to feel welcomed in by a lovely family. Gilberts is really worth your time if you're...

I was very fortunate recently to receive a prize for a three course meal for two from Lets Eat In Whitstable at a charity fund raiser. I had already heard the name praised by a work colleague but not tried them myself. I'm so glad I did. I ordered the food over the Easter weekend. I chose a vegetable and cheese soup for starter which was delicious and plentiful and was accompanied by two huge portions of the most mouth-watering brown seeded buttered bread. For main I selected lasagne al ragu di maiale for two. It was such a generous sized dish and came with instructions to heat in the oven. This was consumed by my meat-eaters in the family who tell me it was excellent, tasty and filling. Pudding was apple brownie and custard and salted caramel sauce which was beautiful. A really tasty last course to compliment the whole meal. I should also mention that the delivery was made to my front door step efficiently and timely. Thank you so much to Tara and Gary for a truly lovely meal - I will be back for...

I am not in the habit of giving a 5 star rating unless the place is exceptionally good, I consider 4 stars to be a good rating because there is always room for improvement. In any case, two years after my visit to your place I don't remember why I only rated it with 3 stars, which is not a bad rating in my opinion. Next September I will be visiting England again and the county of Kent, as Whitstable will be one of the places I visit I will probably visit your establishment again as as I said before my rating is not bad from my point of view. Best regards and I hope to see you again...