Thirty Nine Whitstable — Restaurant in Canterbury

We arranged a regular community group coffee morning on a trial basis here. At first owner seemed lovely and friendly and accommodating. We were asked to arrive early the first time as we were a group to help avoid the lunchtime rush. We waited 30 minutes outside because they weren’t open. Then we got told staffing issues etc. the service was slow and some of our group left and cancelled their orders. Due to the place being nice and the menu being good we thought it was a few teething problems. The owner asked us if we could pre order or order as a group at the next meeting due to the kitchen being small and not being able to keep up with orders etc. Pre ordering was not an option for us as we don’t know who will come on the day so we asked all members to order as a group to make things easier. Service was still really slow even on the drinks which aren't made in the kitchen. When food finally arrived the order wasn’t right. One of our members was quite rightly a bit direct with the owner about waiting over an hour for a sausage sandwich which then wasn’t the right order. Unfortunately the owner became very defensive and didn’t handle the situation very well and was quite rude. She then called the leader of the group into the kitchen and said she would refuse to serve our members because they were being rude to her. It was pointed out that she had the right to refuse service but she would need to refund our members and we would postpone a third session with them pending us finding an alternative venue. The venue is quite large and a small kitchen is not an excuse for poor service and management skills especially when you wait over an hour for a drink. 3 months after not returning to run a group there the manager emailed us claiming that she was £150 out of pocket due to getting extra staff and food for our group and how disappointed she was we didn’t contact to say we weren’t coming…. Well given that we hadn’t returned for 3 months I’m not sure why she thought we would be coming back. Sadly I cannot recommend this place. The owner needs to address the poor service, excuse about size of the kitchen (it’s not your customers problem that you can’t cater to the number of covers you have space for) and...

I’ve had better. Me and my girls visited on Saturday and had a late lunch. The restaurant has a great vibe and our server Ellie was an absolute star. For those driving this place has a great variety of soft drinks, like loads. Now to the food, a real mixed inconsistent bag, the fish goujons we’re AMAZING we fought down to the last morsel and the seasoned fries were alittle different and devilishly moreish if you do risk it these are a must!! However the pork belly was the fattiest piece of meat of course you expect alittle fat on pork but this wasn’t really edible also the sauce needs reducing down alittle more as the wine is rather sour on the palate and considering tapas is a sharing dish you got one piece and the dish was priced at £10 so entirely unpleasant. The dipping elements of the meal were super tasty and the girls shovelled in forkfuls of humous, it was served with a rosemary toasted focaccia (yum) we ordered the bread basket for extra dippage and I was pretty disappointed that you got five discs of a French stick, again I thought it wasn’t the best value for money or in keeping with the quality of the other dishes. Now Ellie noticed that the pork was pretty untouched and asked if it was okay, we chatted and she offered to take it off the bill, we then moved on to an after dinner coffee, sadly i overheard Ellie give my feedback to what I assume was her manager and she was extremely unpleasant telling her something to the effect of what was I expecting pork IS fatty. Okay. Felt pretty awkward after that so we finished up and left. Wish I’d have checked my bill more thoroughly however as obviously the manager told her not to take the dish off our bill. So yeah probably wouldn’t return. Food is alittle hit and miss depending on the dish and wouldn’t risk fighting out any discrepancies with the staff. Ellie however is a gem and hospitality is...

There are loads of tables, one of which was taken by a group when we arrived. We were seated by a very friendly albeit flustered young man, who took our coffee order then went to seat others who had arrived after us. The staff seemed very overwhelmed with a pre-booked group and another walk in despite there being only 4 tables in total at this point, and the ones who’d come in after us were told it’d be a 45-50 min wait on food. I do wonder how they’d manage if it was absolutely bustling as not even half the tables were taken. Our lattes were luke-warm and not very well steamed, and the syrup we’d asked for tasted like they’d added a whole bottle rather than a pump, which was a bit off putting. We both ordered burritos, one veggie, one meat, and when they arrived mine must had been misheard as i was brought a veggie breakfast, which they did change very quickly thankfully :) the burritos were advertised as having crushed avocado and salsa on the side, but turned up with a slightly off unseasoned avocado which was sliced, and some half chopped tomatoes with a bit of coriander on-top which was the “salsa”. I’d also asked for tap water after our coffees, which never came. For nearly £40 I would’ve expected better food and service, especially from such a gorgeous venue. The decorations, furniture and general vibe of the place was really nice. I think with the right staff management, or an extra staff member or two they could do really well as the food was nice enough, just not worth what we paid. I did feel bad for the two people serving as they were quite young and doing their best but were clearly a bit inexperienced to be handling 20 odd...