Wheelers Oyster Bar — Restaurant in Canterbury

My husband booked a table in advance for my birthday. We had the tasting menu, at £75 a head and it was absolutely delicious.

A quick stop off across the road to the “Office” to pick up some drinks since there is no licence, they have a great selection and good prices.

It’s a tiny place and only a few tables. The menu is set but we were asked about any allergies, dislikes etc. which we don’t have so went with it.

The first plate or potato bread and chicken skin butter.. yes, that’s right chicken skin butter set the meal up perfectly. The whipped butter was delicious. As it states the taste of crispy roast chicken skin in a butter.. right up my street.

Next up a plate of 3 snacks. Prawn Tom Yum, nicely spiced and prawny, moist monkfish cheeks with a blue cheese and BBQ sauce and one of my favourite dishes Tuna Poki with XO sauce. Perfectly cut tuna and so many layers of flavour. Loved it.

The next plate was red snapper ceviche. Again, Asian inspired flavours which I love. So much going on with this plate. It has so many different ingredients and textures. Fresh and exceptionally good.

Butter poached prawn and lobster claw cone, perfectly cooked prawn, and rich sauce. Lobster claw done in one go.. great. Next up my (and my husbands) favourite dish of the evening. Roasted scallop, rabbit fish finger, rosemary and pecorino puree, bacon, courgettes, and scallop roe velouté. This dish was next level. It had all I wanted in a dish. The scallop was sweet, salty bacon, rich sauce, and the rabbit finger, moist and perfectly pulled style rabbit meat in a crispy crumb. We could both eat this again and again.. we could also hear the chatter on the the tables next to us agreeing this was an awesome plate of food.

The next dish we agreed was our least favourite, Turbot with wild mushroom, onion tea and 3 purees. Fish cooked perfectly but the purees were a bit overpowering. That said we ate every bit. Next up the first of 2 desserts, mandarin, white chocolate, and gingerbread. Served old school trifle style, the gingerbread was chewy and zingy, and the boozy mandarin was great with the sweet white chocolate. Very refreshing. To end Roly poly of apple and almond custard. A perfect end and a delicious dessert surprisingly light. Every plate we had was complete cleared. The service was excellent and compliments to the chef that kindly had a chat with the tables afterwards to get honest feedback.

Loved it and can see why this place is so popular I would certainly recommend it without a doubt. We also had the pleasure of some of their take out food for lunch.. the sausage roll with place and prawn and crab tart were both equally as delicious. If there is a queue it’s worth going in and having a look. They do quite a selection to take away including as one local informed me an awesome fish pie.. sadly it was closed before we left to go back home otherwise for certain we’d have got one to take back home. We will with no doubt be returning when next in Whitstable.

Thank you all so much for a perfect...

This is the very first time I visit Whitstable, even though I am an oyster lover, therefore, as I am very passionate about food, I did a bit of research before choosing the places to go for a nice lunch, snacks, drinks, and dinner. This place was the first on my list, and how right I was in choosing it! The great experience started when calling them to make a reservation for lunch on Saturday for 2 people. They were fully booked, but gladly took my name and number in case of any cancellations. They s as odi called me on Friday to let me know they could accommodate us at 1 pm on Saturday! This might seem a banal thing, but it requires londinese and precision, and, especially if you are a very busy and renowned place, it is rare and uncommon to have this type of attention to detail. In London they definitely would not call back. I explained we errr coming from London by train so we could arrive a few minutes late because of unexpected delays, and they were totally fine with this( train was slightly delayed, but they happily waited for us !). The food is delicious, cooked expertly and with a lot of care and attention. We had 6 native oysters and 6 with yuzu granite, some delicious homemade breads ( 2 types ) kindly offered to us, then we ordered the scallops as a starter to share, the halibut and the turbot. I forced my friend to pre-order the second dessert ( I sneakily wanted to try both, the chocolate ganache with espresso ice cream, and the blueberry soufflé as well, and they both required pre-ordering) so we were now happy, seated, relaxed and very well looked after by the whole team. The service was always delivered to us by smiling, happy to be there staff, helpful, caring and warm. This is the type of great service that is not easily found anymore, and it is so refreshing when you see what a warm welcome and good service like this can do to people, like us, that love food, hospitality, eating out. The whole experience was faultless, the food delicious, the scallops were moist and tender, the oysters were incredible, the halibut was outstanding, the turbot delicious, and the blueberry soufflé and the chocolate ganache were the perfect ending to a perfect meal ! Prices are very honest and, in fact, low for the quality of food served. This will definitely be my first port of call when I will visit Whitstable again ! Thank you to all of you guys, it has been a memorable experience! Ps they are not licensed, but there is a nice shop with great selection of quality wines just in front of them, and they do not charge corkage ( if they did, I’m sure it was a very small amount, compared to normal corkage fees allied...

I’ve been here a few times and recommended it to book a birthday meal for six. We were given an hour and a half time slot that was agreed in advance on the phone. However, this was promptly trimmed to an hour and fifteen on arrival even though we were on time. Fifteen minutes doesn’t sound like a lot, but actually had greater impact later on in the meal.

From the outset the waitress was poorly mannered, rushed and pushy. Not a hint of a greeting or good afternoon, we were told we had a shortened time slot and then she disappeared. We ordered a half dozen of every oyster dish on the menu, plus other dishes from the staters. Again, throughout this our waitress was pushy and agitated. It’s not a huge place, get your numbers and timings in order and do better to be less stressed out if you can’t handle it. The waitress was chewing gum throughout the service - totally unacceptable.

The last straw was our request for one slice of sticky toffee pudding for dessert. One, between six. We wanted to put a candle on it and celebrate a birthday — we requested it twenty minutes before the time slot was up. We were told that was “impossible” to prepare a slice as there was only twenty minutes left on the booking. All our plates were then left uncleared for the duration of that time, during which the waitress strolled past our table nonchalantly and without care. She then proceeded to come over to collect the £186 bill (minus £60 booking fee) upon which I had to request the plates were cleared before the bill was settled. She reluctantly agreed to do so. Again, very basic and shouldn’t have to ask.

Where was the front of house manager in all of this? Nowhere to be seen. Not once did they come over to see if things could be resolved or sorted out, we were just reminded of the queue outside and told to hurry up. Take responsibility for your bookings, timings and staff. It is unacceptable to push people and not give due warning in parts of the menu being unavailable due to time constraints, not least to chew gum and have a petty confrontational attitude.

We won’t be coming again, a shame as it was a great place. Poor service and lack of judgement shouldn’t be reflected by inconveniencing your...