We recently holidayed down the road and were walking into Hythe having had nothing to eat yet and…read morethought this looked nice for coffee and pastries.
The decor is minimal but not at all austere despite it being a large space, mostly because it's all wood and subtle colours. Real napkins on the tables! Along the whole length of one wall is an amazing wooden shelving unit / dresser with drawers. It was discovered out in the garage when the new people opened the restaurant and was made for the general stores which is what this building had been when it first opened. There are fantastic lamps on the walls - incandescent bulbs with gorgeous twisty filaments in metal cages. Lovely.
Anyway, the menu was small but unusual. Once we had seen the menu we decided to have a little more than a croissant! I chose scrambled eggs with chives and cream; my partner had charred mackerel with pickled cherries. There was not a lot when it arrived but it was delicious and with a gorgeous creamy texture. It came with slices of soda bread toast, griddles with olive oil. The combination was delicious. My partner loved his fish, which looked not far off raw and loved the pickled cherries too.
As this had been so good we decided to try the wonderfully named Dirty, filthy cheesecake! So named because they mix in another pungent cheese. Today it was stinking bishop! When it arrived as a small portion with currants and grapes and a red wine reduction it was delicious. Very firm and dense and with a definite taste of something pungent lurking in the background. Unusual.
We decided to finish with a latte each and agreed afterwards that it was a top class cup of coffee.
Service was very friendly, the cakes on the counter looked great, the cocktails sounded extra special and Dan is a bit of a cocktail whizz by all accounts. Also, the wine list was individual and had obviously been chosen thoughtfully. Sadly, as we still had our early morning hats on we didn't feel wine was appropriate ...
We were very impressed and would have loved a return visit but due to the press of the weekend it didn't happen.