The Fordwich Arms

The Fordwich Arms is a pub with a restaurant on King Street in Fordwich, a small town on the River Stour just outside Canterbury in Kent. Chef Dan Smith runs it with his wife Natasha and the sommelier Guy Palmer-Brown.

Smith worked in several of Jason Atherton's restaurants and then spent five years at The Clove Club in Shoreditch, where he met Palmer-Brown. In November 2017 he and Natasha, a pastry chef, took over the pub from Sue and Shaun Donnelly, who retired after running it for decades. About ten months later the Michelin Guide awarded the pub a star, published in its 2019 edition. The Smiths have since also taken on The Bridge Arms, a second pub nearby.

There has been a pub on this site for more than a thousand years, and the owners always wanted it to stay one. The main dining room is panelled in oak and warmed by fireplaces, there is a medieval tavern area, and a terrace above the river is used in good weather. Keeping the bar alongside the restaurant lets the place work for a pint as well as a long tasting menu.

Provenance matters to the kitchen, which butchers whole animals, cures meat, churns butter and bakes bread on site. Dishes have included a cod's roe tart, scallop tartare and roast lamb with asparagus and morels, as well as hand-dived scallop with sea buckthorn and slow-poached quail with Jerusalem artichoke. Natasha's English rhubarb tart with honey cream is a seasonal dessert. Tasting menus sit beside a shorter midweek set menu and a Sunday lunch.