Willy's, a restaurant tucked inside the Margate House hotel on Dalby Square, offers a charming and hearty dining experience just minutes from the seafront. The venue, with its frilly red-and-pink decor, exudes a playful seaside postcard vibe while serving a short, intentional menu that eschews trendy small plates in favour of substantial dishes like black pudding scotch eggs, beef rump, and sticky toffee pudding.
Chef Mark O'Brien, a MasterChef: The Professionals finalist, brings experience from London's Dairy and Whitstable's Samphire. The menu features starters such as devils on horseback and coronation mussels, mains like braised beef rib with leek and barley risotto, and vegetarian options including spiced cauliflower with braised lentils. The cocktail list includes classics like the paper plane and penicillin, while the wine selection leans towards natural and low-intervention bottles from France, Spain, and Italy.
Margate House, fully restored in 2023 by owner Will Jenkins and interior designer Charlee Allan Quinton, offers a boho drawing room and a bar serving Willy's cosmos. The dining room seats only 25, and with nine hotel rooms, booking ahead is essential. On a recent spring Saturday, the restaurant was bustling with local birthday parties and gatherings, served by warm and attentive staff.
Reviewers praised the Guinness soda bread with whipped butter, beef rump tartare with dripping toast, and chalk stream trout with seaweed butter sauce. Desserts include sticky toffee pudding with stem ginger ice-cream and rhubarb crumble. Despite its small size, Willy's has quickly become a local special-occasion destination, offering genuine hospitality in a characterful setting.
