The Ferry House

The Ferry House, Isle of Sheppey

We’d been to The Ferry House, on the Isle of Sheppey, once before. This was for a wedding and it was wonderful. So when we were invited to come along to try their Festive Menu, we jumped at the chance.

The Ferry House is tucked away in Harty on the Isle of Sheppey. If you’ve never driven there before, you’ll be surprised how remote it is, you need to drive about 3 miles across some gorgeous marshes and farmland to get there. The road is lovely, as you can enjoy the countryside views. When you get there, you feel like you’ve found a real gem. The building is well-decorated and cosy. There are a number of different rooms you can eat in. We were in the Shoot Room, which was adorned with naked bulbs, green pheasant wallpaper, a farmhouse lamp, lots of natural light and wooden furniture. All which suit the beams and hops. The tables are spaced really well apart, so even with our pushchair, we didn’t feel like we were crammed in next to the other diners.

When we arrived, we got chatting to a couple on another table. They told us it was the best place to eat on the Island – so we were hopeful of a delicious meal.

The Festive Menu can be enjoyed at either lunchtime or dinnertime. We went for lunch, as we had Austin with us and it would have been too late for him for dinner. There are four choices for each course and they all sound tantalising.

What I really like about The Ferry House is they have a kitchen garden where they grow a lot of their produce. The flowers that adorned my dessert were grown in the kitchen garden. Anything that they can’t grow themselves, they source as locally as possible. They also use local meat suppliers. I spotted some of the young game birds when we were driving back along the Harty Ferry Road. I’d had the partridge terrine for starter – you can’t get more local than that! The beef shin I had for my main was also local meat, coming from the actual Harty Estate – which is the family-owned farm.

The local support also extends to the drinks. I spotted gin from Chatham’s Copper Rivet Distillery, wines from Chapel Down, juices from Chegworth Valley and Dudda’s Tun Ciders. Very impressive.

But I bet what you really want to know is if the food is any good? Thankfully I can tell you it is amazing. After my Partridge Terrine starter, I had the Beef Shin. This was served with mash, beetroot, carrot puree and a beef consommé. The meat was so well cooked it just fell apart and the carrot puree was so tasty, my husband actually told me to stop going on about it.

He opted for the onion soup for starter which was served with soda bread and herb butter. The onion was sweet and went delightfully well with the in-house baked bread and butter. For main he went very traditional and had the turkey, duck fat roasties, stuffing served with vegetables and gravy. He was not disappointed, the meat was really tasty, the potatoes were golden and crispy. He was really pleased with the stuffing and veggies too!

You’d think after all that, we wouldn’t have room for dessert. You would be half right. But the desserts looked so tasty, we couldn’t resist. I was so glad we did. Thankfully mine was quite light. I went for the Toffee Apple Macaron served with a Salted Caramel Sauce. When it came out, it almost looked too good to eat – almost! The flavours were beautifully balanced between the apple and caramel and I didn’t have any trouble finishing it. Although after the three courses I was terribly full. My husband went for the Sticky Date Pudding with Malted Ice Cream and Poached Apple. The pudding was so moreish, but it was the Malted Ice Cream that was the star – the flavour was wonderful.

The service was outstanding. The team couldn’t have been more helpful. They were really knowledgeable about the dishes and helped us to choose drinks to go with our meal. They also looked after baby Austin, making a fuss of him and assisting us with warming up his milk when he got hungry.

So if you are looking for a great place in Kent to go for a lovely festive lunch or dinner, you really should try The Ferry House. It’s such a terrific place, serving great food, sustainably. Their three-course lunch menu costs just £25 per person, or for those with a smaller appetite, just £20 for two courses. For dinner, you get the added bonus of tea or coffee and homemade petit fours. All for just £28.50 per person. I think that’s incredible value. They’ve got lots of other things happening this Christmas too – parties for Christmas and New Year and wreath-making.

Whether you are local or not, you could also look to stay there. They’ve got some amazing-looking accommodation on site too. There are 11 rooms, six of them luxury and one even has a copper bath. I would definitely like an overnight stay there – it looks lovely.

Will we be back? Oh yes! It’s a great venue, great food, great service and great ethics! What’s not to love?

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Disclosure: As mentioned, we were invited to try the Festive Menu and our meal was complimentary, but as always, my opinions are my own and we thoroughly enjoyed our meal.