The Bridge Arms

The Bridge Arms is the second Michelin-starred project from the Daniel Smith / Natasha Smith team who run The Fordwich Arms — a Grade II listed former coaching inn in the village of Bridge, five miles south of Canterbury on the old Dover road. The Bridge Arms took over the building in 2022, was added to the Michelin Guide for 2023, and awarded its first star the same year.

The cooking shares the Fordwich Arms's seasonal British register but runs slightly more playfully. A beef-tartare-on-dripping-toast with cured egg yolk has been a menu opener. A gently smoked-haddock-and-Jerusalem-artichoke velouté is the winter soup. The slow-roast Kentish pork belly with braised red cabbage and apple-and-mustard sauce has been the autumn mainstay; a crab-and-samphire orzo brings the kitchen into summer.

The wine list is smaller than Fordwich's — roughly 150 bins — and leans into biodynamic French growers plus a strong English sparkling section. A short aperitif cocktail menu runs at the front bar. Sunday lunch (£55 for three courses) is one of the village's most-booked meals; walk-ins are discouraged during service weeks.

The dining room is split across two spaces — a main hall with low oak beams and a smaller private room which handles parties of up to twelve. The village of Bridge itself is sleepy in the non-tourist months and atmospheric walkable after dinner. Four of the inn's original bedrooms upstairs now operate as B&B accommodation.

The Bridge Arms is Canterbury's first-date restaurant — Michelin-starred but relaxed, priced reasonably, a short drive from central Canterbury, and with an atmosphere that is impressive without being intimidating. The smaller private room also handles team dinners of six to twelve cleanly.