Harbour Arms, Margate

Another Margate pub in a fine location - at the end of the pier. Outside bench seating. Nautical theme inside. Gravity fed beers - Darkstar Hophead a lovely drop.

Nautical themed micropub on the Margate harbour arm. A single square room with a pleasing light blue colour scheme on the brick walls, but not that you can see much of it behind the eclectic collection of nautical brick a brac covering all walls and suspended from the ceiling by several fishing nets. Three ales from the barrel and for my visit these were Breakwater Harbour Gold , Severn Brewing Amarillo and Mad Cat Plum Sauce Porter. I tried both the local Kent Brews and they were in good condition and the Rhubarb Cider from the dozen or so ciders available here went down well with the good lady. We had a fine weather lunchtime and were able to utilise the outside benches which were catching the sun and in that respect this was a good visit. I liked it here but Mrs G didn’t find it as comfortable as some of the other Kent micros on this trip.

This is an unusual micropub in that it is set in little more than an old hut towards the end of the Harbour Arm. I should imagine it's fun accessing it on a stormy day with a high spring tide. Inside it's just a rectangular room with a concrete floor and furniture that mostly looks like it came from a skip. There is bric-a-brac everywhere much of it nautical which all adds to the chaos. There seems to be a tie in with the cafe almost next door as a couple came in asking for teas and they were bought in by the cafe owner. There were three beers available, several ciders including a mulled one laced with rum, a few gins and some bottles of San Miguel for the knotted handkerchief brigade when the weather's a bit warmer than it was on a January afternoon. The beers were G2 Orion Session Pale, something called Firkin Southern Cross and Wantsum Ravening Wolf. I went for the Ravening Wolf which was £3.50 but is a 5.9% beer. Sadly I missed out on the CAMRA discount. Some people might regard this place as a bit of a dive and in some ways it is but given the exposed location luxurious fittings would be daft. I really liked it but I'm not sure that I would come here in the summer. It seems to be open from 12:00 daily.