Chilean Red Crab is HUGE – Our meal out at Jervois Steak House (Herne Bay)

We decided on the spur of the moment to go out for dinner mid-week and ended up at Jervois Steak House (after a quick phone reservation and consequently delaying our departure by 45min). The restaurant was full, with a great vibe and we were seated upstairs.

We have always found the service at Jervois Steak House to be outstanding and tonight was no exception. Our waiter was superb and very knowledgeable about the menu. We also noted how we had a story to tell to every table and made everybody feel very welcome.

To start Jane ordered the steamed Chilean Red Crab that came with three different butters (garlic, ginger and spicy). When this arrived, this was definitely a Wow moment. This was a huge (and I mean HUGE) crab leg that must have been about 60cm long, that had lots of meat within and was already cut along it’s length to make extraction easier. It tasted great on its own and we thought the butters all tasted similar; our conclusion was that they were really just there so that the crab didn’t look lonely.

I had the Sirloin steak for my main with a Porcini Jus. It was a lovely tender steak with lots of flavour, although it was rarer than I was expecting for a rare steak (which I’m okay with). I didn’t get a Wow that’s an awesome steak feeling that I’d had on a previous occasion when we got the T-bone for two.

Jane had another entree for her main, Lamb Wellington, that she was a bit disappointed with; the accompanying green chimichurri sauce was not to her liking and the dish didn’t meet her expectations as a delicious dish.

We accompanied our main meals with a Peanut Slaw and a Rocket lettuce salad w aged manchego cheese. Both were good although the slaw stood out as being an excellent accompaniment that is quite different than normal.

For dessert I had the Nougatine semifreddo “sandwich” w honey wafers & hot chocolate. The homemade marshmallow was lovely and the ice-cream beautiful and creamy. As for the hot chocolate, it was an odd accompaniment.

Jane had the Spanish chocolate fudge figs for dessert. The figs were perfectly ripe and the chocolate rich. A nice and simple dessert although you couldn’t eat too much of it, so I helped Jane out.

It is not a cheap meal out and there other other places around that I think are better value for money, but the nice ambience, superb service and a couple of different items on the menu will drag us back.