The story
hide and fox serves modern British tasting menus at The Green, Saltwood, CT21 4PS, near Folkestone. The restaurant earned its second Michelin star in 2026, and it holds three AA Rosettes for the same year. The former village shop is run by chef Allister Barsby and manager Alice Bussi.
Barsby worked his way up from washing pots and opening oysters to head chef at several prestigious properties in England and Wales. He and Bussi opened hide and fox in June 2019. The kitchen refines contemporary ideas with classic techniques, and the menus shift with the season, often changing daily. Their careers also took them from Tuscany to Bath and from Devon to Wales.
The five-course tasting menu costs £110 and the eight-course costs £145, with wine pairings available at each. Sample dishes have included Loch Duart salmon with garden peas, kombu ponzu and English wasabi, and cavatelli with mushrooms, broad beans and egg yolk. Turbot comes with barbecued bone sauce and sea vegetables, while Middle White suckling pig is served with nettle pesto and ricotta. The menus draw heavily on Kent produce.
Bussi curates the wine list, which leans on English estates from Kent and Sussex, including Gusbourne and Nyetimber. The room is intimate and relaxed, and a Michelin guide reviewer described it as a neighbourhood restaurant with a cocktail-led start to the evening.
FACT-BOOK NOTE: (Omitted from the article per the brief: contact details, hours, booking, and links.)
Recognition
Ambience
Details
History
Excellent cooking
Allister Barsby's cooking has always impressed, and overall enthusiasm for this unassuming former village shop continues with the award of a second Michelin star. Saltwood knows a good thing when it sees it, even if the prices are starting to get as haute as the cuisine . However, judging from reporters’ positive comments ('we regularly go every three months as well as family celebrations and their special occasion evenings’), a meal here is still seen as a bargain compared with the equivalent elsewhere. Co-owner Alice Bussi runs front of house with a rarified calm – not unlike dining with a rather formal new acquaintance who takes food and wine very seriously. The ambience is pleasant enough, but the draw here is the cooking. Over the years, the kitchen has wavered little from its tried-and-tested formula of refining contemporary ideas with classic techniques, serving impeccable ingredients with seasonal punctuations on a choice of tasting menus – perhaps white asparagus and wild garlic in springtime, paired with halibut and Dover sole respectively. The wine list lives up to the standard set by the cooking, with a broad and varied selection from around the world (including a strong English showing) carefully chosen to balance quality and price.
3 Rosette Award for Culinary Excellence
Location
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