Latest opening: Rockwater Branksome
What: Located on Branksome Chine beach in Dorset, the new restaurant is a new sister restaurant to the original Rockwater on Hove seafront. Rockwater Branksome opened for soft launch on 13 September and will officially launch on Friday (22 September).
Who: Restaurateur Luke Davis has built on the success of his Hove restaurant with this second seaside venue. Davis, who opened Rockwater Hove in 2019, has a number of strings to his bow; he is also co-founder and director at 42Bruton, a PR and content agency for SMEs, and CEO and co-founder at IW Capital, a private equity firm focused on tax efficient investments.
The food: The ground floor restaurant serves an all-day menu, kicking off with a choice of pastries; sweet and savoury pancakes; and Dorset crab benedict. Lunch and dinner options include light bites and bowls such as Korean fried chicken with kale and kimchi slaw and furikake flatbread; a lobster and king prawn roll; and a Rockwater burger with bacon marmalade and smoked onion aioli. The restaurant also has a wood-fired grill on which dry-aged sirloin, ribeye and fillet steaks are cooked as well as whole baked sea bream to share. Upstairs in the roof terrace the menu features a selection of small plates, including tuna, tobiko aioli, and unagi glaze; potted white crab meat with nori butter and sourdough; and burrata with green tomato, cucumber, lemon oil, and tempura and sharing dishes such as beef short rib with pico de gallo, served in soft flour tortillas; a lobster sharer served with a summer salad and bisque potato salad; and the ‘plant beach duo’, a colourful platter of plant-based items including hearts of palm with cashew nut cream, watermelon ‘tuna’ sashimi and spinach gomae salad. Desserts include a tropical meringue; peanut butter and raspberry brownie; and a coffee and walnut torte.
To drink: Twists on classics such as Lemon Iced Tea, Blood Orange Margarita and the Solero’, inspired by the popular ice cream, feature on the cocktail menu alongside a crowd-pleasing range of wines, beer, and alcohol-free options.
The vibe: The glass-fronted restaurant is modelled on the original Rockwater on Hove seafront and has a ground floor dining room with upstairs roof terrace both offering views of the beach. The style and colour palette feels very sophisticated seaside with a light brown wooden floor and muted brown and cream tones, blue and mustard seating, patterned banquettes and cream marble tables. Wood panelling and sofas also give the restaurant a slight Soho House loungey vibe that you wouldn’t necessarily associate with a venue a pebble’s skip from the beach.
And another thing: The restaurant offers a series of ‘lifestyle and wellness-focused’ events that take place throughout the week. Options include morning yoga classes, regular guided sea swims, book clubs, sip and paint workshops, cocktail masterclasses and a chess club. Next spring Davis will open his third Rockwater restaurant in Sandbanks, and currently operates a food-to-go shack at Sandbanks beach. Together the two sites will form Rockwater Village.
Westbourne, Poole, BH13 6LP
rockwater.uk
