Margate’s Fort Road Hotel to launch Colina next month

Referencing the fact that the ‘art hotel’ is situated at the most elevated point of Margate’s Old Town, Colina, meaning ‘hill’ in Spanish, will serve a daily menu of smaller and larger seasonal plates, ‘interspersed with nostalgic Southern European specialities’.

The chef behind the relaunch is the Portuguese-born Luis Freitas, who was most recently at Margate’s Pearly Cow restaurant just down the road. 

Dishes will include patatas bravas; soused bream crudo; crispy cod cheeks with lemon escabeche; squid burger with green Romesco; malfalde pasta with slow-cooked oxtail ragu; and crema Catalana. 

Located on the ground floor of the hotel, Colina seat 35-covers in a ‘refreshed’ space with new furnishings picked by Gabriel Chipperfield, co-founder of the hotel and developer of the project.

As before, the space will offer breakfast with options including eggs and soldiers; sausage sandwiches made with house brown sauce; and shakshuka with hung curd and chilli. 

The wine list will focus on Italy, Spain and Portugal, accompanied by the ‘occasional French bottle and some New World favourites’. 

“We instantly fell in love with Luis’ cooking, and with Spain, Portugal and Greece being so often associated with some of the best seafood in the world, it made complete sense to introduce his Mediterranean palate to our waterfront hotel, adding another star to Margate’s crown of exceptional fish-forward restaurants,” says the hotel’s co-founder Matthew Slotover. 

“As far as we’re aware, there’s nothing else quite like it in the area - a place you can dip into at all times of the day, for a quick bite, early breakfast or full blown dinner and drinks”.

Fort Road Hotel launched in 2022.​​ Its restaurant was originally overseen by former The River Café chef Daisy Cecil.