Off to Canterbury for a shufti around the cathedral, a meander through its pretty streets and a spot of lunch at Sekkoya, a vast, gorgeous-looking new pan-Asian restaurant on the Riverside next to a Curzon cinema, a crazy golf venue and a branch of Heavenly Desserts. The restaurant’s sleek website offers all sorts of bold statements about this hot dining experience (regular readers will be aware that I delight in this kind of Vogon poetry), claiming that it will take us on a “gastronomic journey throughout Asia that transcends ordinary flavours”, and offering cocktails that will “awaken your senses”.
The website emotes grandly in this way for many more yards, so much so, in fact, that I suspect AI. Only a non-sentient being could describe Canterbury’s Riverside as a “vibrant new lifestyle district”, when it’s just an elevated patch of concrete. Maybe Sekkoya is entitled to be cocky, though, because it’s clearly the classiest venue for miles: the place is bedecked in sea-green velour, with shiny floors, pale tan leather seats and an impressive “mural” skylight that gives the impression that you’re dining in a rainforest. Fans of the opulent Chinese restaurant chain Tattu, which is especially big in Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds, will recognise dashes of the modern, high-octane glamour that delights Instagram feeds. Add beautiful bathrooms, Kool & The Gang and George Benson on the stereo, and lovely, chipper serving staff, and they clearly mean business here.
