A love letter to rustic Campanian cucina povera isn’t exactly what you expect by the seaside – but there’s no questioning the provenance of this spot run by Harry Ryder and Simona Di dio, who mined her nonna’s cookbook for simple but wondrous staples like the verdura e fagioli greens and beans or bread balls cooked in the family’s rich red sauce. The tiramisu and house-made limoncello cream are sublime, and if you get there early you can sometimes bag an outside seat. 

When did a museum last make you LOL? The brainchild of brothers Bertie Terrilliams and Ned Suesat-Williams, with their friend Chase Coley, it’s hard to explain this place – essentially an idiosyncratic joke with a serious message, which uses crab facts to explore climate change, capitalism and the history of pretty much everything. Imagine a spotted reef crab moonlighting as a trade unionist, or a video of a human failing to shed armour in the way a crab would. Or just go and see for yourself.   

A creative trio that includes Gabriel Chipperfield, whose father designed the Turner Contemporary across the road, are behind this grown-up 14-room hotel – a sensitive conversion of a sea-facing hotel that first opened in 1820. There’s serious art dotted about the place, with a Tracey Emin line drawing in the ground-floor Colina bistro – serving bright Southern European small plates – and one of her neons in a nook in the two-storey subterranean bar, which regularly hosts book talks and cultural events.    

Okay, Margate has more great restaurants than we can mention here, but at a certain point you need to sit on the steps overlooking the Harbour Arm  with a fish supper from Peter’s, which never fails – even when the deals get eyebrow-raisingly good, like £4.50 for flaky haddock and chips. Don’t worry: as the seagull’s also know, it’s still good. If you want to be classy, pair with a Little Swift cocktail or beer from the Xylo microbrewery.