A chef’s table is a table where you can see the work. Not a demonstration, not a chef standing over you explaining things, but a window onto a kitchen in the middle of service, while you eat what it is making. At Royal Maritime House that table is called The 1982, and it is downstairs.
It seats eight to sixteen, six down each side and two at each end, on the lower ground floor beneath the restaurant. On one side there is a window into the central kitchen. On the other, the wine cellar.
What you actually see
A kitchen at eight o’clock on a Saturday is the most interesting thing in any restaurant: five or six people working quietly at speed, plates going up in sets, somebody wiping a rim with a cloth before it leaves. Nobody performs for the room. That is rather the point.
It changes the way a dinner behaves. Conversation stops when something is being finished, which gives a table of sixteen the thing it usually lacks: a shared thing to look at.
The room, in numbers
Up to 16: six down each side, two at each end
8 guests
The central kitchen and the wine cellar
None. No minimum spend either
£10 per guest, non-refundable
The room from noon until 5pm
6pm until midnight, everyone away by 12.30am
The name is a vintage. 1982 produced some of the finest wines of the century in Bordeaux, the Douro and Italy. The larger room next door, The 1945, takes ten to twenty and has its own bar.
How the evening is put together
- Tell us the planDate, numbers, the occasion and which room. Two minutes on the enquiry form, or a phone call.
- We come back to youThe events team confirms the room and the date, talks through the menu, and sends it in writing.
- Choose the menuMenus are planned with you and Robert’s kitchen. Pre-orders are needed five days before, and we can print name cards with each guest’s choices.
- Hold the dateA £10 per guest deposit, and that’s it.
The practical bits
- Bills can be split up to two ways on the night, unless the booking is paid in advance.
- Both rooms have Sonos, so bring a playlist.
- We provide glass oil lamps. Balloons and table decorations are welcome if you take them home. No confetti, glitter, party poppers or indoor fireworks.
- The rooms are on the lower ground floor and there is no step-free access. Tell us before you book and the team will plan for it.
- Twenty-two minutes on the FastCat from Portsmouth Harbour, then five minutes up St Thomas Street.
What it suits
Birthdays that have outgrown a normal table. Client dinners where the room needs to do some of the work. Rehearsal dinners and wedding parties for up to twenty. Christmas, which goes early. And the dinner that has no reason at all beyond sixteen people being in the same place for once.
If you want the room without the kitchen view, or you are more than sixteen, The 1945 is next door. If you want Robert’s tasting menu instead, Thompson’s is served in these rooms on a handful of dates each month.
Questions we get asked
Is there a chef’s table on the Isle of Wight?+
Yes. The 1982 at The Cellar, beneath RT Café Grill in Ryde, is a private room for eight to sixteen guests with a window onto Chef Robert Thompson MBE’s kitchen.
How many people does the chef’s table seat?+
Up to 16, with a minimum of 8. The larger room, The 1945, takes 10 to 20 and has its own bar.
Is there a room hire fee?+
No. There is no hire fee and no minimum spend, only minimum numbers. A £10 per guest deposit, which is non-refundable, holds the date.
How far ahead do we choose the menu?+
Menu pre-orders are needed five days before the booking. We can print name cards with each guest’s choices if you send them by then.
How long do we have the room?+
Lunch bookings have it from noon until 5pm. Dinner bookings have it from 6pm until midnight, with everyone away by 12.30am.