Phil Sampson discovers an outstanding floating restaurant with a history to match on the bustling waterfront of this vibrant Suffolk town
MARINERS 1900 IPSWICH
Beat this for heritage: built as a 19th century gunboat; interned during World War I; sunk in World War II; raised and repaired in 1945; converted into a hospital ship in the 1950s; found a new life as a party boat in the 1970s; transformed into a restaurant in the 1990s; rebranded and upgraded under the watchful eye of new owners Julien and Karine Jourdain in 2018.
It’s quite a story and one which, if geography had been Julien’s strong suit, may have turned out completely differently. For when his dad sent him from France to work in a friend’s restaurant in Ipswich during a summer break, an excited Julien thought Ipswich was an area of London!
Luckily for him, on arrival in the capital, a cab driver took pity on him and dropped him at Liverpool Street station instead of going for the bumper fare to Suffolk. Fortunately for the rest of us, Julien fell in love, not just with Ipswich but also with the boat and, later on, with Karine. Today, now named Mariners 1900, the establishment they own and operate together is right up there with any of the numerous fine floating restaurants dotted around Europe.
Under the direction of head chef Geoff Phillips, Mariners 1900 offers an enticing selection of set menu and a la carte dishes. On our visit, we elected to dine from the set menu, which allows diners to mix and match any combination of the three starters, mains and desserts on offer.
W
