in·con·gru·ous /ɪnˈkɒŋgruəs/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[in-kong-groo-uhs] -adjective
1. out of keeping or place; inappropriate; unbecoming: an incongruous effect; incongruous behavior.
2. not harmonious in character; inconsonant; lacking harmony of parts: an incongruous mixture of architectural styles.
3. inconsistent: actions that were incongruous with their professed principles.

The East Beach Cafe deserves to be in better surroundings. Littlehampton’s charm, and perhaps its drawback, is that it is a sleepy, undiscovered place. It is odd, therefore, that this piece of the south coast is where (thanks to Jane Wood, a resident of Littlehampton, who was horrified to see that the beachfront café had applied for planning to be rebuilt on a huge and ugly scale, bought the site herself in order to protect it) Thomas Heatherwick has had the chance to design something radically new in terms of a beach front cafe.

Sculpted in oxidised steel and Adobe brown it looks from the outside like a weatherworn piece of driftwood washed up on the beach. Inside it resembles a shell with crisp clean lines and windows which would (on a warmer day) open along one side to let the sea air in.

The food is amazingly good (to be expected with a former Ritz chef in charge of the kitchen and advice from Rick Stein’s team). The creamy moules marinières served with rounds of granary bread to soak up the onion laced parsley flecked soup was followed by fish of the day (all fish is from sustainable sources) beer battered and served with a zinc bucket of chips. K chose the steamed cockles and pasta which was a little harder to negotiate thanks to the shells but looked beautiful with the yellow of the cockles matched by the red tomatoes and brown pasta creating an English version of spaghetti alla vongole.

I’d love to think that the East Beach Cafe could raise the bar within Littlehampton and inspire more architecture and brave ventures to match Wood and Heatherwick’s vision. I’d love it all the more if this started to inspire more beach cafes with the same quality of food. One thing I’m sure of is that we will go back and it will continue to be a success.