Thumbs

Thumbs is a Chinese restaurant and takeaway on the High Street in central Gravesend, running both a sit-down dining room and a delivery operation that covers the town and the closer surrounding villages. The shop sits a short walk from the riverside and the Borough Market end of the High Street, and the kitchen has been a steady presence on the local Chinese scene for years.

The menu is a broad British-Chinese list — Cantonese-style stir-fries, sweet and sour dishes, curries, set meals and a separate section of chef's specials — with the option to dine in, collect, or order delivery via the restaurant's own ordering system. Delivery carries a twelve-pound minimum within a three-mile radius and a small charge for the further villages of Swanscombe, Istead Rise and the outlying lanes. Reviewers on Tripadvisor and Restaurantji tend to single out the speed of service and the value of the set meals rather than any single signature dish, which is the position Thumbs has settled into — a working neighbourhood Chinese that locals use as a default rather than a destination, and that has held its trade as the High Street around it has shifted.