Lion Hotel, Farninghamback to pub details please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Simply couldn't walk past this location. Picture postcard perfect.
Cask Marque accredited with one Real Ale - you've guessed it, Doom Bar.
Decent condition and £3.65 not outrageous for the setting.
Visit blogged at http://bit.ly/2ryBOs9
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The funny this is, this pub doesn't give a sh*t about the reviews that you leave, they will still make money due to the location. Haha.
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Visited the Lion today (Sunday) for a family lunch - nine of us. Couldn't fault it at all. Booked the table by phone and they phoned back last night to confirm our booking. Place was busy being a sunny Sunday but our food arrived in a reasonable time. Waitress (Julie E) was friendly and fun, attentive and very good at her job. Food was all well-cooked and tasty, big portions and piping hot. Based on our experience today we wouldn't hesitate to go back for dinner someday. At under £20 per head (inc drinks, some starters and some desserts) good value for money. Seems to be mixed reviews for this place - maybe it depends on which staff are on duty?
JKIRK - 18 Aug 2013 22:13 |
This place has incredible potential. A beautiful building with old termite-ridden beams inside, nicely decorated and bags of character. Alas, there are some problems. The first being the swarms of wasps in the garden. You simply couldn't put up with it. Because of this, my wife and I sat inside, on which was, a lovely day. We ordered chicken liver pate and scallop and prawn risotto for starter, and Mixed grill and the grilled plaice for main. Before the food came we were given our cutlery, which were FILTHY, and still had bits of old, dried food on it. The prawn risotto was lacking flavour, and the pea and mint was absent altogether, the chicken liver pate was fine. The mains were worse. The grilled plaice was beyond slimy and the potatoes were the size and texture of squash balls. When I initially asked for the mixed grill, I asked for the steak to be done medium rare. I didn't expect to be tucking in to something that felt like a wellington boot. When we went to pay, my wife did say something about this to the young boy behind the bar, to which he replied "Oh, right." and carried on fiddling about with the computer. He opened a new bottle of Jack Daniels with his teeth, then failed to ask me how much coke I wanted (just filled it up to the top). And a few more basic things that bar staff should know how to do if they're trained properly. The only positive thing about our visit to this place was the girl who brought us our food. We've driven past this place so many times and it's always looked so nice. We really wanted to like it. Very disappointed.
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Went in The Lion again for a family lunch yesterday. The food was lovely, the Aspall's was flowing, the beer garden was gorgeous and the service was prompt and friendly. A great time was had by all - especially the kids who played in the river whilst the adults basked in the sun.
This is currently my favourite place to go when the sun is shining. 8/10.
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As part of Vintage Inns this is more of a restaurant. I have lunched or dined here 7 or 8 times this year and enjoy the food and choice of ales (usually three). It is popular and nearly always busy. It is likely to get even busier when summer arrives as it is by the River Darent. Service can be slow (staff are hard pushed but friendly); that apart, I would recommend it.
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Had a fantastic lunch/afternoon at The Lion today. Absolutely great setting and the kids loved playing in the river. The food was really nice and didn't take too long to arrive, what more do you want?
OK, from the reviews below I can see how the queuing "system" in place could become a bit tedious at times, but surely it's a testament to the popularity of the place that it can often get very busy?
It just goes to show that you can't believe everything you read - see below! - and are very glad that we gave it a try and weren't put off.
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Nice pint of Fullers summer ale.
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We visited the Lion on a busy Saturday lunchtime, we hadn't booked but they still found us a table. Choice of at least 3 ales, Doombar etc. beer well kept. Chicken liver pate starter very good, tasted homemade. Haddock and chips also good, batter nicely cooked and a good sized portion for �7.99. A friendly and efficient waitress served us quickly. As mentioned in other posts the outside location is very attractive though a little spoilt by traffic noise from the distant motorway. The dining area inside was clean, comfortable and had the usual traditional English pub/hotel look and atmosphere. What else would you expect - a nightclub ? Hard for me to recognise this pub as described in some of the previous reviews though of course pubs do change. MellyB's party ate all their food then didn't have to pay for it - sounds like they didn't do too badly - and loupo, having apparently bungled her ordering, then tried to get ahead by bossing the waitress (she's serving staff, not your feudal serf). Perhaps people with "five young children" should take them to MacDonalds instead and do us all a favour.
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Fine location, but dreadful place with no atmosphere!
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Had dinner at this pub this evening (a Tuesday) in the beer garden by the stream. Very nice location, friendly service. Food was delivered quickly and quite good quality. It has to be said that the pub was not very busy at this time.
We had starters and mains, although the portions would have allowed a third course as well. That could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on what you expect from pub food.
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Disasterous! We booked a table for seven (two adults, five young children) after being advised that we were unable to book a table outside. When we arrived on time the waitress advised us that our waiter hadn't arrived so we could either sit at the table or in the bar. The restaurant was empty, dark and cold so we chose the bar and innocently waited in the bar with drinks unaware that in the meantime all the people arriving outside were ordering their food ahead of us. When the waiter eventually arrived 15 minutes after our booking time and we were shown to the table people were queing five deep at the bar to place orders. We placed our order (restaurant empty apart from our table of two with five children - keen to order and get out to enjoy the sun after the meal). The waitress took our order and reappeared 20 minutes later to tell us that we'd have a half hour wait for food. A few minutes later she reappeared to tell us that actually the wait would be an hour. When my husband expressed his concern the reply was immediately confrontational 'there's no difference between booking a table inside or ordering outside'. Eventually they reluctantly agreed to push our order up the list a bit. I explained to the waitress that there was a flaw with their system as they had left us waiting while we could have been ordering and while I was speaking she was trying desperately to interrupt me and I had to ask her politely to let me speak. She did finally let me explain that I was trying to make them aware there was a flaw for future customers. There was a grunt of acknowledgment and a sullen retreat. No apology. The woman who had been initally friendly was hostile and unnapproachable. We reconvened at the table but decided that the experience had been such a huge disappointment that we wanted to leave. Instead we went to Sidcup Place and had a lovely meal with a really sweet waitress who would bring in far more business at The Lion than the brutish woman who we had to contend with! Not at all impressed!!!! This place needs some serious customer communication training. We would have been perfectly happy if they had been apologetic rather than hostile. I think that we must have had the same waitress as MellyB!
loupo - 10 Apr 2011 20:20 |
Just returned from the Lion, Farningham. What an abysmal sham!
Booked on-line, no problem with that. Turned up 15 minutes early, were ignored for 5 minutes standing at the door. Asked waitress who said that she didn't know but she was "right on it"!!
Eventually sat at a table right next to extractor fan(it was freezing) and sign saying reserved for Fisher @ 13:30!! It was 18:30. Sat there for ten minutes with no drink, no menu!!!! Eventually asked if we wanted a drink....this came 10 minutes later......and we sat there.....and we sat there...lots of staff....all ignoring us......saw the chap who showed us to table ask anther waitress to take our order....we ordered Tomato soup (with a twist) had cheese in it.....Chicken and onion rings for my 10 year old. Started turned up after about 20 minutes......Soup was white! (turned out to be vegetable.... Chicken was yummy and no onion rings......asked for onion rings..... they turned up about 10 minutes later.... explained the soup to waitress and she said "see what happens if I don't take the order....and we waited and we waited and had our plates cleared and my partner and daughter went to the bathroom and we waited my partner then went to get drinks as we had all run out by now....and we waited...and we waited.... and waitress said ...not long now folks and we waited and we waited and my daughter got fidgety ....and we waited and then it came!!!! Wow.........not!!!! Steak like leather...chips..burnt....no mushrooms as offered by the waitress......Roast dinner had two burnt roast potatoes, broccoli with no tree.....chewy beef that was chewy! Hard yorkshire pudding...scampi and chips....hard..........
Waitress asked if all ok...and we explained not really.......she came back and manager said for us to only pay for drinks...I explained one lot of drinks paid for at the bar and waitress was quite uppity and said "I don't care!" that's what the manager said!!! We offered to pay for starters as they, eventually were acceptable although not as we ordered...but were told again it was as the manager had said.......what a shambles....won't be going there again!! In summary...potential but, get rid of waiting staff and train the chefs to cook!! Sorry but true
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In response to the ignorant comment posted by 'Ebels' on 1st September, I think the comment posted by 'Jackie01' was completely justified. If the pub had been run properly, the staff should have made provisions for the size of party attending.......otherwise they should not have taken the booking in the first place. The Lion is clearly suffering if you look at the other comment too...I would have been tempted to walk out and not pay the bill if a party I went there for had been ruined and the staff didnt seem to care!!!
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Went to this pub for a meal for my dads 80th Birthday, there was about 18 of us, we had booked in advance and asked to place our food orders in advance as we was a big group which we did no problem. Table was booked for 6.45 pm we all arrived and got our starters at 9pm which were all terrable, prawn cocktail with loads of lettace but about 6 small prawns, a scollops starter that was all rice, so 2 hours of waiting pre orded food and not even worth waiting for, But it was a Birthday after all so waited for our mains that was even worse, all the veg was cold, chips looked like lunch time warm ups, meals all served with chips no matter what menu said, no mushrooms with steaks as per menu, no steak sauces arrived, nothing was done about any of the complaints, the waiter said ITS NOT MY FAULT so told him to get the cheff or the manager to come out, a young man came after a while and a lot of upset and said he was the manager, he just nodded at the complaints and did'nt really have anything to say. So we walked out and did'nt pay and he also nodded and agreed with this. Would never go here again and would'nt advise anyone else to go here, ruinned my dads 80th birthday.
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Went here with my family and really enjoyed it - okay - the service was a bit slow, but the staff were really pleasant, which in part made up for it. I can imagine there will be a long wait though if it were more busy! The food was decent enough and just what you would expect - the setting is lovely. And most of all the kids we had with us enjoyed it! Should have come here last week, rather than another local pub.
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Have to agree with other comments about the way this 'pub' is run. just got back from there (now 9.50 Saturday night). Ordered food at aboyt 7.20, starter arrived after 25 minutes - not too bad as the place was quite busy. However, having to wait over 75 minutes more for the mains to arrive is just appalling. What was worse was that my partner probably spent a good 35 minutes queuing to order, get more drinkas and then pay the bill. Whilst patying the bill, at about 9.20 PM, she heard other people being told it was 90 minutes to 2hrs for food. Absolutley appalling. I won't be going back.
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We went to the Lion Hotel on my birthday, at the end of June 2010 for a meal. I had been there less than a minute when I heard one of my fellow customers complaining about poor service, only to be meet with an indignant staff member who met the complaint with aggression. I waited at the bar for 15 minutes, only to be told I should join the queue for food. I advised the staff member that I didn't want food at that point and just wanted some drinks for my family and I, and that we were very thirsty! I was met with head-on sarcasm and unhelpful comments, and the staff member strolled off in a huff. Meanwhile, I had to queue for a further 15 minutes to get my drinks. Upon finally getting served, I was advised that if I wanted food, we would have to move tables since there was a staff shortage and food was not being served on the grass (the 'nice' area), but only on the concrete close to the road (the 'grotty' area). The food was excellent, but the portions meagre, and nowhere near enough bread to accompany the pate. The environment at this pub is excellent, and Farningham really is a delight. However, what lets this pub down is the appalling service, the rude and arrogant staff really couldn't care less about the clientele, and if there's a problem, it seems to be Lion Hotel policy to blame everyone but themselves. Shame, this could be an idyllic place with some retraining, and some additional staff who really care.
rands - 29 Jun 2010 13:05 |
Vintage inns pub and this probably sums up the decor and ambience. The plu spoint wa sthe friendly Robin flitting between tables and chairs outside. Thi spub could be very pleasant howver the outside is dirty and the garden not maintained as well it could be. The beer comproised the usual suspects eg London pride. My guest informed me the toilets were somewhat "smelly".
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I went to the Lion this afternoon for lunch with my other half. Its the third time I have been, but the first time I have eaten there. While it is in a beautiful location and the food that we had was good, there is a major fault to this pub....the service. The waitress who delivered our food was very pleasant, but the length of time it took to be served was quite frustrating. I was the ONLY person at the bar and the pub on the whole looked to be quiet, yet it took 5 minutes before I was acknowledged by a member of staff. Although they did apologise for the wait, this was also the main fault that I had noticed on the past two times I have visited. The first was a couple of years ago. It was extremely busy as it was such a nice day, so I overlooked that visit and put it down to the unexpected weather. The second visit was a few weeks ago. It was slightly busier than today, but I still didnt expect the same problem with service as it wasnt exactly heaving. Maybe the management should employ more staff??? Do they realise that they are losing custom because of this problem??? Although I would go back to The Lion pub because of its location, I would not take my family here for an occasion of any sort as I dont feel that they could provide an completely enjoyable experience. Its such a shame as The Lion could be such a little 'gold mine' if only a little more effort was made. I work part time in a pub at the weekend and if I made a customer wait as long as they do, I would most likely have been sacked by now!!!
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What a shame! This is an attractive old pub, in an idyllic setting so we should have had a fabulous time. To start with we found that the pub garden was in a disgusting state when we arrived at midday on a Thursday. The bins were overflowing with bottles and rubbish, so were teeming with wasps. The grass was littered with cigarette butts, dirty napkins,even cutlery and dirty menus, obviously left over from the previous evening. We should have walked away but the kids had brought nets and wanted to fish in the river. So we went to order lunch. The young lady behind the counter said she needed a table number, even though we were, as yet, the only food customers. When I said we were sitting in the garden by the river she said they were only serving food on the patio which I thought was unhelpful as she knew we had children with us. The member of staff I spoke to was definitely lacking in any customer service training - I found her quite rude. I heard staff muttering to each other about the lack of equipment. One said "we haven't even got any effing wine glasses". The main meals were reasonable - good sized portions for children and adults , and well presented. Unlike her bar colleague, the waitress was pleasant - but we weren't given enough knives and forks so had to seek these out ourselves. We ordered desserts - four different ones, all of which arrived served with raspberry ripple ice cream - not vanilla as stated in the menus! Very strange, and not at all pleasant to eat with chocolate brownies or toffee pudding! It seems there was a cutlery shortage as we were given soup spoons to eat with, appropriate really as the ice creams were melted even before they reached us and it wasn't a particularly hot day. Once our meals were finished the kids were desperate to get into the main garden so we moved there with our drinks only to find customers were now being served meals there! At some point an attempt had been made to clear away the rubbish in the bins but there was still lots of mess on the floor. Again, it's such a shame as this place could be great, but the staff seem to lack incentive, or supervision, and as a customer I couldn't have felt less welcome or appreciated.
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Waited ages for food. Big looking pie was served up in a brown bowl. Took the top off and played "Find the meat" without success! Unless you like slow service and cr*p food avoid this dump!
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My family and I used to come to this pub when it was a Harvester and we absolutely loved it but not anymore. It was sold off and is now a dump and they don't have near enough the level of customer service that the harvester used to have. It's in a pretty setting by a river and should be heaving with customers but I guess that when the harvester went they took most of the custom too.
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Yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far, so where better to go than a country pub with a stream where the kids can play and I could have a drink? Definately not here! The service is awful. There were only three people serving, one doing drinks, the other two taking food orders. I queued for 25 minutes waiting for a drink, during that time several people left. The bar man explained that as they only had three tills they could only have 3 people serving??!!! During the time I was waiting, one of the kids behind the bar had to go out an collect glasses, which seemed ridiculous. The food, when it came was the wrong starter, the main course was OK, except they told me mine was burnt so they did another one for me, so I ended up eating after everyone else. I wouldnt come here again, nor would I reccommend it.
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I love The Lion! It is a gorgeous old building, the food is lovely - I've had fish and chips, roast chicken, seabass and many other meals here. It is better service and food in the afternoons when not really busy.. but for a drink by the river in summer or a cosy lunch with friends it is perfect! The perfect place to take my nan for a quiet meal.
I think the bad reviews on here are rather unfair. It is a pub. You get a really nice pub experience. Go and try it for yourselves!!
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This place should be demolished, preferably with the staff and management inside! Some weird looking inattentive waiter (a lanky Buddy Holly look-alike?) walking about. As for the manager himself - when we were there he walked across the restaurant area wearing flip-flops. Seeing his bare toes put us off the decidedly average food. The beer is a joke. Any pretence at real ale is lost in this purile place. It's a 60's thow-back without the charm.
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A decent enough pub if all you want is to have a drink & chat. But if your looking at having something to eat then forget it. The 'prime beefburger' with fries i ordered was if anything cremated, and as for the frozen fries - what can i say.
This has to be by far the worst food i've eaten.
If i'd known the food was this bad i'd have gone to a 'Harvester' - no disrepect intended to Harvester.
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Yet another classic example of a nice setting let down by poor management. If you want to eat on a summers weekend make sure you give yourself at least 2 hrs from order to delivery of food. The food itself is totally average.
Beer is warm. Larger is Cold. Wine is fine.
I would advise bringing a picnic and sitting by the river
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The sun was out we decided to go for lunch on Saturday at the Lion Hotel, a pub/restaurant that we have been to off and on for 12 years. The location is perfect for a sunny day. However, the place has totally fallen apart. You are required to queue for food and drink, no separate queue for drinks. Only 2 bar staff working at a snails pace. Ordering took 20 minutes plus, at least 10 people walked out while I was waiting. The food took an hour to be served even a salade. I had a burger which had been totally cremated. Our order was brought to us 3 times because the orders had not been cleared. The only seats available were on the grass by the river. The grass had not been cut and was very uneven, my wife who suffers from MS had real difficulty. I would go as far as to say that it is a health & safety hazard. Won't go back again.
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i am surprised by some of the comments about The Lion especially about the 'booking'as you cannot book a table there.i had a friends birthday there and the staff made it really special i didnt have a cake for them but they made sure that when my friends dessert came out they put candles in it and the manager sang happy birthday.The food is what i call pub grub food but what do you expect when you go to a chain that is run like the harvesters etc its not going to be fancy gourmet food!
when we all left there we had a real good feel factor and we had had such a laugh with the staff that i will definately be back even just for a drink.
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My 2nd visit to the Lion My first was ok had to que a while but it was summer and very busy the staff were very busy but you got served in turn,and the food was brought to our table very quick,I do understand from the manager they are having a outside bar built next summer ( they need it )
I went back to the Lion last night 12/09/2007 what a difference the trade was steady the service excellent and the food FANTASTIC, I took some friends from Srilanka they were very happy with the service and the manager made them feel very welcome and stopped to chat to them about thier visit to England. I will be back with my friends before they return to Srilanka. If I don't take them they will go on thier own as they were so happy with everything about this country pub.
Thanks to the manager and staff for making my friends visit to the UK one they will be talking about for a long time to come.
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Avoid !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have been to the Lion on 2 occassions before, and thought that maybe all the delays and waiting was due to them being a bit busy. On my first visit, they overcooked our food and we waited more then 45min for our food and drinks, arrived cold, sent the food back, and waited 20min and food was still cold.
I thought I would give them a second chance.
On our last visit they missplaced our booking and we waited 1h15min to be seated, when we spoke to the manager, he really was not bothered that we had waited so long, and was rather rude. Needless to say there was no space to really wait. The food was awful and worse then the previous visit. I was extremely dissappointed as this was a special occassion and we took guests with us, only to be embaressed for choosing this country pub once again to have a bad experience.
Sorry to say, we will never go back. Management need to know how to keep there customers happy and listen to there complains and sort them out.
anonymous - 15 Jun 2007 11:38 |
Avoid!
only 1 handpump supposedly serving London Prideg but we were told it was not on. Strange as the last time we visited the pub, 3 weeks before it was not on then! I think it is just for show.
Expect a long wait for both drinks and food. even at off peak times. The bar staff seem preoccupied doing nothing!
Food was of very small portion size and all 5 dishes were cold. We complained and the staff took our food away to be reheated. It returned but the vegetables were still cold.
Tables of various sizes were joined to form large ones and there were no nice touches like candles at all.
A very cold experience in all senses!
her beers
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I visited befor christam 2006 with 8 friends for a saturday lunch, after a couple of rounds of preentable London Pride with our lunch , I went to the bar, for further supplies, however they could only provide 3 pints, with no other real ale s available, we finishe sdour Lunch a retires to The Chequers, up the road, if furthe real ale had been available we might have stayed for desserts & more beer( a loss to their turnover).
anonymous - 16 Dec 2006 23:40 |
Nice pub, good riverside setting also in the nice village of Farningham.
Plenty of outside seating, small inside though always busy on hot summer days. Getting served at the bar can take about 20 minutes.. ! Plus they run out of beer sometimes (recent visit - no amstel, stella, etc)
Well worth a visit but wish they would get more staff serving on busy days, can be queuing out the door.
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Perfectly situated in the centre of the idyllic village of Farningham is the Lion Hotel. Built at the bottom of the 'High Street' hill on fairly expansive grounds, including a huge car park. Reputedly once visited by Charles Dickens having once been a major coaching inn on the road between London and Dover. Converted into a Harvester in the mid-80s, now run, rather well, by another familiar-looking pub chain with staff in silly uniforms with cravats & numbered wooden spoons in empty wine bottles.
The River Darwent runs through the bottom of the large beer garden/outside dining garden (the two are separated) and is crossed by a stone bridge. The river here is shallow due to the ford previously used as the crossing point on the main London road and is therefore popular for amateur fishing as well as a recognised starting point for hiking. The garden is made for wiling away a summer afternoon on the sun-soaked river bank. The interior is also quite striking. A lot of broken up space, cleverly designed, thoughtfully & tastefully implemented..
The beer selection is quality if not adventurous. Usually 3 ales, the likes of Spitfire, London Pride & Courage Directors with all your usual big brewery lagers. The food is also really quite good. A large selection of pub fayre with decent value sunday roasts. As popular with families looking for a big place to interest the kids as it is for couples & hikers in search of a rural beauty spot. I would struggle to find any negatives. Guess that makes it a 10? (Shame on the person before me who gave it a measley 4)
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