please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Seems to be more room than the last time I visited, seats have been moved around to give a bit more space. Whitstable 'Native' ale was excellent and the food was very good too. Very busy at the weekends - book if you want to eat. They have industrial-strength Wifi which is becoming expected nowadays.
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Good pints of Whitstable Native, nice garden (although a bit of a treck from the bar carrying drinks).
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Second stop over on the Saturday jaunt in the heat.
The beer is a little on the expensive side but I enjoyed an rely evening dinner in the sunshine and would not hesitate to return. This place has come along leaps and bounds !
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Last visited some 7 or so years ago before the fire. Pleased to taste the beer was still spot on, (Whitstable Native) service was friendly and welcoming.
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Nice pub in a bit of an isolated spot. Smallish bar area with wooden floor, comfy sofa and real fire but most of the pub is taken up with the eating area with tables pretty much shoehorned in. The roast I had was good and reasonably priced and everyone seemed to enjoy their food. Harveys Sussex was in excellent condition and they also had a couple of guest beers I'd never heard of before. Book if you want to eat at a weekend, the place was packed.
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Well OK - some people prefer the Padwell, some people prefer the Chaser - but the fact remains that this is a genuine and very decent pub, serving good beer, and perfectly happy for you to go there and simply have a pint or two, and also serving what in my experience are well-cooked and very edible meals, on the high side pricewise maybe, but not unduly so. Yes there are pubs I prefer, too; but this is one I'm always happy to visit, and we should value it for what it is, in these days when pubs are closing by the dozen.
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I came , I tasted and I left for the Padwell.
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Used to be a big fan of this place "pre-conflagration" but its never been the same since. Hadn't been for a while so thought we'd give it a try. Saturday night and 2 of the limited range of mains were off by 8pm. Food quality good, but presentation poor, lamb rump drowning in gravy, with sprouts and carrots it looked like an amateur sunday lunch. Nice ribeye steak spoiled by a truss of a dozen large vine tomatoes plonked on top! Coffee too steep at �3 a cup and 10% service added to boot. On the upside drinks were reasonable but not a patch on the nearby Chaser.
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Pleasant and busy country pub with a good cross section of customers,
seems split between two camps, eaters and drinkers
Cannot speak for the food but the ales have always been good on our visits with a well kept selection and a pleasant Biddenden cider too
Well done all round
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We visit fairly regularly, but didn't often eat here because we think there are better value places in the vicinity. However, we took my Mother in Law here recently and we had a meal and I have to say we have been missing a treat. I had the loin of lamb and it was so tender and there was so much of it I have changed my mind about good value. Even the MIL enjoyed her meal so we will definitely go back to eat again. The beer is also very good and all drinks are much better priced than other pubs in the area such as the Chaser Inn where you need a second mortgage to buy a round in less pleasant surroundings.
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My family recently visited the Kentish Rifle for lunch, we order from the main menu, followed by a dessert, we all said that the food was excellent, and so was the beer, this is a great country pub, which serves food but still retains the feel of an old style pub, there is also a nice garden at the back and to the side of the loverly pub,we must not forget to mention the pub has a friendly landlord and staff, I know we will become regulars.
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Really lovely country pub with a nice garden to spend a summer evening. The landlord is really friendly and they alow dogs.
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We (four of us) Ate at this restaurant last saturday 12th December 2009.
The pub is in a lovely setting and has recently been refurbished to a good standard. It has a nice atmosphere created by dimmed lighting. Car parking on unlit road but this is not a problem.
Menu rather fancy little choice of ordinary food and no chicken on menu,Three of us had steak and one venison pie. The steak was really tender not requiring a steak knife but the steak meals were spoiled by overcooked macdonald style french fries. The venison pie meal was spoiled by under cooked vegetables.
We had a pudding (chocolate brownies) which was very nice followed by tea and coffee. The bill arrived and we were charged �106 with 10% service charge. No allowance made for food we could not eat. Thought we were overcharged.
All establishments have "off days" perhaps this was theirs but they did not seem to care much.
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Attractive pub with a nice country feel to it, garden out the back and also seating opposite on the green. Harveys Best, Westerhams Finchcocks, Adnams and a GK Summer ale on tap. Tried first two, which were in good order. Landlord was friendly and polite. Will return to try the food next time.
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This Pub is PERFECT! A real old English Pub (no TV or fruit machines!) with bags of character. I just took my family there for a drink and we ended up staying all evening...They do a really good pint of Harveys, and three other real ales too (my idea of heaven). The Landlord is a polite & friendly character, staff helpful and attentive and there was an overall jolly feel to the place. I had the most delicious homemade burger that just melted in the mouth, and my wife says her salmon salad was the freshest and tastiest she's ever had (and she's a hard woman to please!). Out back is a really pretty garden, more like a little cottage garden than the usual pub garden type. We'll definitely be going back soon to sample the rest of the menu, i can't tell you how good that burger was!! A real gem in the middle of nowhere. AND they've even got a B&B on site.. now there's a thought. MS
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Excvellent friendly kent pub. Called in here for the first time after passing it several times. We were not disappoibnted as the beer and food was very good. The landloord seemed friendly enough and the serving staff were attentive and helpful.
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The fire really did this place a service. The refurb which it necessitated has made it much more of a traditional country pub than it was before. It's not quite what it was in the days when Ron Williams was the guvnor (there's a carpet on the saloon bar floor, for one thing), but it feels much more like it did in the old days. Fair selection of beers (Westerham, Harveys and two from GK) and' though we didn't eat there, the menu looked promising (not too long) and the food smelt good.
No complaints about the service. Didn't meet the blonde, but the middle aged lady who served me was very pleasant, and bore no resemblance to the one described in the previous review. We shall certainly be back again fairly soon.
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This pub is wonderful. It's ancient - I mean genuinely seriously old; there's a corner just to the right of the entrance where you can imagine people having a pint after the Armada. And it's in really nice condition (restored after a fire in 2007). The beer is excellent, lovely local ales. The food is fantastic. There's even a really fit blonde barmaid (though beware, you might get the ancient one who does a fair impression of Pauline Fowler after drinking a pint of vinegar). It is a totally, TOTALLY wonderful English country pub. The only downsides are the aforesaid scary matriarch (personal challenge: to get her to smile one day) and the fact that parking's a bit tight. Otherwise it's flawless. I love it.
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Great little pub tucked away in the West Kent countryside. Enjoyed a good pint of Finchcocks and look forward to going back!
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