The Halfway House, Brenchley

Generally I can only repeat what is written by almost everyone else about this pub. Excellent variety of beers, good staff and good traditional pub food very well done. I was a little disappointed the day I went to their end of may bank holiday beer festival I must say. They advertised 75 ales but only had room for 50 at one time so if you wanted a particular one they may not have had it on at that time. However Im sure most could have found another one out of the 50 that were on. My main gripe was the food at the festival. The kitchen, which does fantastic meals was shut and the only food was a BBQ that was of poor quality and hideously over priced- �4 for an undercooked burger, �10 for a paper plate full of paella and �6 for a cold, tiny jacket potato was little short of extortion. A real shame as I will go back to the pub for the usual ales and nice meals but I think I will go to the Stile Bridge inn for the next beer festival.

31 May 2011 18:54

The Bell Hotel, Staplehurst

CJG and blue_scrumpy seemed to have hit the nail on the head with this pub. It has the look and ponceyness of a clinical wine bar but the ales and friendly landlord of an olde worlde english pub. Unfortunately this just doesnt knit. Dont get me wrong, this isnt a bad place to go and it has a good mix of clientel, but it has got to be one or the other as the atmosphere of the place just doesnt work like this. Also the seating is extremely limited when the dining areas are full as despite now being a pub (well bar) the bottom floor is still old fashioned hotel lobby like with the floor on different levels and the bar itself taking up a lot of the room. A shame

12 Feb 2011 15:20

The Red Lion, Biddenden

An average village pub that does a good food trade as the meals there are all freshly prepared. The atmosphere is cozy and a good mixture of friendly locals drink in there. For how quaint and olde worlde the pub is it has a pretty average selection of beers which is a shame. Bob the landlord can be a funny old sort from time to time- he is one of those landlords who likes to know who everyone is and is far more tolerant of locals than random 'outsiders' - the reason for this I have concluded is he must be fairly near retirement age and has made his money so just wants things his own way and doesnt need to impress anyone to drum up trade which seems an odd way to be if you are in the hospitality trade. Also being the only pub in the village he knows no one can go anywhere else. Saying that he has always seemed friendly to me but then again I am local!! All in all an average pub that with a few tweaks could be an excellent pub

12 Feb 2011 14:58