Dating back from 1579, the main building that you see today was built in 1728. It has been a stopping point on the way up from Dover for hundreds of years and is a very charming building.
There is a restaurant section built at the back in a lovely glass conservatory which is warm and cosy and light and airy. (A set of conditions that is very difficult to achieve!) My father was thrilled to discover that they offer a third off the price of meals for the over 60s! Having just reached that milestone, he has unearthed a whole underground 'senior' discount movement! Anyway, I digress, back to the review..
We were settling down in the back, looking at the menu and I idly looked up review on another review site (which is obviously nowhere near as good as Yelp!). The first one I read mentioned that it on had a two star rating for hygiene. At that very moment, Pa came back from the bar with drinks and I kid you not, there was a HUGE dead moth floating in the top of my diet coke. I cannot believe that I was the first one to notice it - it was like a hairy pterodactyl covering the whole of the top of the glass. If we hadn't already ordered and paid, I would have walked at that point, but we were invested and I was hungry...
We both had the fish and chips with peas, which was perfectly ok and relatively moth free. We even followed that by sharing a huge piece of syrup sponge with custard that was lovely and not too sweet.
Had I not known about the hygiene rating and had I not been served a giant insect in my drink, this place may have got three stars, with a potential for four. Unfortunately I'm just old fashioned and prefer my beverages with ice and lemon, not a side of moth! read more