The Knowhere Guide

Eating and Drinking in Tunbridge Wells, Kent*

Tunbridge Wells, Kent Pubs, Cafes, Coffee Shops and Restaurants

Food

• Sanki's seafood is a must. Fab food and great atmosphere.
• hayes cafe by twgsb in southborough. nice n greezy
• Mc Donalds.KFC. Pizza hut .
• Fillipos Restaurant (Bar Italia 2000). A very good Italian Restaurant which have a very large menu selection. The quality is excellent and prices are OK, it's at the end of Camdem road. Dont let the surroundings fool you it's a well done up place. Walking from the town centre (spoons) walk along camdem road right to the end, it's on the left and called Bar Italia 2000.
• The Old West Station is a restaurant with a bar. Like everyone else we do have are regulars, who prop the bar up of an evening! It's a brilliant place to come if you fancy a chat or quick drink or even a meal!! (shocking i know) All the staff like to have a laugh & a bit of a giggle.The've got some cheap drinks on offer. You'll have to give them a go. If you don't like there then don't go back. If you do great there will be more people to talk to.
• m&s, maccy Ds
• Thai restaurant near Blockbuster is good, plus has cool underground bar. Raj Pavillion is good too - friendly and quite cheap. For kebabs it has to be Efe's though they aren't exactly good.
• THE OLD WEST STATION!!! Why has nobody put that on here yet? It's grat, the bar staff are cool (I'm one of them!!) and the locals are friendly (ish) The food is good and the atmos is SO laid back. Shame its a bit Pricey.
• Why is that all the twggs and skinners kids under the age of 17 all seem to be in here all of the time??
• couple of restaurants but they all soon close down after 3 months
• burger king....only one thing makes it better than maccy d's and thasts the fact u wont get kicked out for smoking
• BURGER KING!!!!!!! PUB FOOOD!!!!
• loads of chip shops, indians, chinese, kebabs - we have it all
• Pleanty of food shops, from the daily shop, Sainsbury's, Safeways and Tesco to Marks And Spencer, and if all your after is a quick luch theres the Food Court in RVP (Ground Floor) this includes McDonald's, KFC, Spud-U-Like as well as a bakery, coffee shop and an average sized eating area.
• mcdonalds x2, kfc x2, quite a few restaurants, go to the thai and shanghi opposite iceland for oriental food, and the raj pavilion for indian mmmmmmmmmmm!
• WE have a BURGER KING!!!!!! opened about 2 months ago!!!
• If your'e bored with oily Indian food try out Muna's designer food, right hand side heading towards Pantiles, past Hoopers. Amazing chop made by real Indians not the usual rogon ghosh's. And give the owner's son a hug he prefers that to a tip.
• Excellent fish and chips at "Flippers" in the High St 5 mins from railway station - has won several prizes and quality is unsurpassed. Also highly recommended: Royal Wells on Mount Ephraim, wonderful food cooked by chef patron Robert Sloan with a choice of venues in the hotel, either upstairs in elegant conservatory restaurant or downstairs in the car enthusiast's brasserie. Try it. Finally the Hare on Langton Green - characterful and friendly pub with excellent pub grub with that extra touch, generous portions and lovely outlook onto the village green.
• STILL NO BURGER KING. I'm sooo not impressed
• Grissinis southbourough - great pasta & salmon, The Orange Balloon tonbridge - bloody good food, The mount Edgecombe - good food New Cuisine there too. There are too many to mention.
• A Mexican restaurant called Zapata, on the Pantiles, which I only mention because it used to be good but now serves utterly inedible reheated junk. The Margheritas are a bit on the dilute side too.
• The Calverly Cafe (Calverly Grounds, opposite the Central Station) has just reopened! Hooray! Cheapest and best food in TW. Ian, the owner, is a great bloke too.
• Sankeys wine and seafood don`t miss it!
• For the best fish and chips in town go to Papa's Super Fish in St.John's Road. McDonalds, Grosvenor Road, and KFC by the Forum. Burger King remains a rumour.

Pubs

• Greyhound - Dump Mitre - Dump actually they are all dumps.
• grape vign. best of the lot
• The Guinea Butt .... hummm.... a traditional pub with a twist.... I luv it !!
• Spoons - A great meeting place - In the middst of town Litten Tree - Up the road a bit from spoons - Lively music but always crowded Que Passa - Drink aren't cheap, young bar staff, very loud music, round the corner from spoons Bar 54 - Down the road from spoons oposite Pizza Hut, can be very quiet on a non weekend night, they'll have the pool table out if they dont have a DJ using it as his deck stand. Barzia - At the Bottom towards the pantiles, lively and good music, 3 quid to get in after 11 on a friday, no trainers or extreme clothes tatoos etc, they also have a pool table 1 pound a game. The GROVE - Last but NOT least the grove, one of my first pubs i got served in, it has a pool table 70p a game, darts, lively landlord (Steve), it's quite small but drink prices are average, it's up the street from Barzia, or you can walk through the park from the first right up the Hoopers road (Past the Raj).
• I used to go to the George all the time, when i lived by the hospital, but sice the owners have made it into a poncy trendy bar i won't go near it, plus bouncers on the door, whats all that about? I never saw any trouble in there for the whole 5 years that i have been going there! Come on Guys, dont ruin the one good pub that we had in Tunny Wells! Change it back. The other good pub, which luckily hasnt changed, is Cassidys, even though they have stopped selling Harp....bring it back!
• All pub's in Tunbridge Wells are massively overpriced. I live in Exeter now and it costs about £1.50 for a nice pint most places. Expect to pay about £2.50 for a badly pured pint in most places in T.Wells. Some nice country pubs but no-one under the age of 50 can get to them. Only pubs I like are the Guinea Butt - they have comfy sofas, nice beer, friendly atmosphere, play hip-hop, jaz and funk, have flavoured vodkas (check out the killer chilli vodka - evil, i couldn't sit down the next day after having a crap, Get one of your mates to drink one when pissed) and The Compasses where they have board games you can borrow, though it's not as nice as it used to be - they've got one guy there who seems to hate anyone who doesn't have a mortgage.
• SO MANY!! Que Pasa, where Yate's used to be is REALLY nice. The Litten Tree is good as well. Try the Grove Tavern or the Compasses, cheap, friendly and the Grove has a pool table! The Biscuit Factory where the Charles Stapley used to be is class as well
• The Summit Bar-Hip hop night every Thurs with DJ First Rate and friends.Well worth missing E4's big thursday.
• Grapevine, Chapel Place - Excellent Lounge Bar. Great for twenty-thirtysomethings.
• 4 pubs, all pretty nice but not brilliant
• the guinea butt.....sexy barmen and dont forget to ask for geoff chips...theyre the speciality!
• The Litten Tree!!!!!!!!!
• What about the Old West Station.........It's quiet most of the time and the staff have got a good line in pithy attitude - beats the hell out of the 'have a nice day' generation and can be hysterical!!! The Litten Tree is also new and a laugh........great DJ on a fri and sat night!!!
• How long is THE GREYHOUND in Upper Grosvenor going to have a bad reputation. The pub changed 18 months + ago. My hubby Pete and I have been running it for 10 months now and can't believe the pub still has a bad name. People should come and visit it for themselves and see what has changed! We have 3 outside seating areas (playground for kids, front of pub to watch the world go by, and our new 'adult only' quiet seated area in the back garden) we have a lovely 'comfy corner' great food, disabled toilet, real ales, live music every saturday, theme nights, quiz nites in the winter, bar-b-q in the summer. A lovely mixed crowd of regulars. WE ARE A NICE PUB - HONESTLY! - Lynn Parker - Landlady
• Theres no end to pubs in Tunbridge Wells, I believe 43 in all, some good some no so good, but even though there is a lot of bars you may still have to que to get into the main pubs in the centre, the likes of Weatherspoons (The Opeara House) The Litten Tree and Bar Zia, a good place to meet people is Spoons cause its right in the centre of town, it has cheap beer although this does reflect on the standard of ales searved (Boddington's? I don't think it is) then basically go wherever takes your fancy. Stay in town and you have, Litten Tree, Bar 54 and the Pitcher & Piano, if your heading down past the station there's, Bar Zia, Cassidey's, The Kentish Yoeman and "The Bedford". If you want to go further for a quieter drink go to the Pantiles where you'll find Thorin's, Chaplins' The Swan, Springs (This has just re-opened as another bar with another name beginning with 'L' but don't ask me what it was!?!) and The Sussex Arms also hidden away is Compasses which backs out on to the a park whick is good for the summer.
• Tunbridge wells has a fairly strict no underage drinkers policy and you get ID EVERYWHERE in my experience. the most popular local venue for most of the just legals is Spoons (or weatherspoons) which used to be the Opera House. Cassidys is also really cool as it has an irish theme!
• The Windmill Tavern in nORTH sTREET IS VERY aminiable and doesn't care what you look like .Is popular with old, the very old and young a like.AnD THE POOL TABLE IS always empty.
• I haven't seen any mention of the Charles Stapely, two pool tables, a darts board and cheap drinks mean that it absolutely rules!!!
• The Toad Rock at Rusthall (recently refurbished) Excellent... A really pleasant and relaxed atmosphere, a friendly welcome and excellent food (extremely good value for money). Definitely recommended!!!
• The Old Barn at Hildenborough burned down some time ago. If anyone knows anything about it, I'd like to know. It's very sad, it was a wonderful Road House in the hey-days of such things; flappers used to swim in the pool and dance in the barn. In the 60s it didn't have a licence, but we took in our own bottles and the dances were terrific. (Dated 9.7.2000)
• Wherever you go you're bound to bump into a pub at somepoint. Try Wetherspoon's @ the Opera House. Or for some music Yates round the corner. The kentish Yeoman has closed down cos when to police raided it only 5 people were over 18. But it's reopened and I think I heard its a gay pub now. But I might be lying.
• Excellent Opera House renovated by Wetherspoons, no music so you can have a relaxed conversation and BEST of ALL A NON SMOKING AREA!!!! hurrah!
• Weatherspoons (in the old opera house) is the cheapest and busiest place to be and if you go to TWGGS/Skinners you will know at least half the people in there on a friday night. I'm not saying it's good though - no music, massive queues for the ladies after 9pm and not enough seats. If you don't mind standing in a crush and having drunk people trip all over you you'll have a wicked night and still have lots of change from a tenner.
• The bristol Arms changed its name a couple of years ago to the Guinea Butt
• Bar Coast is now open (opposite Pizza Hut). This is another of the Conran style trendy bars that are opening all over the place. Nice decor, nasty wine and lots of poseurs!
• The Opera House was converted by Weatherspoons into a pub. This is an understatement. They have recovered what had become a run down dump and restored it to nearly what it had been. It is worth a visit if only to enjoy the turn of the (last) century decoration in gold and red. The beer is quite good too.
• All shit apart from: The Mount Edgecombe, The Bull and thats it, the rest are full of pretentious toss pots, I could be lying though. No; good pubs just over priced and over rated.
• Phew, so many changes I don't know where to start. OK: The White Bear has been refurbed as Bar Zia - cold clinical and trendy A branch of Bar Coast has opened on Mount Pleasant where Bentalls used to be - for description see Bar Zia The Duke of York is now Chaplins Wine Bar - haven't tried it, looks like an attempt to draw the non-existent high class drinking set The Bristol Arms is now The Guinea Butt - one of the few conversions to still stock bitter via a reasonable pint of Harveys, also draught Hoegarden
• The wonderful White bear has now turned into one of the growing numbers of cafe/bars in the high street and is now called BarZia, as cafe/bars go, this one's quite good but I'd rather have the White bear back.
• you had no mention of the George and Dragon in Speldhurst.This historic pub is a must for visitors.Very old, stone floors, low ceilings etc.
• Check out Buffalo Bills, basically it is a pub desperately trying to be a club. It has very loud music with a live DJ who plays, some of the time, music better than what you're likely to hear in the Barn. Beer prices are extortionate... and it tends to be packed at the weekends. There have been knife fights there once or twice in the past and you would be unlucky not to see someone thrown out at some point in the night. It has two floors, the top one being more of a balcony from which you can look down onto the bottom floor where, in front of the bar, there is a small area where perhaps you are supposed to dance, but no one does. The top floor tends to be the domain of those looking like they are on substances other than alcohol and cigarettes. Its a great pub really. Oh yes.
• Also see The Wellington Rocks in hook ups.
• What was called Rupert's and is now called the White Bear or something like that down near the Pantiles.
  [Correction:] The pub was always called the White Bear and someone had the silly idea of calling it "Rupert's" (after the cartoon character who was a white bear). Rupert's as a name didn't last long.
• The Opera House is soon to be converted from a Bingo Hall into a huge pub.
• Any of the clutch of pubs down on the Pantiles in the evening, The Swan, The Duke of York and The Sussex. Can get very busy.
• The Compasses, Little Mount Sion. Bare boards and crowds.
• The Sussex
• The Beau Nash, tucked behind the Royal Wells Inn on Mount Ephraim above the Common.
• The Spread Eagle, along Forest Road, Hawkenbury
• The Swan Hotal (esp Friday eves)
• The Clarence/ Jailhouse/ Charles Stapely/ Derek Batey/ Whatever they're calling it this week, Church Road.
• Bristol Arms, Calverly Road

Cafes and Coffee Shops

• Dambrosios (I think that is how you spell it. I worked there when I was 14 and was paid £1.00 per hour, this was back in 1991
• Calverly Cafe! its cheap, nice and they make the best hot chocolate! Remember to say hi to the cool (if not slightly camp) owner for me! Oh and remember no chavs, wanna-bes or "cool" pot heads.
• costa, nero and *bucks
• the usual Starbucks, Costa and Cafe Nero. House of Java's ok. Calverly Cafe gets a thumbs up - reasonable prices and friendly and in a nice park (when it's not full of chavs bottling each other).
• Starbucks aint bad - but teachers and old people hang out ther. i no.
• Cafe nero! great place to chill and the sofas are welllll comfy. But i warn you not to go to costa to relax as the manager 'If YOUR NOT BUING ANYTHING GET OUT' you have been warned(he is a bit uptight!
• Mount Pleasant Coffee shop by the station - THE greasy spoon, but Wonderful..!
• Costa was the place to be seen a few years back but now there are so many...Starbucks, Nero, Madisons, Espresso....
• Costa!!!
• lots for old ladies, no starbucks or burger king though
• you name it thers bound to be one....costa for those of you who want to die young and starbucks if accuiring lung cancer isnt on the top of ur priority list
• There are only two places to get a non-dairy capuccino (or whatever)... Starbuck's in Calverley Row, and the coffee shop under the stairs in Victoria Place. They will do soya milk if you ask them. Ask any other coffee shop in RTW and you get a puzzled, faintly dismissive "no mate, dunno". Oh, also try the fab Continental Flavour opposite Trinity Arts - great place to get decent (non-junk, non-crap) food. I think it's run by a nice Czech lady.
• Subs 'n' spuds!!! Only opened last week. I like Ambrosios as well (i'm glad this is anonymous!!)
• Costa
• costa costa costa, starbucks
• Well it did sell tea once, the most famous cream teas in the South-East, accounting for the 'Oceans of Cream' painted on the side of the oasthouse (if that hasn't gone too), because The Old Barn burned down some time ago. I haven't been to look at the ashes, but I am curious as to why. If anyone knows, please tell me. Also putting this in pubs, music & clubs. (Dated 9.7.2000)
• Costas, Starbucks, Pucchinos, Fenwick, Madisons and others, they're not hard to find and are pretty good.
• The main food hall in Royal Victoria Place is a noisy,tasteless and altogeather unpleasant place to sit and have a drink in. However, Just off of the food hall is a small Italian Resteraunt called Cafe Giardino. This is much quieter and more relaxing than the main food hall; and it offers a wide variety of yummy drinks, pastries and Italian food at reasonable prices! I strongly suggest that next time you in need of a break whilst shopping in Victoria Place you go to Cafe Giardino!!

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Last updated: 2007-05-22