Food

Where are the traditional English restaurants that cater for families?
This rant is about restaurants. Now, don’t misunderstand me – I don’t often go to restaurants – just birthdays and celebrations; actually maybe that’s the reason why, when I do go, I want to go to one I enjoy. There’s not much room for, ‘Oh it doesn’t matter that the food was horrible, we’ll try a different place tomorrow’.
This rant is mainly about 2 things about restaurants: English food and children’s menus. I didn’t realise that they were both so incredibly hard to find. As you may have already read on this site, my favourite place to eat burnt down a couple of months ago (A Beefeater restaurant; The Hilden Manor). You don’t appreciate what you’ve got till it’s gone.
I’ve done a review of the place I ate at when I was out celebrating my book launch on 5th May – The Plough near Ightham, but what I didn’t mention then, was that it was the 4th restaurant we’d tried, and it was a school night, so we had to start being less picky. But all we wanted was a place with English food and a kid’s menu! First of all we went to the restaurant that used to be called The Gate, by Hildenborough Station, but the food was a mixture of French and Italian; we knew already The Half Moon served foreign food, so we didn’t even stop there; so we tried The Flying Dutchman, but that was Indian. So then we drove to Shipbourne to The Chaser . This served English food, but it was very expensive and there was no children’s menu. So we continued to the The Plough Inn, in Ivy Hatch, near Ightham. This still didn’t have kid’s food, but it was more reasonably priced and served duck, which is my favourite, so we settled for there.
But honestly!! I can’t believe it – all I want is a nice roast dinner; all my husband wants is steak and chips and all my kids want is nuggets, peas and chips. That really shouldn’t be too much to ask for! So, if anyone knows of a restaurant that will suit our needs, in, or near Tonbridge, please, please please e-mail me and let me know!