This is my review of a restaurant in Chiddingstone Causeway (near Tonbridge in Kent) called the Little Brown Jug.
I loved this place. It’s a lovely country pub plus restaurant in a quiet rural setting and if I lived nearer I would probably be in there all the time.
Inside you’ve got the open beams, two lovely open fires keeping the chill off the evening, shelves full of books, pictures covering the walls (too many pictures actually) and comfy seats by the bar. And in fact, one of the few restaurants where the dining seats were comfortable as well. Candles were on every table and it felt very romantic actually.
But of course, the food is the most important thing in a restaurant, and it was delicious and we were given plenty of it. I highly recommend the shoulder of lamb – it was blimmin huge! (Unfortunately I didn’t have any nappy sacks in my bag to take the leftovers home for the dog) The fruity gravy was delicious, and the vegetables were fine, but I didn’t get enough to go with the huge potion of meat! Chris had steak and chips, which he tells me were lovely. Rain, who was celebrating her 12th birthday had sausage and mash (though the menu made it sound far more exotic than that!) and cleared her plate. Jude had beer battered plaice, and she couldn’t quite manage to finish it, though she clearly enjoyed it. Although our choices were relatively standard, there were more exotic dishes on the menu which looked very inviting.
We skipped starter and the puddings were too expensive (£5-£6), so we picked that up from Sainsburys on the way home; but the main meals were a reasonable price at approx £12-£15. The kids had half price portions, but I doubt they were half size. As a family restaurant it’s difficult to say. Our children were made more than welcome, and there were others there too, but there were no specific meals for kids. The flourished descriptions on the menu put them off actually (you know what kids are like – they won’t try anything new or they don’t understand) and there wasn’t a lot that was really suitable. Having said that, I do prefer that they get a proper meal, than turkey twizzlers and chips, which is usually the main dish on a kids’ menu.
They have a suction tube thingy that takes the orders from the bar to the kitchen, which is a nice gimmick and the kids thought it was great, but the sound each time made me think a picture fell off the wall.
The service was excellent. We didn’t have to wait too long to eat, and we were served by very friendly staff. I just have one expensive gripe. Chris is a very fussy eater, and our family meals out are limited to places serving steak and chips, and I went to order the surf and turf steak (I think it’s called that?) without all the other stuff it came with; and was told we’d be better off ordering the fillet steak instead. It was only on the way home I realised it cost £27!!!! Wish I’d turned back now to see what they said about that; but the kids were already very late to bed on a school night so I didn’t.
A very nice restaurant though, and I’ll definitely be returning.
