The Old City Bar in Canterbury

We've recently started stopping by this great local pub during our dog walks. The staff are incredibly friendly and always spoil our pup with treats. They offer a good selection of beers and fun board games. The outdoor space is perfect for summer as well!

Cool bar that's worth a visit if you are in the area.

We've been to Canterbury many times but only just recently discovered The Old City Bar. Tucked away in a side street it's definitely worth seeking out. Inside is large and comfortable but outside is where this place really excels. Whether it is the largest beer garden in Canterbury is anyone's guess but it's a lively space and very very popular with Canterbury's student population. We stayed for food which wasn't bad either.

I visited the pub on 17/08/24 I'm a wheelchair user and found entry to the pub difficult because the front door steps were very high and would suggest maybe a portable ramp for one of the doors would be a good idea x

Tried the new bbq menu. The smash burgers. They were that good I had to have another one,just to see if they were really that good,and yes the were absolutely of the hook. Absolutely amazing and the skin on chips were to die for. Highly recommend

The place had a good atmosphere and friendly staff and is surprisingly large. However the pint of Shepherd Neame was poor and they seemed quite short of other supplies.

Very dog friendly. Staff good. Nice food. Comfortable friendly pub.

Very friendly and run by a very nice young manager. Excellent beer and food well worth a visit

Great service good food and beer

Brilliant atmosphere, nice and peaceful

Nice friendly staff, however, became extremely noisy to the point we couldn't chat so left.

Great pub friendly and a busy gem of Canterbury definitely worth a visit

Late night licence till 1 am on Saturday. It was a shame it wasn't very busy. Maybe because it's not in the city centre. Very comfortable armchairs and sofas pool table jukebox. People you are missing out on a very nice pub.

Great pub quiz on Sunday night.

Had the food tonight and was disappointed - one of the worst pub burgers I’ve ever had

Excellent pub to watch football, good menu

Great pub made welcome from staff and locals on my Christmas eve visit enjoyed it a lot

Friendly service. Busy but not over crowded in my last visit.

Food was amazing. Very big portions. Staff polite and helpful.

It was alright, didn't stay long.

Went on a Monday night, great for watching sport, had food that was ok, not brilliant but what I expected, good clear picture TVs, prices ok, very busy for a Monday night!!!

Nice but people smoke inside.. Disgusting

Cibo molto buono, un pò di disorganizzazione, prezzi onesti e molto equilibrati.

Great beer garden, nice food and drink

Nice bar, great beer garden, nice selection of food as well

Great fish & chips, service, and atmosphere.

very rude manager and owner if you like to be abused go here as manger and owner think its accetable

Had a fabulous Saturday..Live DJ, BBQ and a great atmosphere!! My family really enjoyed it..Thanks

Management and staff are amazing!

Fantastic pub in the centre of Canterbury great garden

Nice old pub loads of space with massive back garden

Nice pub, good Guinness. Really spacious

Great food and beers. I highly recommend it to everyone.

We had the back of the pub for a private party with buffet. We all had a lovely evening, thanks to all the staff for making it run smoothly.

In a town full of good Bars this has to be one of the best, staff are friendly and very attentive. I'd definitely recommend trying the Lemon Garlic Chibatta it's to die for will definitely be stopping by again soon :)

Like the beers, hate the pool table!

Great food and service, good entertainment like Quiz Nights, football showings and bbq’s. Ideal location for a bite to eat or for a night out on the town.

Great garden, lovely food, super friendly service :)

Food wasent very good. Beer was fine.

Popped in for a drink. No heating despite the sub zero temperatures outside. Was directed to a heater, which gave off virtually no heat. Staff complained about how cold it was. Red wine was ice cold, no atmosphere. We left to go drink elsewhere. Won't hurry back.

After work drinks. Friendly staff. Buzzing bar. Large beer garden. Perfect for group events. They serve yummy food too.

Worst experience of my life, never going here again. Staff very unfriendly and wouldn't allow my child to have a diet coke as he was not 18 which is preposterous. never stepping foot in this establishment ever again. Would have done -5 starts if I could!

Good atmosphere, quite limited on the choice of food.

A liitle drab but the chips were lovely.

Cracking bar, great staff all friendly, pool table lots of seating, great garden, very clean and tidy. Good range of beers and spirits too.

Good old fashioned pub, good mix of customers friendly staff.

Super pour découvrir un pub anglais , les enfants sont bienvenus jusqu'à 20h, la nourriture excellente et les serveurs professionnels et accueillants. Les français vous remercie !

Good atmosphere, pool table and table tennis are a plus. Staff were helpful. Lovely big beer garden out the back, will definitely be returning.

Nice place and good seating area

It was great, if a bit pricey, but worth it

Really friendly. Clean and tidy. Good beer garden Good staff Why not give it a go. Didn't try the food. BBQ company set up in the garden

Group of 20 arrived after being let down. Bar staff friendly and helpful. Beautiful garden, lovely freshly prepared food.

Staff are super nice. Let me bring my bike through when I lost my chain. Huge garden and great food too.

Went to the old city for a friends bday celebration. Greeted at the door by very bubbly staff and made my way to the garden . As a publican I probably shouldn’t write this, but it is genuinely is the best pint of San Miguel in Canterbury with out a doubt . Basking in the sunshine in the lovely garden I wasn’t overly hungry so I asked if they had any light snacks to which I was suggested the homemade sausage roll (new to the menu ) she said . Not long after it was delivered and wow was it good, warm and flaky with a side salad and chutney it was just delicious. And very reasonably priced . Great recommendation. All in all a fantastic experience as always , the young staff are very personable and always make you feel welcome . 10/10 guys see ya soon

The Ping Pong 🏓 and Snooker puts them above other places for me. The first and best place I always hang out with my colleagues most weekends.

Although I live in the Canterbury area, I have only been to this Public House a couple of times in the past. It has a large rear garden and they were having a BBQ during my visit. The weekend was Gay Pride weekend therefore the whole of Canterbury was extremely busy. I believe however that the Pub is normally as busy as it was. The only let down for me was the wait for service. Over 10 minutes and I normally walk out, but I had friends there. Nice atmosphere, nice pub. Get more staff behind the bar and I would have given 5 🌟 🤩

There was an incident with a customer today and the staff responded very poorly. They clearly have no training for first aid or even knowing how to deal with customers that are unwell. Was extremely disappointed and quite disgusted that they were even making jokes about the situation behind the bar. Even more worrying that they have "ask angela" posters in the toilets, I would not trust the staff at all to know what to do in these situations after their poor behaviour today.

Big place, with an outdoor option...nice for the summer

We went in here to get a meal before going on elsewhere. There was a menu on the table and we chose what we wanted. When I went to the bar I was informed that food was not available until 5pm. No problem there, until about 4.50pm when someone came round and CHANGED the menus. The food on offer then became "BBQ", which didn't suit us, so we finished our drinks and left. Had the menus been changed earlier, and the times also on the menu, we would not have stayed as we really wanted a PROPER dinner.

Very nice BBQ food, sweet potato fries option a bonus, good atmosphere and not too pricey either.

Nice layout, good location, spacious seating and lovely staff; just no craft / proper ale to speak of. Clearly a bar for students who enjoy ordinary flavourless lager. 20 years ago, I would have scored it 4 stars!

Friendly staff and patrons. Good Garden.

Great pub, really friendly staff, who are also really considerate to the patrons, know when to refuse service, highly recommend!

Good atmosphere on rugby day, great Guinness. All round a nice place to meet with friends and have a good few bevvys

Nice amount of wood in here. Have had good food also. Usually one or two ales on draft.

This used to be a regular of ours, we visited on a Saturday late afternoon and it's a nice pub.

Great food and plenty of it. Clean and tidy Friendly staff Will be back

Nice pub, wide selection of drinks and has a good atmosphere

Cosy feeling place, good music, friendly staff

For a diverse city, full of young student’s, from across the country, the Old City Bar, Canterbury is so out of touch with the real world, where racially profiling your customers is an everyday occurrence there! Today, my 26 old daughter was banned from enjoying a leaving party with her colleagues, because she didn’t have any I.D with her! She was the only “coloured person” in the group and the only one they asked I.D for! She doesn’t look under 25 let alone 18! It’s not her age the staff were concerned about; it was the colour of her skin! Shame on you. Your obvious racism will not be tolerated!

Went there after watching Kent Spitfire's beat Birmingham. Very full and lively. But good atmosphere and energetic staff.

Great food and lovely staff and cliente

Been going there since it was an old time boozer, changes have come and go and it's still a great pub, delicious food cold beer warm welcome, keep up the good work.

We popped in for a quick bite of lunch and a beer or two, and it was enjoyable. Plenty of covered space in the garden and good service.

Monday evening at 20:30. No draught ale, pub seems clean and staff were friendly. Kitchen closed.

Beautiful establishment but i met some guy here from hot temptations but it turned out to be his wife coming aswell asking for a 3some? Can we have more security on door please thank you Rodney x

Nice atmosphere, fair drinks prices which is rare for Canterbury, plenty of waiting staff to keep drinks flowing. Great experience

Lovely staff and management. Great Cesar salad and a wonderful pint.

Nice little pub within a 3 minute walking distance of the premier Inn in Canterbury

Friendly staff and nice beer garden

Fantastic garden lovely staff will definitely go again 👍🏻👍🏻

We recently visited this establishment and had a really bad experience. I understand that the pub was busy but waiting 1 hour to be served and then another hour to recieve drinks is a complete joke. I had to complain to actually get served in the first place (after witnessing people getting served straight away!), staff were very defensive, quick to pass the blame and damn right rude. Then I had to complain to actually recieve our drinks (an hour later) where staff told me they were still preparing them, I have worked in the hospitality business and know that it doesn't take one hour to open a bottle of cider! The main member of staff had the worse attitude I've ever seen and was so unprofessional in dealing with us, she needs to go on a customer service course! I would actually say that I do not know how there has not been more complaints on here! We eventually moved on to the Dolphin, and cannot believe the difference in service. They were busier, had less staff but were so professional and friendly. I would definately recommend going there instead.

Always good service and food excellent.

I have been sitting in the garden for 57 minutes and our drinks have still not been brought out!!! The table service is terrible, other tables that came after us have been served, we have told staff but still waiting…wish we’d gone to Tesco’s and brought our own!! Really bad service, I am angry because I have paid for parking outside and wasted an hour of that time.

Nice pub close to centre with a large garden, nice atmosphere too

Great atmosphere good food large South facing garden which is amazing in the summer. Family and dog friendly great little watering hole.

Good atmosphere, friendly staff, great beer and food at reasonable prices.

The bar itself was cozy and clean. The staff were incredibly friendly and helpful. We had a wonderful time.

Really nice staff very friendly!

I came with 4 friends when it was outdoor service only due to Covid. Despite them clearly knowing how many patrons they would be likely to have, they were nowhere near prepared. This was also 3 weeks after reopening so it shouldn't have been a shock. We gave our order relatively quickly then after 35 (!!!!) minutes of waiting, I politely asked if we'd been forgotten, as we only ordered drinks, not food. I was told that there was a backlog due to the number of people. 5 minutes later, our drinks came then when we tried to order more, we were told 'we're not taking any orders right now as we need to clear the backlog'. Ridiculously poor service as the number of patrons cannot have been a surprise. Other pubs (Dolphin) managed the high numbers just fine. Would avoid this place in future.

Great service and accomadating staff in a fantastic venue

Lovely beer garden good choice of drinks and food looked very good from what i see!

Just a nice place with plenty of space

Absolutely amazing place. Really friendly staff that welcomes you and makes the time spent there a delight. The food is superb quality. Will definitely be visiting again when visiting Canterbury

Great Covid-19 measures. Reasonable prices, helpful staff.

Came to watch the band on a bank holiday Sunday. The garden was full and everyone was having a great time. It was well socially distanced and the staff were incredible. So attentive and polite. The band was amazing as well. Can’t say enough good things about this place! A really great way to spend a Sunday, even when the weather was not as sunny as we might have liked! 😁

The staff were very helpful and the food was delicious.

Strict and clear instructions regarding contact tracing. Really good beer garden.

Staffs are pleasant, the cost of drinks are reasonable and its a very serene environment. If you visit, you will be required to register so that you can be contacted if they have a Covid outbreak. The toilets are clean and they have this lovely garden-like sit out on benches, which is really nice. Service is also quick. I will definitely visit again.

Wife and I where staying in Canterbury for the night ,we went for walk and found this great pub. Although we are in pandemic the pub was well equipped and layer out for social distancing, one way system around pub, plenty bar staff coming round to take peoples orders never had to wait , it is large pub plenty room with big garden area . It was a revised menu due to safety measures but food was superb well cooked and presented. Would recommend it to everyone .