The Spitfire in Tonbridge and Malling

Awful atmosphere. Food is almost as bad

Fantastic food! We hadn't booked a table on a Friday night (it was a last-minute decision and went out on a limb). However, they were happy to accommodate us (3 adults 2 children). My son has allergies, which they were amazing at accomadating to they even adapted the menu so he could still have the exact food he wanted! The prices are a little off-putting when you initially look at them. However, once the food is put in front of you, the price becomes a distant memory! The food was tasty, hot, fresh, and perfectly portioned. My only suggestion would be to offer a bigger appetite option on the kids menu as the portions were a little small for children aged 8 & 9. I can't wait to return!

Mothering Sunday Lunch , Amazing Banoffe pie , lovely Lamb roast , lovely friendly staff

First visit here & will definitely be back. The Bacon &Beefburger was probably one of the best I have ever eaten & the chips were perfectly cooked & hot. Even the Spitfire House lager was as good as anything I had previously. Well worth a visit

Staff lovely, nice selection of wine. Too many dogs and I can't understand why people think it's OK to let their dogs sit on the chairs

Brilliant breakfast full English. Great atmosphere. Very friendly staff. Worth a go. It has free parking if you can find it.

I have eaten here a few times as my mate lives nearby. Usually go for a nice lunch and like previous reviewers would agree that quality of food and portion sizes are excellent. What added to a great time for us was the sincere, warm and professional service given by Hannah. She is a credit to Shepherd Neame. Thank you

Went for a late lunch and the excellent host (Emma) managed to find us a table in the very busy restaurant. The chicken skewer with loaded chips I ordered was great, and huge (as I ordered the extra skewer at £6). My wife had Seabass, which she thought was excellent. Nice wine, not overpriced. The staff are all excellent and very service oriented. I’m not usually a fan of brewery owned pubs, but this place is very well managed.

A lovely place to meet up with all my family.

I took my young grandson out for lunch at The Spitfire Kings Hill. Hannah served us at the table and was very pleasant and helpful with the childs menu. Hannah was very attentive throughout the whole time we had the table. Excellent service and she is a very smiley lady too. Thank you Hannah for making our first visit to The Spitfire a great experience. Mrs Burgess.

Always friendly and courteous. Love the fact they encourage families with small children and always acknowledge them if they interact with staff. Always enjoy our visits as we dont live locally so for us when visiting family it's always nice to know there is a warm welcome waiting when we want a place to chill.

The only pub on King's Hill, improving, has goes on.

A really good family meal at a very reasonable price. Service excellent and everyone very full at end of meal. Pies particularly recommended.

Lovely Pub - Restaurant, very friendly & efficient staff. Very family friendly with food options for children and a play area outside. I highly recommend the Spitfire to everyone!

Very busy due to Christmas lunch do. Service was excellent, as was the food. Had a chicken club sandwich and chips , very tasty. Friends had a toasted cheese sandwich and chips and dirty fried all good

Always excellent food and brilliant service at a reasonable price too. Can’t really fault this place at all.

Went for Breakfast with Santa and it was great! Funny interactive elves and a wonderful santa at the end. Hannah and all the staff on were great with hosting and service.

Tasty fish finger sandwich. Friendly and helpful staff. Lovely outdoor seating

Quite great place to dine in and have a glass of beer. For me the biggest surprise was in the quality of food and portion sizes. Prices are also okay, especially for what you get. Staff is friendly and ready to help with choice. Overall atmosphere is cozy, tables are clean and the music is not too loud. You will find propeller in one of the rooms here. There is enough space for small groups and waiters can help you join the tables if needed. Parking is easy because there is own parking space available. There are two entrances to pub, both are easy to find. Overall recommended to visit if you are nearby.

Good atmosphere lovely area nice decor prices medium to high but good service friendly staff and helpful

I haven’t been for 5 years as it was going down hill but I have to say fabulous food staff are amazing definitely recommend & will be back soon thank you so much we’ll done to everyone & chefs Don

The food was excellent. Great halloumi, chicken wings and prawns. And a delicious sticky toffee pudding.

It’s a clinical, lacking character Shepherd Neame pub. Beers, well kinda average. It was convenient, but given a choice, would have gone into West Malling

We had a lovely meal in this pub, we had the roast which was delicious and it was a good portion size for big eaters. We had a dog with us and the staff were very accommodating and we thought it was lovely when the staff brought water over for the dog. My only improvement points would be the ice cream, it could have been better for the price and it was a tad cold for older people.

Following an extensive (and expensive) refurbishment The Spitfire is finally a pub with some atmosphere. Furniture, bar, outdoors and decor look good. I have now tried the food since it reopened and have been very impressed. The chicken Kiev I ordered was both huge and tasty.

Always a great atmosphere here, and always love music planned at some point during the month. Food great (loaded fries) staff great

Friendly service. Good atmosphere.

A nice family pub. The centre of the community, it's used for meetings and gatherings with live music on occasion

Ate with friends in the restaurant. Food was lovely. Service was fast.

Lovely place, I always enjoy going there, but they charged us £50 and called it a deposit (usually taken off the bill) for booking a table additional to what we ate a drank, so wouldn't return now.

Josh F Till 5 Host Station - greeted with a smile, such professionalism all round, well done Josh. Excellent quality food, we will definitely be back !

Good food in a very nice environment

Six of us had a good night out but we're annoyed that they had run out of steaks by seven o clock on a Friday evening. I'm sure if they wanted they could have done something to solve the problem. Otherwise the service was very good and the food very tasty.

Congratulations to all the staff at the spitfire. We will never forget our Wedding Reception. Perfect in every way. We had planned a low key event to be met by drinks on arrival, our guests commented on how outstanding the food and service was. Decorated to look so romantic. Everyone deserves a pat on the back, Thank you so much. Kim & Tel.

Congratulations and a huge thank you to everyone at the Spitfire who made our wedding reception one we will never forget. Staff were amazing, we planned a low key reception, to be met by drinks on arrival, decorated so romantic, and as for service nothing was too much trouble. All our guests commented on the food which was outstanding. Well done everyone you deserve a pat on the back. Thank you. Kim & Tel.

Unable to comment on the food as didn't eat here. However the service and pub are excellent. Staff friendly and efficient and surroundings clean, tidy and pleasant.

All the staff are very friendly and helpful, however the food was definitely not up to scratch especially for the price I paid. The burger was £16, which has gone up by £4 over the past two years, yet the food itself has decreased. The burger patty is smaller and the ranch sauce no longer comes with the dish. The chips were good but with the amount of bread in the bun it probably isn't worth eating them. Such a shame since when the pub was renovated the menu was amazing, however no longer is.

Having eaten here for many years I’m sorry to say the poor quality of the food now is why I’ll never eat there again. & the reason ill never take friends there again I’ve had four poor quality lunches & their full English breakfasts now serve two tiny pieces of streaky bacon for the price it’s very poor. Absolutely need another pub restaurant in kings hill that serve quality produce

Went to the Spitfire after having moved back into the area. Haven't been for a couple of years. Well it didn't disappoint. The seasonal ale was Late Red which was rich and perfectly served. By the sounds of the bar staff, they take real care in resting it. Good job. And the food was the star of the show, I had cod and it was probably one of the best I've had. Hearty size, crispy batter, flakey fish. It was spot on. My friend had a couple of small plates, hot flavoured wings and squid. All of which looked very good. And the service was superb. We had hannah look after us and she was very attentive and full of conversation. The manager has been there for years and remembered me from before I moved away. He made a point of saying hello. Everything you expect from a landlord. Well done everyone at the Spitfire, I will see you all soon!

Met friends for lunch at the Spitfire. We all ordered a variety of the small plates and sides from the menu and shared them between us all. The food was well cooked and delicious - we could not fault any of it! I even ordered a banoffee pie after which was very tasty too! As well, the service was great and all the staff were very friendly; nothing was too much trouble and we were all made to feel very welcome. Will definitely return soon and highly recommend to all.

Lovely food, felt very comfortable and relaxed for a family get together. Everyone was friendly and the play area was a plus

We visited for lunch. I ordered a club sandwich and it was difficult to find any chicken or bacon for over £13 it was a rip off! My Mum had a cheese sandwich which for over £8 looked woeful and apparently tasted just as bad. Both hot drinks were cold and although the staff kindly replaced them, they were foul! We will never visit again

Lovely qarden and pup atmosphere

Nice environment, poor management of beer, Whitstable Bay Ale like vinegar, Spitfire Ale barely better with bar staff unable to tell the difference between good and bad beer.

Food and atmosphere are fine. It gets busy around midday and the evening as it's the only pub in Kings Hill. However the service could be way better! The food we ordered arrived 48 minutes after having ordered it. No-one pointed out the fact to mention to a family with a baby that they'd be there an hour, so we were stumped between having an hour's lunch from work and having to entertain the little one for almost an hour. Should they mention the fact we had to wait more than 20 mins for food, we would've gone somewhere else. And it wasn't even that busy with about 3-4 larger groups outside. When asked about the food 40 mins in, we asked to be put in a takeaway box as we couldn't wait any longer. Apart from a couple of apologies, no compensation was offered. Will go to a different place next time - not that the choice is that great in Kings Hill.

Good food but no real atmosphere. Not really a pub, more a restaurant.

It was OK ,nothink great 2 burgers and chips 35.00.

Not my kind of larger! Didn’t find pub friendly or helpful with disable! Ie holding doors opens, while I was pushing wheelchair! Considering pub wasn’t busy

Service was really good the staff where very kind and helpful. The food was really nice and reasonably priced

If you fancy a beer then ok, but don’t bother with breakfast. Admittedly there were 7 of us, but it wasn’t busy and the cooked breakfasts ordered were either missing elements, forgotten altogether or just wrong! Examples: Avocado and poached eggs with bacon was delivered with a couple of small slices of avocado and no bacon. Some Cooked breakfasts had tomato & hash browns, some didn’t. The baked field mushroom was spit into 3 & shared amongst various plates butter put on hot plates so became a sauce to chase around the plate & the poached eggs were very hard boiled. Coffee was also anaemic & tasteless. So I won’t bother going back to eat.

We went to this pub/ restaurant for a late afternoon meal. Three of us had been before (4 in total) Always a lovely atmosphere/ ambiance, same yesterday. We had made a reservation, it being a Saturday. We were seated as soon as we arrived in the restaurant area. We decided on main meals + a dessert. All the food and drinks were served well and where required were hot. There is the option to eat within the bar area, which I’ve done in the past, I can’t recall if the menu is the same if sitting there, but nonetheless the food is lovely. You also have the option of eating outside, either under a permanent canopy (heated in chiller seasons) or not, the latter being close to a small play area with rustic wooden climbing frame with woodchip flooring. There’s a small bar outside too, all in an enclosed area. Dogs are welcomed both outside + inside the pub areas. We like the nostalgic decor drawing on the past of the site at Kingshill, being an Aerodrome in the 2nd World War. Even though this pub is part of the Shepherd Neame chain it’s still individual in that respect. Our only query was, as to whether the chalkboard on the bar advertising a ‘deal’, was in fact just that? Photo attached. It read: ‘Frozen Margarita £10, deal 2 for £20’.

Lovely meal, unusual choice of dishes. Recommended.

Nice pub, swift service, friendly staff and dog friendly!!! Big outdoor area with covers and heaters, too.

So my family had come to this pub for a meal after just leaving a funeral. The children were being loud as they do and one was crying because she was tired. The staff were extremely rude about it because one of the customers who I hope doesn’t have children!!! Was childishly putting her fingers into her ears saying it’s unacceptable for a child to be upset. The staff asked my family to leave I would never step foot in there again awful service below average expensive food. And they don’t even serve breakfast on weekdays. Absolutely disgusted how they handled the situation so unprofessional

Awful pub not family friendly absolutely rude staff!!. They don’t even serve breakfast throughout the week which they were also rude about. never again would I step foot in there. be careful with your children make sure they don’t make any noise inside of their unprofessional bad mannered pub

Didn't have any food but was told their selection was good. Kids menu available as well. The pub itself was welcoming and doing a good trade. Wheelchair friendly. Many families take their children there as a great place to get together. Safe environment for children to roam and play in. Garden well lit in the evenings. Parking available near by. Definitely will be back when next in the area.

After spending the best part of £60 on a few drinks and some loaded fries (was already disappointed with how expensive the drinks were) the kitchen at The Spitfire had closed. One of the people in our group got a pizza from Domino's and we all still had drinks bought from the establishment.(we were tucked away in the corner of the garden, of no inconvenience to anybody) Within 1 minute, a lady who works there asked a bouncer to come and tell us that we can't have the food here - could continue to buy drinks, but not have the food. It had to sit next to us not being eaten. I would understand if it was in competition with them, however they were not even serving food.. What's next? Not allowed to smoke cigarettes that weren't bought there, even though they don't sell them? Very disappointing, senseless and one way to make customers feel unwanted. Very poor. And to add insult to injury, did they clear any of the glasses or empty plates all night? No. Won't be rushing back to this one

This is our local so we go there all of the time! Great food at reasonable prices and really friendly staff

Food very slow to come out even though I he place was emoty

Generally ok but food. Can be a bit hit and miss.Staff lovely,but not enough staff for such a big establishment.I enjoy shepherd neame pubs,but the food is a bit overpriced.Great eton mess though!

Monopoly on King's Hill, as the only pub there, but done so well!. Great atmosphere & choice of drinks. Food was quality too. Thanks!

Held our staff summer party in the upstairs private bar. And again was a great night. Staff so helpful from booking to the event itself, they really look after all your needs. Special thank you to Joe, Josh and all the kitchen guys for all your hard work leading up to the night and at party. A perfect party venue 🎉

Was with partners family and we had a blast, very nice and polite staff

Long wait for food when itt wasn't busy. Was queuing at bar when narmams friends came in, he let them jump the queue and served them before 3 lots of waiting customers. Not a good impression as they all laughed about it.

Great outdoor space with heaters and a park. Tribute nights are great

Brilliant bands all day and such a good atmosphere. Will visit again

The food was ok, service slowish but what was not great was the hassle of booking a table, no response on email, no one answers the phone and when we finally got there, we spent an hour blinded by the sun through a huge window without blinds. Come on Spitfire, it ruined the meal and even talking across the table was an ordeal.

Went for lunch, quite busy, service a bit slow, but the food made up for it

Tried the spitfire on a Sunday they do a great Sunday roast.

Staff friendly, food nice, relaxed atmosphere

Good food and service was better than expected.

Brilliant night in this place for a 40th xx

Great place, warm friendly atmosphere 👌

Nice pub, good selection of beers. Friendly staff.

Disappointed had lunch fish sandwich and chips £10.00 took almost an hour, it was busy outside but the staff walked around aimlessly quite a lot. Fish was tasteless and I asked for some tartare sauce and was told its in the sandwich I asked for mire as I like to dip chips in . Won't be going again shame as shepherd name makes my favourite beer won't stop drinking it but won't try theirs pubs again

I don’t know if there is a special training facility where Spitfire sends their staff to ignore customers. I’ve been going on and off for a couple of years as it’s the only pub in town and in all that time I’ve only seen one staff member once who seems to enjoy their job or greet customers with a smile. He only lasted a week it seems. Do they really have to be so grumpy? I used to work in pubs. Honestly, you don’t have to be so glum! If there was another pub, I’d go there.

Lunchtime visit with work colleagues. The food was very tasty, fresh and filing.

Went to a wedding reception upstairs. Very impressed. Food was great, bar quick and well stocked. Big enough for a dance and the outside area a bonus. World recommend for private function

The food was unexpectedly good, great menu and very nice! We had the duck rice bowl and ravioli... delicious

Nice little place. Food was delicious. Service was great. Staff friendly. Nice garden in the sun with small climbing frame area for kids. Prices reasonable. Close to local supermarkets. We will be back. Food was so good.

Went for a quick drink after work to celebrate our Grandaughter being born. The staff and atmosphere was great as it always is and we sat outside in the newly refurbished garden with beautiful new seats and cushions - was very relaxing and staff were all lovely and congratulated us on our news - a lovely friendly pub 😀

Went here to celebrate . As usual staff amazing, friendly and hard working. Food superb and a great atmosphere. This place is a credit to the area .

Just had breakfast with my granddaughter. The staff were very welcoming. Lots of families enjoying a good start to the day. Service was good and food was lovely and hot. A great start to the day for us both. Will definitely go back again soon

Food is great, outdoor area is perfect for the kids, including covered spaces to ride out the mercurial British weather. Great stuff.

I’m writing this review because I was so shocked by a young dark haired man that worked there over the weekend. There were fly’s all the dirty plates that had been left on the table and about 15 dirty glasses, none of which were ours...

As the food at the Spitfire seems to be back up to scratch, we've been visiting a lot more in recent months with family & friends, who have all really enjoyed their meals. We went again yesterday with my niece and her partner, and was...

They let dogs play quizzes 🐶 🐶📝 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Nice big garden, Nice staff, Pet friendly Worth a pint! CHEERS! 🍻

Just had dessert there as freinds were just finishing a meal when we arrived. Staff very friendly, dessert was very nice and by all accounts, so were the meals.

We go fairly regularly, we always eat and the staff are nothing short of exceptional, very friendly and polite. The food is great quality although we have noticed a distinct reduction in the size of the portions, but then where isn’t this not the case

Very nice place food very good

Food is great, pleasing surroundings, and most pleasant staff. Been before, definitely go again.

Fabulous food ❤️ great service and Emma remembered us for a previous visit and knew our drinks order. Emma was great throughout the evening even though she was serving every other table and her attention to detail and personality should be applauded. Works her off...

Very nice. Friendly service and although it was a busy lunchtime the chips did not take long.

Good meal and really busy place which is great to see. Nice little area for the kids to play too

Nice food, expensive for 2 sandwiches and 2 small wines, but was nice to get out of the office

Very good food and accommodating for our large party for a Sunday roast. We went on a week day once and food arrived cold, only happened once, definitely worth a visit...

Nice atmosphere and good selection of drinks as i havent ate in the pub i cant comment on the food

Bin twice has indoor and outside space. They also have a restaurant. Large selection of drinks and snacks available too. Will come again in the summer

Took my elderly mother there for Sunday lunch and although we hadn't booked, a nice chap behind the bar could see she was struggling and found us a table. From then on his attention to detail was impeccable, as seemed to be the case with the rest of the staff. It's rare I go to a food/drink venue and think "they are the type of people I'd employ, because of their great attitude" but it was spot on. The great food was secondary importance to the rarity of great staff who are a credit to The Spitfire.

Upstairs function room provides a good segregated space for celebrations 🍾