This Ancient Boro Tapas Bar in Ashford

The best beer, food, & atmosphere in Tenterden. A superb range of local cask beers and Spanish tapas, complete with friendly crowd of locals and visitors alike. Well worth a detour.

Has fantastic meal here as 2 couples. We were fortunate to be staying above the venue, great unique quirky but very comfortable 2 large bedroom accommodation with lounge etc. Lovely staff food drinks and service all amazing in the Tapas Bar. Between us we tried most dishes, all were delicious. Padron peppers and meatballs were my favourites! We made our way through beers ciders and gins over the 2 nights. Highly recommended lovely place to eat and stay.

Just could not wait to savour their lovely food this this not so insta ready pics 🤣🤣🤣 We LOVE the food at This Ancient Boro and they never disappoint! So far our favourites are the salt & pepper squid, bavette steak in yummy sauce, garlic gambas, garlic mushrooms, pardon peppers, créma catalans, lemon tart, sticky toffee pudding & more. Sarah’s team is super nice with a special thank you to Freya & Rosie last Sunday. Oh, and they’re 100% dog friendly too 😊 Highly & wholeheartedly recommended!!!

We had Tapas, good choice & very tasty. It sells craft beer & is a well supported pub with plenty of customers.

A fair selection of ales too choose from.

This Ancient Boro The best roast and tapas we’ve had for YEARS!! We were lucky enough to be treated to a delicious Sunday lunch by Sarah, the owner of the pub, while we’re taking care of Raffles and Florence for her & Mark. OMG WHAT A TREAT!!! It was really like being in Spain ☀️ Our neighbours at the table next to us were laughing because we just couldn’t stop saying how good it all was 😅 As a bonus, the whole staff was brilliant: attentive, helpful, kind. HIGHLY recommended. If you’re local to Tenderden: book your table now! If you’re coming from further afield: it’s 100% worth the drive!

So pleased to have found this place. The food was delicious and the staff were so friendly and efficient. We had a lovely couple of hours there.

Went there after staying in a local hotel and was told that they did Tapas which my wife loves, so booked a table and went there on a Saturday night. Walking in the door to a warm welcome from the staff to our reserved table, the place was nicely laid out the smells were great. The Ales in caskets were plentiful and the selection of Gins with Fevertree Tonic was very impressive. The food was very very nice and as such being a Tapas our eyes were bigger than our bellies, but you just couldn't leave it with the dishes we started with. The prawns were amazing in the sauce and the squid was one of the best we have had that we had to order it again. We tried to order a taxi to take us back to our hotel but could not get any (recommendation to pre book taxis) and it was a 2 mile walk, even Sarah (believe that was the owners name) tried her contacts but to no avail to took us back to the hotel in her own car. What a service that was. We will definitely be going back there sooner rather than later as it was that good.

Loved this place , great landlady's

Absolutely amazing food. We tried almost the entire menu! Really generous portions, everything cooked beautifully and delicious. All of the staff were so friendly and helpful. Thank you for a wonderful evening, we will be back!

Lovely drink selection and lovely local pub

Great little bar with some good beers and good food 😋

We have had a quick drink here before but we decided to have a selection of tapas this time round , just like last time we received a lovely welcome, the beer was so clean and refreshing, obviously well looked after! and the Sangria was lush, So tapas for four people, there was a limited choice being a Sunday but still a reasonable amount to choose from, it all came out so hot and fresh, the flavours were immense!! We tried varied meats, cold meat selections, different fish dishes, breads with dipping oils, soooo delicious, garlic mushrooms and the king prawns were the stars of the show, we would highly recommend This Ancient Boro and will visit again soon, Thank you all for a lovely experience, such a clean and really friendly establishment from start to finish.

Wow! What a little ray of Spanish sunshine in the middle of Kent. The food and service is absolutely perfect, I highly recommend the Gambas pil pil. The biggest and juiciest prawns I’ve ever eaten. All that was missing was the Mediterranean Sea. Thank you Ancient Boro.

I was not familiar with TAB until this trip. When I asked around the office what new places around Tenterden I should try, it was unanimous that I must go here. We were not disappointed so much so we went back the next night. The tapas were excellent with a good assortment of choices (~20) plus a myriad of beer, cider and gin. The service staff were very cheerful and quick on their feet. They had to be because both night they were completely packed. Highly suggest reserving a dinner time as you may find yourself waiting without.

Great tapas offerings. Always plenty of nice ales available.

Very disappointed!! We booked while visiting for the weekend from London. Reviews were good and the menu sounded authentic, however we were bitterly disappointed. Meatballs tasted like they’d been reheated in a microwave. Potatoes in the bravas were undercooked and no aioli. Croquetas deep fried from frozen. I do not have words for the tortilla. Prawns were fine but I’d be surprised if they were fresh. Only response from the staff was “people don’t usually complain”. Unfortunately there was nothing “authentic” about the execution of this menu. To their credit, the worst offenders were removed from the bill. Avoid! If looking for a decent meal in Tenderden, Montelbano’s food is sensational.

This was the third time we have been here. The food is excellent as are the staff. The menu has plenty to choose from. Our friend is vegetarian and the choice was ample. Meat eaters are in for a treat.

Friendly service with a smile. Have had some really tasty Ales on offer. Varies. Also ciders available.

Spent some time here for burns night in a professional capacity. Everything was run like clockwork with the chef putting his all into ensure the food was first class

Visited for a quick drink on Xmas eve. Really disappointed.Absolutely no atmosphere whatsoever. Normally a big fan of this type of ale house but I'm sorry won't bother to return.

This is my friend's home away from home. Good beer, lovely staff, yummy tapas and it is dog friendly. It's a small place but they do the best they can with the space they have. Definitely worth a visit.

Service great tapas food good portions and great to share great choose of gins and rums. Well designed inside with a great atmosphere and such welcoming staff makes for a great place 😀

Absolutely love it here, great food, beer and company

Great place to eat, drink or both. Looking forward to my next visit which is already booked

Top place with lovely staff . We will be back !

A great micro pub with a twist. A great selection of well kept Ales, ciders changing all the time. A permanent lager is Cruzcampo what I was on very nice. The food is Tapas which I didn't try as I had already eaten. Spacious and great atmosphere the staff and locals give you a warm welcome. Dog friendly and on Sundays do a roast. Sarah the owner also has a Air B N B directly above the premises capable of sleeping upto 6 - 8 people. , There was 4 of us it was comfortable and spacious, low beams and sloping floors which were quirky. I would describe The Ancient Borough as the hub of Tenterden and a great Micro pub in Kent . Give it a try you wont be disappointed. I visited today with wife her youngest son and fiancée who is half Spanish. We had the Tapas and a couple of drinks. My stepson had Cruzcampo a nice pint of lager, I had 2 pints of the session pale not to strong , the food was excellent, we had the special cod cheeks ,prawn skewers. Pottatoe bravas, mushrooms in garlic, Black pudding & chorizo in red wine sauce. The food was excellent and the plates were cleared before we realised no photo had been taken. The food got the thumbs up from a half Spanish lass. Service was excellent and we were lucky to get a seat as it was very busy. Not to mention Camra pub of the year 2023 for Ashford, Folkestone & Romney Marsh. Well worth a visit.

Nice place, the tapas was really good. Butter with the bread would of been nice as a suggestion

Lovely Tapas and friendly. Good menu and good service.

Although we have been going to Tenterden at least once a week for the past 6 years, we only walked in for lunch today. Tapas was very good and so were the specials. A lovely combination of a pub with local brews and delicious food. We will be back again.

Great beer and atmosphere. Both the owner and staff behind the bar were freindly and efficient. We didn't eat there, but tried all six beers and loved them all. Nice little gem of a place.

Lovely atmosphere great little pub food is good

Visited for a farewell drink to a friend who had recently passed away. Good selection of beer and great service.

Very lovely authentic Spanish tapas and delish beverages. Very accommodating to our large hounds. So good, highly recommended. It is a tad pricey but worth it 👌

A great Sunday roast And an excellent selection of good beers . We will return soon

I have only ever been here for a drink but plenty of ale options, beer well kept and always tends to be busy!

Our first visit here, loads of choices of caked ales, lots of gorgeous tapas options, friendly staff, one called Alix who was really helpful 😀 Loved it!

Great service, great food, great ale! Really enjoyed it👍🏻

What a lovely pub this is. Very friendly staff and great beers. Can't wait to return to Tenterden

DELICIOUS tapas, great ambiance and very friendly staff. The Landlady must be the most cheerful we've ever met! We'll be back! 😀

One of our favourite local bars/restaurant..... Really tasty food and more gins/ales and cider's than you can shake a stick at! Staff are super friendly.

Lovely pub to drink bear and have tapas. very friendly helpful staff. No screaming kids or children running about everywhere but a good mix of locals and visitors. Good variety of tapas food and excellent Sunday roast. Great place for dog lovers.

Good beer and tapas. Would recommend

Lovely combination of beers and ciders with fantastic tapas

100% CAMRA rated pub with all real ales, ciders. Excellent Tapas menu to make for a great time out.

Best Spanish tapas outside Spain! Utterly delicious, especially on a very sunny day.

I was meeting someone in Tenterden, a lovely village in Kent, and she suggested The Ancient Boro! As a local, I followed her lead and was not disappointed! Lovely staff, good selection of local ales and cider - I opted for the rhubarb cider from a local brewery in Biddenden - delicious! The food is tapas with a hood selection of meat, fish and vegetable options! The food was excellent and well needed to soak up all the cider I drank!

Authentic, fresh and flavoursome food served in generous portions with smiles and warmth. Worth a detour!

Excellent food, beer and service 🤩 bonus dogs are allowed. Highly recommend xx

This is an excellent little pub. The beers are well kept with a good selection that changes regularly and can be sampled as a tray of thirds. The same for ciders although I haven't tried those yet. The staff are very welcoming. As for the tapas...wow! We're gradually working our way through the menu and have not been disappointed once. Excellent real ales and authentic tapas, what more could you want.

Really good tapas, the best we have had in a while. Fitted us in as a walk-in on Good Friday as well which was lucky as they were fully booked.

Good tapas, good cider and good service!

Very far from being Spanish tapas, spicy squid? the worst patatas bravas..., padrón peppers almost raw, no sandwich (bocadillos) for dinner. The best it was the frozen croquettes and the meat balls with tomato. No changing room for babies.

Our 1st date night for many months and we was recommended Tapas here and i got to say the food was absolutely gorgeous. We loved every mouthful. Thank you for Great service we will 100% be back very soon :)

Real Ale and Tapas.... Perfect.!

Been here a few times now with my parents for Roast dinner and Tapas, lovely cosy setting with great food and impeccable service can't fault it in any way look forward to the next time

Nice friendly people good food will go again

great beer shame about the paid tapas the rest of our greedy party ate what we had was good atmosphere and pub looks great will have to return to experience without company

Excellent food and proper beer 👍

Superb tapas, probably the best I have ever had!

Absolutely delicious Sunday roast.

Very enjoyable quiz night with good beer.

Great tapas, fantastic ales and lovely service

Very welcoming, fantastically kept and very good selection of real ales. Tapas really good. Would thoroughly recommend.

Fantastic welcome ,good food and a must for real ale lovers and gin connoisseurs

Really nice cosy pub, the tapas food was good and a great selection of ales.

If you like good ale and Spanish tapas, this is the place to go to. Excellent service and food. Highly recommended.

Wow, what a great place. Something a bit different for Tenterden. Sarah is always pleased to see you. Love it!!!

Great food and beer. Very friendly staff

Great ales, food and landlord. Thanks Dave The Bell 🔔🍻🌮

Excellent all round for environment, food and drinks.

Ray & his team make you feel welcome & take care of you like family. Love the quiz night.

Love the range of local ales available. Certainly coming back.

Lovely staff, amazing beer and the food looked fantastic. Definitely be back to try it!

Fantastic place great hospitality

Nice pub with a good choice of well maintained beer in a friendly atmosphere. No intrusive music so good for a chat.

Great Real Ale & very good service

Great ale, lovely staff top pub

No substance or flavour to the dishes .its nothing like the real thing,they just make it look fancy,like ozger turkish down the road,they think people don't know what its supposed to taste like,but some people do and this is not authentic. This place is judged by boozers coming in with their dogs ,getting drunk.Please decide if your a restaurant or a pub, because it makes a difference, I do not want to eat rubbish food surrounded by drunk people ,drunk people eat rubbish food,so choose your customers wisely in future ..

Amazing food and great beer selection

Lovely tapas. Good beer. What more do you want?

Nice beer and friendly service.

Still friendly, good beer, service in these difficult times thumbs up to all x

A new home from home? Thank you for making me feel so welcome when I turned up on the off chance. The tapas was easily the best I’ve had outside Spain. Green hop ale is a revelation. I’ll be back for a rice pudding ASAP.

lovely food and service and great atmosphere,will definitely be returning 🙂

Loved this evening's French Night at This Ancient Boro. Fully booked and we can understand why. Lovely food, plenty of choice of wine/beer/spirits, friendly staff and great atmosphere. Have booked again for Tapas next week.

Great Sunday Roast, friendly staff and terrific beer

We visited Tenterden for the first time and loved This Ancient Boro. Amazing tapas menu and it tasted as good as it looked. Lots of room Covid wise and very comfortable. It was busy on a Thursday lunchtime which must be a good sign. Sarah and Ray have absolutely nailed it and we shall return.

Having been into the other Tenterden pubs looking for a quality pint of real ale we had just about given up but luckily popped into This Ancient Boro and so glad we did. The excellent Tapas on the Eat Out scheme was great bonus

The "Eat Out" offer encouraged us to seek out somewhere new and we decided on The Ancient Boro'. We were not disappointed, it has a lovely dining room, friendly staff, great beer and each of the tapas dishes was well cooked and very tasty. A great find!

Excellent food, friendly and welcoming staff. Attentive service and good choice of food which was reasonably priced. Highly recommended.

WOW WOW WOW my husband and I stumbled across this place accidentally and we were NOT disappointed!!! Super clean, friendly accomodating staff, great service and best of all FANTASTIC TAPAS...BETTER THAN WE HAVE HAD IN SPAIN!!!! 🙆💯 AMAZING VALUE TO HIGHLY RECOMMEND ONE TRILLION PERCENT 😊😊😊😊

The owners are very attentive and we felt very safe inside. Tasty food and the best strawberry cider we ever tasted

My husband and I have been meaning to try this Tapas and Real Ale bar for quite a while and decided to try it last night while the Eat Out offer was on ! Oh WOW , we are so glad we did , the food was delicious, we started with four tapas and that would of been more than enough !! But rather than have a dessert we had two more Tapas , it really was great . They were very busy but we had fantastic service from the two ladies serving and the gentleman behind the bar was welcoming and friendly too . Would definitely recommend and we will be going back . Many Thanks Denise x

Cracking place if you enjoy tapas and local ale. Win win! Chicken chorizo stew stunner! All very tasty. Friendly owners.

The food here was absolutely amazing and at an extraordinary price, i got a delicious 28 day aged 8oz rump for around £14 and it was one of the best steaks id had in a while, must give it a try.

Polite staff, food was tasty but the portions are SOOO small! Ordered calamari, was basically 1 very small squid cut in half with a few tentacles on top. Fresh anchovies... around 10 fillets! Fried cheese....4 small cubes. And all these dishes were around £6-£7 each! So far from value for money. Although tasty will never eat there again. Simply can’t afford the money for so little food!

Just popped in for the rugby (and a beer) they sell mainly local ales so if you're keen to try local. Service friendly, prices good.

A hot tapas buffet laid on for a group of some 30+ of us one lunchtime and what a superb one it was too. A very friendly environment and the serving staff were efficient at providing then clearing up later. It was so good it was tempting to overeat so some of us did!

Good beer and good tapas portion sizes Spanish not American which is as it should be, great for a lunch. And again really good beer.