The best restaurants serving British food in South East

Very poor food cold smelly staff did not care waited a long time they did not want us there the table cloths were not clean there was food on the floor

This is the main restaurant for the Spa Hotel - a lovely hotel in Tunbridge Wells. We expected it therefore to be at least good and cancelled a restaurant booking in town to try it. There were very few customers when we went at 6.00pm on a Saturday evening. The restaurant itself is lovely inside and has great views and friendly, helpful and good humoured waiting staff who were brilliant with our 4 year old daughter. The problem is the food. It is expensive but hardly even mediocre. Our bread platter had bread that was so dry our daughter couldn’t eat it and we returned it. My starter was a meat terrine that was frankly a dull slab and rather tasteless. My wife had salmon mosaic starter that again was bland. Our main courses were pork belly - with mashed potato that tasted like Smash - and a vegetable petit pain concoction that was small and tasteless. My daughter had ‘fish and chips’ where the fish pieces were mainly a very dry batter like substance. Again she left most of it: I ate some to see why and regretted it. Dessert for her was fine but it was just fruit and ice cream. So the meal was expensive, very disappointing and very slow indeed to be served - amazingly so when at first we were the only diners. This is such a shame as breakfast in the morning is fine and again the serving staff are excellent. We will definitely stay at the hotel again but next time we won’t be having an evening meal in the restaurant!

Food was delivered. My son found a long grey hair in his battered sausage underneath the batter. The food was awful normally ok. We phoned the take away to speak to someone they didn't care less about it. Just said ok bye. NEVER use them again...now both kids are complaining of stomach pains and visited toilet..

We decided to go here for coffee and cake on our way home. It is clear millions of pounds has been spent on the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Visitor Centre, and it is in a stunning location with fabulous sea views. It was a beautiful warm sunny day in the school Summer holidays, and should have been full, but I can see why no one would want to return to the Cockpit Cafe, given the dismal range of cheap bought in cakes they had on offer. There were 3 full cakes on display, 2 were gluten free and 1 was vegan, the plastic wrapped Bakewell tarts were also gluten free. Now given that this probably represents probably less than 5-10% of the population, it begs the question why these were the only cakes on offer? There were 3 staff behind the counter who seemed to have nothing much to do, why not bake a couple of fresh cakes and some scones every day, then the place might become more popular and get repeat visitors. Ask each customer if they would choose vegan or gluten free options to give them an idea of how in demand they actually are. The coffee was also very poor, a definite non repeat, though we did enjoy wondering around the Battle of Memorial Flight grounds in the sunshine.

I’ve often driven passed The Sandwich Board but never used them until yesterday. I was very pleasantly surprised to find they offer a very good selection of fresh food, made to order, reasonably priced and friendly staff. So pleased I decided to stop for my lunch!! I’ll definitely be using them again. Good to see an independent nailing it!

Staff we pleasant, food was perfect, was a pleasure to be in a country pub, nice setting nothing was any trouble

Great value and very tasty fish and chips. Nice benches outside to sit down and enjoy the quality inexpensive food! Well worth a visit!

Nah.....Just not the same anymore, gone from one of the best pubs you could ever visit. Now no atmosphere, poor drink selection staff not caring if you are there or not, this is our 4th and very last visit since it reopened from Dr Bs to the Star and Garter.

Intentamos pedir un fish and chips en este sitio y, después de 40 minutos, nos fuimos cansados de esperar. Mal organizado, clientes muy maleducados que se colaban todo el rato y olor a fritanga.

It's an average Starbucks with average service. You have probably been to one before and know what you are getting. Glad to see they have ethical coffee.

Only allowed 2 vegetables with your dinner, you have to choose between red cabbage, cauliflower, carrots or pancetta. I like a selection of veg as you get on most roasts. The Lamb was excellent as was the braised red cabbage. The cauliflower had barely seen hot water and was still very crunchy and the roast potatoes had been kept warm a little to long to make the skins a bit chewy. The venue is very cold feeling with none of the ambience of a restaurant. It’s clearly a young persons bar. There’s better out there at better prices.

We went with family for Sunday lunch - seated quickly and we all had the carvery. The meat selection was brilliant - 4 to choose from and lovely veg & the best roasties I’ve tasted in a long time. It was busy but the staff were excellent - special mention to Georgia who kept our table cleared for us, always smiling and another mention for the 2 bar staff that looked after us too. Thank you 😊

Spur of the moment stop , and ended up staying in one of the garden chalets . Home from home great little character pub with the warmest of welcomes from Martin and Deb , they even let us eat our Indian take away using their plates and cutlery , we’ll be returning for the Halloween party on the 29th . Scott & Caroline

Absolutely incredible night with the Secret Supper Society for my birthday. Jules has been wonderful to deal with right from my first enquiry. The food was absolutely incredible. Clean plates all round. Amazing flavours with good size portions. Jules and her team were the perfect balance of attentive whilst leaving us alone to enjoy the meal in the beautiful dining room. We'll definitely be back!