Tudor Rose — Restaurant in Borough of Swale

When we walked into the pub there was no organisation, a lady behind the bar was trying to take names, all talking over eachother and there was a man sitting at the bar who I assume is the owner, with his laptop open looking at belts on Amazon, sitting in the way of the main door. When we finally got his attention he said “Do you know where you are going, go around the corner on your right, up the stairs and you’re there” then continued to go back to the laptop. We thought this was really unprofessional.

We entered the upstairs carvery area, firstly hit by just an odd smell which was not very welcoming. We were seated by a young man who explained to us when the chef comes back he will call us up to come and get the food, we ordered our drinks and things were going fine but we thought the restaurant just felt a bit dirty. We could see the chef had come back maybe after 10 minutes after being seated and thought it must be soon that we get called up. Our drinks came and the beer was watered down and just not right, it was pale In colour and tasted wrong, we asked for a new drink which the staff were lovely about and got him a new drink quickly, it was passed across the table, being spilt everywhere and then the fake flower plant in the middle of the table ended up being dunked into the beer, after all that it wasn’t different at all but we didn’t want to bring it up again so he just accepted it wasn’t right. At this point we were told again the chef was not ready, he was getting more vegetables and we’ll be called up when he’s ready.

We were waited for around 20 minutes, hadn’t been approached or heard anything but could see the chef serving people and others getting up to get food. We continued to sit for about maybe 5 minutes, taking in the restaurant which is just quite run down, flies buzzing around and again we just felt quite uncomfortable. We noticed 3 other tables that had come in after us bad sat down and then we’re going up to get their food, we were confused because we hadn’t been called up yet or told anything. After a few minutes we weren’t going to wait anymore as we only had an hour and a half on the table and wanted to enjoy the food and not rush. We got up to wait in line and it was just so disorganised, the queue was everywhere, there wasn’t a certain place to wait in line as such, the staff were constantly weaving in and out of people, their main station was right behind the queue so you were being moved out the way all the time and then you’d be in the way blocking people from getting their food, the placement of the carvery just wasn’t right and it was creating a really uncomfortable situation. It was right In front of the main door too so when people were coming up to the restaurant they were just hit in the face with this huge queue of about 15 people! At this point we felt a bit let down and it just felt like something wasn’t right, none of us were comfortable or happy with the whole situation and just had gut feeling we should leave. While standing in the queue waiting for the carvery the flies that we had seen previously buzzing around kept landing on the vegetables and all around the food station, after seeing this that was the final straw for us and we wanted to leave. We explained to the staff we wanted to pay for the drinks and leave, we briefly explained our concerns and the staff member was very lovely and didn’t charge us for the drinks and we left.

Overall it was just a very horrible experience, the whole restaurant needs an update, from the flooring to the seating, the placement of the carvery area and how the queue is formed. The two staff members that served us were really nice but I do think a lot of the staff lacked professionalism and maybe need some more training. Overall I would advise you avoid this carvery! I don’t know what the main restaurant is like downstairs, it might be...

After reading recent reviews, after our visit, I'm glad I did.

Opening night of any pub doesn't run as smoothly as customers or pub staff hope. You're all new. New owners, staff, new way of running things and things always go wrong. I know; I've been there; seen it and it's not fun when it does. Our last Sunday lunch out was to a very popular restaurant in Rainham and we're still wondering what we were served up and it appeared to be completely different to what others around us were saying and clearing their plates!! We're not foodies, just want a decent meal.

Anyway, we booked for Sunday lunchtime and didn't expect roast dinners but they were back!!! The options of 1 to 3 courses, with a set menu, with three courses priced at £16.95. Very good value!

The starters were just the right size. My daughter and I had the three cheese garlic ciabatta, my husband had chicken liver pate. All good.

Then the main. We all had something different. Turkey, beef and lamb options chosen, with cauliflower cheese as well. My goodness, when the food arrived it was lovely and so tasty. Cabbage, fresh carrots, parsnips (which had been cored too), broccoli and the portions were excellent. The meat was all tender, even our fussy daughter woofed down the beef, leaving very little. And as for the Yorkshire pudding; my husband and I did eye it up as we didn't have one on our plate, but that was eaten up first!! Husband enjoyed his lamb, and I had the turkey. The only little thing I wasn't too keen on was the stuffing. It took me back to the 70s but I still ate one 😂

Then do we or don't we have dessert? Of course we had dessert! It would be rude to ignore them off the menu.

Daughter had her go to brownie and ice cream; we both had the caramel and honeycomb cheesecake with ice cream. Sooo good 😍 I don't eat cheesecake often because I don't like the thick biscuit base, so this was a gamble. Oh. My. Goodness. I have never been so happy 😊 The thinnest of bases and the lightest of cheesecake. It was delicious.

Now you're after staff and timings aren't you?

The staff were lovely, didn't keep hovering and were attentive to the right level in our opinion.

The timings? It was Sunday, we weren't in a rush and wanted a relaxed meal. We weren't waiting ages and we had completed our meal in about an hour, hour and a half.

Bar staff too were polite and friendly.

We'll be back again for sure.

Please give it a try, and remember they are finding their own path, at a pub which had a big reputation for good food to follow. From what we had, they're getting there, in their own way and really hope it only gets better and better for them.

See you again soon...

We tried the Tudor 3 sundays running as a large family, so not exactly a one off. Always rammed busy on a sunday, with far more tables than parking spaces, so very hard to park. If you havent booked you could be in for a long wait. Grubby, unkempt decor, in dire need of a spring clean and a little modernisation. Priced slightly high for the average quality food, much of it microwaved, however very large portions and usualy piping hot. Service is very poor, about as amatuer as you could expect. Whilst most the staff are quite polite and cheerful, they quite obviously have recieved little to no training and are most certainly not worth the 10% service charge added to your final bill. Being left for an eternity after every course whilst sat amongst your dirty dishes, constantly trying to gain the staffs attention, even to pay your bill, is not worth the 10% surcharge. There is no structure to the staff whatsoever and no one person is designated to a particular task, therefore you may well see multiple staff members during a visit, all of which do not know what the last has or has not done or asked etc. The manager (who can usualy be found sat on a stool at the bar) is scruffy, abrupt and borderline rude, with that only to common "If you dont like it then feel free to go elsewhere attitude." It seems as if they are quite happy with a food factory, more intent on jamming in yet another table full of customers, rather than offering any actual customer service, quality or attention to detail, relying on the fact that they have a large foot-fall of customers so they can afford to loose a certain percentage without to much worry. Convienient location, but that is about as far it goes unfortunatley. There are much better offers elsewhere for equal or even less cost. If you continue without improving, eventually you will run out of customers....