The Earl of Clarendon — Restaurant in Folkestone and Hythe District

Popped in here Saturday for a soda and cider, as it was a really hot day and was walking the Kent coast and needed some shade.

There was a ten pound min card charge and had no change, so didn't end up staying but the pub was beautiful and the lovely lady filled my water bottle as I was parched.

As a northerner who loves traditional pubs, what I will say is make a B line for this place if you like old, traditional, quirky British boozers. It looked fab! I said to the lady 'this must be lovely in winter' and she corrected me rightly with 'its lovely any time of year'. I agree. Soon as I'm back in this part of the world, I'll make sure to spend a day/evening here.

As I sat outside, drinking the cold water and lapping up needed the shade (I'd walked from Dover), a couple of the neighbours came up from an afternoon swim we got chatting. When I mentioned the credit card issue, they offered to give me some cash for a drink, which I thought was unbelievably lovely. Obviously I declined but still, very sweet. Kent is a lovely county and so are the people.

Can't wait to get back to this pub and spend an evening there. For fans of a good boozer, don't miss this pub. Seems a hidden gem. Beautiful Victorian Style (not original) balcony which is a lovely feature.

Update Aug23* I got back to this pub and sat with Ron the owner for an hour. Incredible beer and he mentioned he mostly tries to source and serve local breweries (Sussex/Kent etc). He's been in the trade years and gave great insight into the workings of the brewery trade and the changes and challenges they have faced as landlords. You should ask him about his days working on the Dover/Calais boats! Super interesting. His beer was kept impeccably and his prices are great.

Can't recommend this place enough.

Oh, and ask him about Ozzy if you get...

Very traditional old pub. As contractors only in the area overnight we were lucky enough to find this place. Had a good meal and a couple of pints. If chain pubs are your thing this might not be for you. If however, like me, your of an age to remember when pubs had history and individual character then you'll soon feel at home. I'm pretty sure the staff went above and beyond to accommodate us that evening in absolutely shocking weather. So bad in fact that virtually everything else in the area closed early. I doubt I'll ever get the chance but I'd love to visit on better, busier ,evening enjoy a drink or two. So on behalf of two very tired,wet and bedraggled contractors who stumbled across this little gem on a stormy Wednesday...

At the age of 61 and having visited thousands of pubs throughout the UK as a member of CAMRA last night I was ejected from a pub for the first ever time along with my wife without being served. My heinous crime was not wearing a face mask although we comply with all COVID regulations . i made a futile attempt to educate the rude landlord that this was no longer a law of the country but he insisted it was the rules and marched us to the door. I will be contacting the local CAMRA branch secretary and the national body later today and urge them to remove this pub from the...