The Famous Ship Inn — Restaurant in Folkestone and Hythe District

We visited this pub while on weekend break in Folkestone. Pub is very dog friendly and our dog got some treats when we sat down. Decoration is very good reflecting name of the pub. We did order fritto miso, seafood chowder, ham and eggs and buttermilk fried chicken. Fritto miso was nicely cooked with crunchy batter and flour coating, chips very very tasty and really good, looked like homemade cooked, minted mushy peas, very big portion and aromatic. Seafood chowder was tasty and the portion was good, loads of mussels some fish mix and was full of smoky flavour which might be a little bit over dominating. From bad side the new skin on potatoes cut in half is a mistake, would be much better skinned and diced, consistency was to liquidy, if you ever had Irish seafood chowder you know what I mean, should be more creamy and thick. Ham and eggs, well you could say what is special in ham and eggs? But ham was really good quality, eggs cooked just enough and my son, who is not good eater and very picky enjoyed it and finished everything. The biggest disappointment was with buttermilk fried chicken burger. It came very burnt and on the menu says 2 pieces of chicken when we got only one. When we ordering food looks like staff didn't know do they have that chicken or not, and maybe they had only last half, well for £17 it was the most expensive pice of shoe sole in my life and I am a chef and we cooking aswell buttermilk chicken which is for about £9. When I mentioned it to the staff looks they didn't know the menu says 2 pices of chicken and wanted to give me another one, but it was to late so I stayed with it. They should offer refund or a discount. Drinks ok just like everywhere. We spend around £90, so the problem with that poor chicken could be sorted in better way. Anyway place is good and food tasty apart of that chicken. Pub looked very busy when we leaving. I would recommend it...

Table for 9 on a Sunday and the restaurant was empty, we live local and know the pub before and after the new owners came in. Arrived and was seated promptly, drinks order taken and we ordered mains. After this point another 5 tables of people came in, mainly couples. We watched and waited over the next hour and 15 mins as every table apart from ours received and ate their food. When asking the waiter why were we still waiting, the response was they were really busy!! They really weren't ... When our food did arrive the mussels were great albeit a slightly small portion for the price. The kids food of roast pork was very poor. The potatoes were white and completely anaemic.. the veg was basically raw and undercooked, the Yorkshire pudding very oily. The pork though was fine. The other meal of chicken tender and chips was terrible value, 1 chicken tender and chips for £17??? The chicken was also burnt and dry.. When feeding back to the waiter he did knock a couple of drinks off the bill but in all honesty we'd have rather just had nice food, along with not waiting an hour and 15 mins just for mains.. luckily we didn't order starters or we'd have been in there even longer. We won't go back as locals or people that know the other l&b restaurants in town, its nowhere near as good as other places or for value in Folkestone, Hythe...

We were really excited to see that the Ship had been taken over but at the same time thought the management were absolutely on it or would be over promising and under delivering by offering everything from breakfast..

Went for breakfast to be greeted by the staff who went above and beyond to tell how they weren’t ready and at this point we should have left.

First response when the hoover was turned off was - ‘breakfast!?’ There’s only enough for five full English today.

Fast forward a good 45 mins and after our dog had been offered water twice and the main focus was lighting candles we got our drinks order (that didn’t include decaf coffee because there wasn’t any) not very closely followed by snotty eggs, overwhelming fennel sausages and all the other offensive bits of a breakfast that makes you want to go home and wish you’d never left the house. No butter for toast - asked for ketchup 3 times.. got told to sit down it’s coming . All in all a totally painful experience for nearly £50 and we definitely won’t be going back which is a huge shame. You have to pay when you order. Top tip, if it’s the weekend and the staff are complaining that much at 10.30am then run.. made it feel like a bad day at work but...