The Cricketers Inn — Restaurant in Gravesham

Why only two stars? Seven of us had booked for a friends birthday get together on a Sunday lunchtime. Food - average, they say their fish and chips are award winning, but could not say who the award was from. Roast dinner, the roast beef was good and tender, however, the roast potatoes were under cooked. Not bad food, just nothing to rave about. Drinks - bar drinks fine, others not so good. We had ordered two Baileys coffee’s, which upon arrival were barely tepid. The manager said it was because of the cream on the top. We asked for them to be taken away, which they were. Two alternative hot drinks were ordered but never arrived. Deserts - only one desert was ordered, a brownie of some description that was very dry. The deserts priced at £8.50 are not at all good value for money. Service and staff - to start with they were pleasant enough and the food did not take too long to be placed on the table. The main issue is the manager (David) is all smiles until challenged. Let me explain. The two Baileys coffees that they took away and did not replace were still on the bill towards the end. I politely asked for them to be removed as nothing was served as a replacement. He then got extremely defensive and bordering aggressive , stating that we were served the drinks and should pay for them. When challenged and told that they were removed by his staff with no replacement he (David) said he would not take them off the bill. (Bare in mind this is only £14 worth). I said he has a choice, remove them, or I don’t pay the £300 bill. He then relented and said “I will take them off the bill, don’t ever come back to my pub” in a very aggressive manner. When he returned with the bill, I stated that I found him rude and aggressive and why does he feel he can talk to customers like that, when no one had been rude to him. He gave a vague apology. So based on this, no one in my group will ever set foot in there again. In conclusion - eat there if you want average food, but, take note, if you challenge the manager, he will most likely drop the smile and ask you not...

We've just had our last ever meal in the cricketers inn. as one of my favourite pub restaurants before lock down and one that I have many cherished memories in, I was so sadly disappointed. We ate here at 7.45pm, 12th Aug 2020 - booking for 2. We ordered drinks, then we waited. There was no communication. Loads of staff kept coming and going, and standing around, but nobody came to speak to us. Finally we called over our waitress after 30 mins of sitting around and waiting. When she come over, we were told that there was a delay in the kitchen and they will have to wait to take our order.... So basically we would have been left waiting even longer if we hadn't called her over. She says she's sorry for the delay and she can offer us some olives. We assumed she meant as an apology for us having to wait for 45mins by this point just to order starters! Well, that was not the case as we found out when we got the bill that we were charged for them. I wish she'd explained this, rather than saying she can offer us olives...?! We waited and finally ordered our starters to find there was no vegan spring rolls. It would have been nice to know what they no longer had on the menu, especially as we'd had a long wait in which they could have gone through the menu with us. A lot of the waiting staff seemed to be standing around and there was plenty of them. So it's not like they didn't have the time. Finally we got served our starters, OVER AN HOUR AFTER WE ARRIVED. We were starving. Then an hour and 20 minutes later we finally got our mains. By this point it was 9.30pm. We ate so quickly because we were so hungry. Paid our bill and left. I'm so disappointed and sadly this will be...

The Cricketers in Meopham is somewhere we've been many times before, and it offers a consistently good dining experience. We were a party of 5, having Sunday lunch as it was my son's 3rd birthday. The waitresses were attentive and professional, although I think 1 or 2 of them were quite new as they were very quiet and came across a little inexperienced, but that's fine they'll soon learn. We initially sat outside but there were quite a few wasps around so the waitresses kindly helped us move our stuff and plates inside. The food was fine, but perhaps not as good as previous visits. I chose the roast pork duo. It was meant to be pork shoulder and pork belly, but the belly was missing. It looked like they replaced it with a piece of pork stuffing, either that or they just forgot to put it on the plate altogether, but they didn't mention they'd run out and to be honest, I didn't ask. The portions were generous but everything could have done with a bit more seasoning. We had brownies and ice cream for dessert which was really good. The only other minor criticism I can have is that when I booked the table online it asked if I had any special requests. I asked if possible could they do something for my son's birthday but when we arrived there was nothing and they didn't mention it at all. It's only a slight criticism but would have been nice to receive a response or acknowledgement of the request, even if they couldn't fulfil it. To reiterate though, the staff were great, very friendly and well worth the service charge, the food was good enough and...