Druids Arms — Restaurant in Maidstone

It's an okay pub. +1 star because other reviewers say it's dog friendly although I've not taken mine in there.

I used to visit this pub with some mates before heading off for a curry, typically Monday-Wednesday around 8pm. In the early days there was a pub quiz and the pub was always busy even that early in the week. Sometimes the beer choice was restricted due to simply not having what I wanted. Typically a different bar-person every visit. Often they weren't very cheery.

Then the quizzes stopped and the number of patrons diminished. Sometimes we'd go in and it'd be like a morgue. Don't get me wrong, sometimes a bit of peace and quiet especially when having a catch up with friends is nice. But sometimes you want a little sign of life, no? After a few "no atmosphere" visits, we stopped going.

I haven't visited this pub during what must be busier times; Friday night and the weekend and reading other reviews, live bands, etc. it must be a better experience for patrons during that time. I can only review based on MY experience.

We have returned on a few occasions since but nothing much seemed to have changed so now we typically just skip the pub and go straight to...

Great live bands at weekends. Band plays outside and the pub provides a canvas shelter across the whole area with heater bar which works well but sometimes its still not enough when it's really cold.

Since writing this, Damien (the pub landlord at the time) has left and in my opinion, as well as other regular goers, have seen the customer service and popular bands reduced somewhat. Not enough service at the bar on busy evenings. Never see the pub landlord. Plastic vessels, yuk! Not enough glasses at all. No shot glasses. Cold outside in the winter and replaced the overhead heater bar with inadequate wall heaters. The toilets are absolutely disgusting and there are not enough to cope with a busy evening. In my opinion, not good enough. And now that Earls, (now Market House next door, has had a refurb, and a very posh one I might add, I dare say that they have lost a fare few customers.

Come Druids...step up

April 2019 All drinks now served in horrible plastic cups. We only come here if there is an amazing band playing on Friday or Saturday night, which there...

This was the first time visiting the pub. The customer service was quite okay. The staff was friendly. We visited the pub for an afternoon meal. The food was horrendous and we will not be visiting the pub again. We asked for medium rare skewers, however they were burnt. The food served was generally cold except for the onion rings and chicken. The yorkshire pudding was burnt. Although the pub was generally empty it took a very long time for us to receive our food. Had the food been delicious or average this could have been easily overlooked. We informed the server before paying the bill and she informed us that due to the pub being busy (which it wasn't) perhaps some mistakes were made. We may have visited the pub on the wrong day, maybe the food is generally better or maybe we made a mistake in thinking that this would have been a good experience. unfortunately we will not be visiting again but we do admit that the staff was quite friendly and it pains me to even write such...