King Henry Ⅷ — Restaurant in Sevenoaks

Monday 2 May , I cannot believe that on a Bank Holiday Monday in a key tourist village this pub is closed. It clearly shows a lack of interest in serving it's customer's and the revenue they supply. I have previously visited Henry V111 on many occasions and would have always granted a five star rating. I have enjoyed some fantastic summer weekends in the garden with excellent service. Sadly now this pub has major accessibility issues. Hever Castle has very selfishly closed and gated off the parking adjacent. This was only an overflow car park and invariably empty .If Hever Castle asked for a fiver for non castle visitors we would gladly accept the offer and used the empty spaces. The road outside is also conned off and no parking. The only option is a very small congested customer only parking outside unless you get there early and in a smart car little chance of success and may well find you get boxed and your car clonked. My only parking success a few years ago the pub staff suggest I cycle or take the train ! ( Which only goes maximum every hour and is 1.5 miles walk and not really useful with elderly relations)Today on a nice dry warm bank holiday thought would give it a go,arrived early , the Hever Castle usher stubbornly refused us entrance to the car park adjacent so we walked back along the footpath only to find the pub closed. We were not alone amongst the visitors to Hever to be dissapointed..Henry V111 pub and it's castle should have an obligation to make visitors welcome and I am one who will not...

We arrived as a group of 6 on Sunday 12th Nov around 1pm. I'd tried to call a couple of times earlier in the week to ask about reservations with deposits as we were a larger group coming from Bexhill- a long way to travel to find you can't be accommodated and we weren't willing to book an alternative pub as a failsafe and then let them down at the last moment - however they were engaged each time. It was my birthday so I was a bit apprehensive about whether we would get to eat! We met a lady who said we would have a bit of a wait but she would find us in the bar when they could fit our group in. We had a couple of drinks in the lovely bar, it's clearly a popular place with local people. We were on our second drinks when a table was laid for us. Starters were excellent, full size camembert and lovely garlic bread. The roast was great, some had beef, some pork and some the beetroot Wellington (which very much exceeded our expectations) and generous portions of veg. Service was friendly, fun and relaxed despite how busy it was, it really made the difference. We really enjoyed both the food and the setting. I would be willing to travel there again for food and drinks, but a discretionary reservation system would be appreciated - and we'd be happy to pay cash deposits - otherwise it's possibly a gamble. I feel if we'd arrived even 30 minutes later that Sunday, we would not have been able to eat as it got...

This place is so beautiful. It's got such an atmosphere to it. It's calm and cozy. With antiques on the wall and the old beams. The building is from the 15th century and they have kept to the authenticity of the place. Candles light every table. No modern lights where we sat apart from a gas lamp on the wall. The day outside was cold and wet and we had just visited hever castle. We wanted a place to eat and dry off before our long journey home. It was just the place. The food was delicious. I had the gammon, egg and chips with peas and my other half had the steak and stilton pie. The portion sizes were good with plenty of filling in the pie for my other half, including the meat, It was well presented and we had to take a doggy bag, so we could take it with us as it was so good we didn't want to leave anything. The service was good with the servers checking in and they changed our candle which had gone out. They were friendly and polite as well as helpful. And we didn't wait long for our food either. The glass of wine I had was delicious. I went and visited the toilets and they were clean and pleasent with lovely smelling hand wash. The only thing is there is a step down into the toilets as you go in which I could see if you were tipsy or had been drunk that would be very interesting hahaha. Anyway, I fell in love with this pub. I do wish I lived nearer so could come to this pub all the time...