The King & Queen — Restaurant in Tonbridge and Malling

Visited today for a drink and something to eat having seen that its Steak Monday online.

We sat in the pub garden and we asked what drinks we wanted but there were no drinks menus available outside to have a look at. We chose a Bulmers Cider and a cloudy apple whilst we waited to be given the food menus as they were also nowhere to be seen.

When the menus were handed to us we were surprised to see that there was only 1 steak option on the dinner menu. When we enquired as to why, we were told that there is a different menu for 6pm onwards as it is steak night not steak day... (to be fair it says steak night online) but it didn't think that it meant there would be a lunch menu from 11 to 5pm, a dinner menu for the duration of the dinner service and a separate steak night menu issued at 6pm. Rather odd we thought...

We were told we could come back and order steak at 6pm which was over 2hrs away and we were hungry already so they lost our business because of a ridiculous quirk in the menu setup which meant we couldn't order what we were expecting when deciding on a location to spend the afternoon evening.

My wife went in to pay for the drinks and was robbed for £8.50 for just 2 drinks one was just an apple juice for gods sake.

We left vowing never would we return.

Oh and message to the owner who likes to rudely dissect reviews of people leaving honest reviews I dont wish to receive your self righteous opinions so you need not bother responding. To be honest you come across really rather rude and condescending which will not gain you any favour from a small close knit community such as East Malling.

My advice is just dont bother with the King and Queen the bad reviews are accurate not the other way around as the owners would have...

Staff were very friendly and attentive, absolutely faultless, the venue is good, plenty of parking space. Pub has lots of character. But I was disappointed with my meal. Perhaps if I'd chosen a different meal it would've been better. I picked vegetable Thai green curry. It was rice, peas with pieces of cabbage in a very liquid cream curry ( I was given a spoon as it was like a soup). Being British I didn't say anything while there, so they had no opportunity to put it right. My wife had looked at the menu online and wanted Scampi, which they didn't have. She chose fish and chips, the chips were extremely chunky and not crispy, and she asked for a fried egg and it was dark brown underneath and solid yolk, so couldn't dip. It was a special 50th Birthday meal. The pizza wasn't sliced, but they tucked a slicer under the pizza to do yourself, but it was bigger than the plate, and the plate had a curved rim, so really needed to put the pizza on a flat surface to slice it, so not easy. We asked for drinks without ice, they came with ice. We waited a long time for our food, (we didn't complain) and when the gentleman brought it, he said sorry for the long wait, but they were short staffed, and one of the chefs had been on a break, we were on our own in the room we were in. Even the ice cream was very basic, no sauce, wafer, whipped cream, and £2.00 per small scoop. There was no care put into the meal, and for almost £100 it should be a lovely treat, and sadly for us and my wife it was not, it was very...

I went with 7 friends for a pre Christmas lunch on Tuesday and to be honest it was the worst meal I’ve ever had. I was so disappointed as I have often had lunch there with a walking group and it has always been very nice.

We each had 2 courses for £27 and there was a choice, which we had to pre book. 3 people chose Beef Wellington and could barely get their knives through the meat, inedible. The traditional Turkey dinner was ok. One person had Confit Duck which wasn’t good and I had Hake in a chorizo crumb which, in itself, was good.

However, whatever you chose came with roast potatoes, parsnips, red cabbage, stuffing balls, hard grey balls (sprouts) and a huge Yorkshire Pudding filled with gravy. Has anyone had fish and gravy before?

We complained right at the start but the chef didn’t have the decency to come out of the kitchen to see us.

Desserts: profiteroles were good (probably bought in) and the poached pear was good. One person had Christmas pudding which was hard. 2 had Chocolate Bread & Butter Pudding which came in a solid wedge (as if from a cake) and was revolting, except for the custard.

The service from the waiting staff was excellent and professional and they did amend our bill by deducting the cost of 3 main courses.

We enjoyed our get together after 2 years of lockdown but how much better it would have been with decent food.

I hope other people who are planning a Christmas meal at the King & Queen have a...