The Vineyard Wrotham — Restaurant in Tonbridge and Malling

Amazing service from start to end, waiter was attentive and polite. He had noticed that one starter (a fish cake) and one dessert (an apple crumble) was untouched and checked in to offer us a substitute. He truly is an attribute to the business.

The atmosphere is warming and modern. The music could be ever so slightly louder particularly being that there were only three tables seated and we were all in close proximity meaning everyone could hear each others conversations.

Starters:

Thai butternut squash - 10/10 (divine) Cod & Crab Fishcake - 2/10 (absolutely no flavour/seasoning in the fishcake)

Main:

Beef roast - 6/10 (beef was cooked perfectly, potatoes were very dry, dense and not fluffy inside, the one parsnip was very dry and unseasoned, the one carrot was cooked well and sweet, the cabbage was lovely and the gravy was a perfect consistency. As a whole the food on the plate wasn’t served hot enough, some elements were good and others not so great.

Dessert:

Sticky toffee pudding - 8/10 (pudding was the perfect temperature, the garnish was a little excessive with a blueberry, strawberry and watercress laid over the pudding, the combination of flavours didn’t make sense to me.

Apple crumble - 3/10 (the custard had curdled and was very thick. Although the fruit filling was quite tart and flavoursome it was very dry. The waiter kindly removed this dish from our bill without asking.

I think with a few changes to the food this would be a good spot to visit again but...

Perplexed. My partner booked a table for two people, Website said only three left. We were the only customers in a 70 cover restaurant , a couple of others arrived later. Waiter initially gave us some comments about menu changes, eventually my partner chose Salmon and I chose rare beef. My starter was Tiger prawn with lemon mayo. There was virtually no flavour of lemon but a strong flavour of balsamic (oddly). My beef arrived first flooded in thick "gloopy" gravy and meat only just medium rare. My partners salmon turned out to be a white fish NOT salmon, waiter then told us salmon had been replaced with sea bream, they took it away and weren't clear what they were bringing back and it was the same white fish, that was categorically NOT Sea bream. She said it was quite nice whatever it was! My dessert was allegedly caramelised banana with ice cream and chocolate sauce! The caramelisation was a dribble of caramel sauce NOT caramelised banana, random fruits and edible flowers placed on it too.Toilets quite impressive unlike the venue/food/service. As we left around 1320 another group were arriving but nowhere near the large numbers the booking system suggested. The final insult came when I checked my credit card and it showed the payment was to “Vineyard fine dining” so inaccurate at every level! After nearly 2000 reviews on trip advisor I have to question the veracity of the 5*...

We have eaten at the Vineyard in practically all of its previous guises.

We were not too fond of the change in persona from fine dining to “Party On” dining and so we slowly ceased going a few years back.

However, the Vineyard is back from its Fish and Chips depths and it has been REALLY smartly refurbished.

We dined 1st March 2025 and can comment :-

Mustapha our waiter provided exemplary service.

The website menu was different to the menu on the night (one aspect to fix), but there was plenty on offer, including some pleasant options for my vegetarian wife.

All four of us had great starters & main courses - no issues at all.

Wine was impeccably served and the overall service was excellent.

The bill was not too trumpy, in fact quite reasonable, which again is an improvement upon historic guises of the Vineyard - perhaps we consume less alcohol now that we are older…

My only comment was that it was not busy. But that does not bother me in the slightest. If you have to go somewhere for “atmosphere”, then perhaps you are sitting with the wrong people at your own table - plenty of atmosphere at ours :-)

I sincerely hope that this takes off - but not immensely - I really do like a more refined / quieter...