Hand & Sceptre — Restaurant in Tunbridge Wells

The Hand and Sceptre is a beautifully quaint premium country pub nestled in a perfectly picturesque corner of the Garden of England. Surrounded by the rolling green and pleasant hills of the Kentish countryside and a mere stones throw from the historic town of Royal Tunbridge Wells, this establishment could simply not be situated in a fairer location. Just opposite this most lovely public house sits a landscape affording a view of all that the people of this corner of the world hold most dear. Southborough cricket ground in its quiet shining glory, lying just in front of a centuries old church adorned with its majestic spire soaring up towards the great blue firmament that rests above the ancient oak woodland stretching out in wondrous, silent expanse before the grounds of the Hand and Sceptre, as it sits there solemnly, strong in it's regality.

I visited the restaurant on a quiet Wednesday afternoon, and as I stepped out of the biting late winter cold into the warm and soft embrace of a lovingly traditional country pub I was greeted immediately with friendship, respect and reassurance by a delightful young Irish waiter by the name of Jay. He took me to a cosy corner table whereupon I was offered a bottle of ice cold water to prepare my palette and left to ponder the varied and delectable à la carte menu. The water arrived, with a choice of either sparkling or still. Jay filled my glass and I cocked my head back and guzzled with reckless abandon. How refreshing.

For my starter course I chose the pan fried wild scallops, accompanied by a light parsnip purée, a fresh and inviting tomato and spring onion salsa and two moorish and rich dauphinoise chips. It arrived in great time, carried gracefully on deft feet to my table by my new friend Jay. Oh, the luck of the Irish! The scallops were cooked to perfection and seasoned masterfully. The pairing of the various components of the dish came together to form an angelic culinary orchestra of mouth watering brilliance. A rather delicious start and a sign of great things to come.

As to my entree I opted for the freshly battered line-caught cod, served with a locally sourced minted pea purée, chunky tartare sauce prepared in house and thick cut artisan rustic chips. The meal exceeded expectations and broadened the horizons of my reality through it's humbleness and traditionality while simultaneously pushing culinary barriers with bracing elegance and sophistication. The crisp, crunching sound given life by the breakage of that firm golden batter entombing the wild north sea cod will surely echo through the ages.

Coming to the tail end of this opulent feast I found myself utterly gorged and nigh on immobile, unable to continue on to a tertiary course. Though let me say I have heard tell of the magic that emanates from the pastry section that crouches, lurking and waiting in the corner of that noble culinary vineyard, referred to simply as “the Kitchen” by the upstanding and hardworking, diligent and humble members of staff that toil its fruitful fields.

I passed the next half hour or so idly chatting with my emerald chum, lamenting on things past, present and future over another bottle of still mountain spring water. To say that I walked out of that pub forever altered would be an understatement. A sorry collection of fractured parts in vague human form entered and a new man made whole and true left.

A day well seen out and I hope I soon shall return. My endless thanks and praises I sing gladly to the Hand and Sceptre and it's unit of well trained and unerring warriors of service that walk it's...

Headline: Great cocktails. But the remainder: all style, no substance. I really wanted to like this pub, and was bitterly disappointed. Lack of staff really affected service and food was sub-par. I really hope these are just teething problems, but I shan't be returning anytime soon.

I was visiting from London and my (local) friend suggested we meet here for dinner. The menu looked impressive, and was looking forward to it. The location and decor of the pub was nice and welcoming. The staff greeted us nonchalantly, and said they were very busy, but were able to seat us. We ordered: Cocktails Blood orange and passion fruit Collins Starters: Pan fried wild scallops Salt & Szechuan pepper squid with a ginger mayonnaise Mains: King prawn, crab and chorizo linguine, in a white wine, tomato, garlic and chilli sauce Roast pork-belly Dessert: Sticky toffee pudding Tea with miniature dessert (lemon posset).

Whilst it was clear that the team were understaffed, we were offered no apologies for the late taking of our orders - or lack of any attention, really. Nonetheless, cocktails were superb - 10/10 for those. A short while later, our starters arrived. The scallops were well cooked and seasoned, but the accompaniments were lacking seasoning. If you wouldn't have said the squid had szechuan pepper or the mayonnaise had ginger, you wouldn't have been able to tell ...

There was a significant wait between starters and main courses (insomuch we ordered and finished another cocktail!), and the linguine was terrible. Any 'flavour' was washed away by the excess of water which left a tepid pool at the bottom of the bowl. After trying to grab a server's attention, we finally managed to track someone down and asked for the dish to be remade. The pork was luke-warm and I asked for it to be heated so we could eat at the same time (ie: the point of going to a restaurant). The remade dishes were somewhat better, but still not great. The pork was tasty, as was the accompanying bonbon, however the gravy tasted slightly bitter.

Finally, dessert was served, and the sticky toffee pudding was delicious. I, on the other hand, was served a miniature lemon posset (which I ordered), and then waited 7-10 minutes for the accompanying tea. The posset was ok. Once I started to pour the tea, nothing but clear water came out of the spout... it would appear I was served just a pot of hot water. This was rectified once I raised this...

We ordered food here on a Sunday night, through their own website, paying £60 for 4 meals, we ordered at 4:30 for a 7:30 pickup. Great, we thought, all sorted, no fuss. 7:30 rolls around we walk in and let the member of staff know we are pickup an order we placed on their website. We were met with a "deer stuck in headlights" look as the staff member realised that they had not in fact received our order and that we were about to be very disappointed. Another staff member steps in to tell us "We don't even do roast dinners past 5" as if that was our fault that the website allowed us to order that meal. We then stood there looking at each other like a bunch of lemmings whilst their minds ticked over thinking about what could possibly be done. "We can do just the burger" one of them unhelpfully remarked. Because yes, one meal out of 4 is exactly what we want. "Can you just refund us?" My friend asked...... "I don't know" was the response from the blatantly under trained teenager. It wasn't her fault by any stretch and we were very sympathetic that the system had let us down. We reassured her we weren't upset, but we just wanted either 4 meals or our money back. Bring in the manager. 10 minutes later, stinking of cigarettes, appeared a young man who looked like he'd just arisen from the world's best nap. "What's up?" He jabbed. "You've charged us £60 and not made any food"...... "Oh yeah deliveroo has been messing up..." He retorted smugly. Passing the blame on to someone else, bullet dodged. "Well actually we ordered it from your website, 3 hours ago". "Oh. Well. Right."......cue awkward staring "Can you just refund us please so we can go somewhere else and get our food?".... "Yeah yeah, other staff member can you ring this through". Cue another awkward minute as creepy manager stands very close behind young girl trying to earn a few quid at the weekend, showing her how to use the POS system to do a refund. "Right, put your card in." "Right, take you card out". "Very sorry about all this..." Nothing more, a veiled attempt at an apology as we beeline for the door, with a slightly lower than expected refund, because the prices are different on the website compared to in the restaurant itself.

I'm not from the area, I was visiting friends. But even if I lived in the hotel itself I'd never go back here. Avoid...