Smith & Western — Restaurant in Tunbridge Wells

Now that my mother’s house has been sold, staying there is no longer an option when visiting her in the residential home she’s now in. I therefore had to look for a B&B in Tunbridge Wells other than Travelodge - what a nightmare that was. I had seen Smith and Western when I went shopping at Sainsbury’s and thought I would give it a go. It was the best decision I made!!! Upon arrival I parked in their private, free car park and then received a warm welcome from Dan who booked me in and showed me to my room - very courteous, very helpful and attentive throughout my whole stay! The room was AMAZING; great themed decor with a wonderful shower room en-suite. In the room was a Nespresso machine with complimentary coffee, tea and chocolate pods. There is free WiFi - a definite bonus these days. In the shower room there are wash and shower products provided - the towels are changed each day if used. In the wardrobe was an iron and ironing board and in one of the drawers was a hair dryer - all essential mod-cons!!! There was also a very comfortable chair and foot stool for chilling out in. Even though there was music playing downstairs in the bar and restaurant, the rooms upstairs are pretty much soundproofed and getting to sleep on the first night in a very comfortable bed was no problem at all. I’m 6’ 2” and fitted the bead easily!!! The breakfast choice - themed again - is HUGE and if you want to go the whole hog you could have a meal that would last you all day - pancakes, cooked breakfast and even, I believe, steak! I chose just scrambled egg with crispy bacon on toast with some coffee…..beautifully cooked… and served by Dan 😊. I had a 3 night stay at S&W; I got 3 great night’s sleep and 3 excellent breakfasts. I’ll be visiting my Mum every 3 - 4 weeks travelling up from Devon and can guarantee I will be going to...

We went for a family meal at the weekend. Ample parking within the dedicated car park, (albeit tricky to get out onto the busy roundabout, which was no fault of the establishment).

On arrival, we were politely greeted and shown to our table. We asked to move, as we were directly by a window with the sun shining quite blindingly through, with 2 of our party being photosensitive and prone to focal migraines. Despite numerous empty booths and tables (which remained empty throughout our meal), we were told we could move only to the table opposite, which was still impacted and so 2 guests struggled through the meal for the first 40 minutes until the sun moved. Appreciate they cannot control the sun... but if a customer is uncomfortable and other tables are available, it would have been nice to be offered a more suitable table.

There was a good variety of food on the menu and we were all able to find something we fancied. Children were well catered for, with my daughter being given activity sheets and crayons on entry and having suitable meal options.

The food was OK, but somewhat overpriced for what it was (in my opinion). The meal was pleasant enough and arrived hot.

The constant, loud, themed music being pumped out while we were eating was a tad off-putting and stifled any conversation.

The staff were, for the most part, friendly and helpful, and the restaurant area was clean.

The toilets were very poor. There was a narrow, somewhat shabby and wobbly flight of stairs down to 2 incredibly small, damp, dirty, ladies toilets that my child flatly refused to use when she saw the state of the toilet seats and floor, so we had to nip to the sainsburys nearby.

Served a purpose as a stopping point for lunch, but not somewhere we...

Visited after a trip to the spa valley railway it started well and went down hill. We had booked and the staff were very accommodating when we asked for a slightly larger table as we had 2 young children with us. The lady who served us was lovely and informative answering all our questions about the menu.

Unfortunately our food... We ordered the nachos to share and the Christmas Cob. The nachos for just under £25 came out with maybe 3 tablespoons of chili on a giant try of nachos. When it says you haven't been to smith and western without trying the nachos .... This is a lie if you wish to pay £25 for a plate of tortilla chips then go ahead and order. This then leads us to how the rest of the food went.

I ordered the steak, chicken and rib combo ... The ribs were ok, the steak I ordered rare, the steak had been touched on either side ... Normally I would enjoy this .... However not being able to cut your steak with the steak knife and having to go caveman style was not what I expected but necessary. The chicken I took home for the dog as It was rather dry.

Some of my family's comments about their dishes were that the wings were cold and dry. My sister mentioned her ribs were also cold. The cocktails were really small and tasted like fruit juice, we had the Christmas Cosmo.

In total our meal came to £200 which was well overpriced for the food we received and we were disappointed as the idea of the western themed restaurant sounded great and on arrival we were already looking to come back to one of the live music nights.

Unfortunately we won't be returning, the location was good for the railway but travel only a little bit further and you will find much better restaurants at a...