Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Maidstone
Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best Maidstone restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 22 restaurants in Maidstone and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Maidstone restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Maidstone Restaurants
1. Café Nucleus
British, Modern restaurant in Rochester
Halpern Conservancy Board Building, 15A High Street - ME1
At the award-winning Café Nucleus Rochester a warm welcome awaits. The continental café restaurant is set in one of Rochester’s grandest buildings, it offers a unique experience unrivalled.Winners of the 2021 Hospitality Business o...
2. Café Nucleus
restaurant in Rainham
The Langton Studios, 35a high street - ME8
The award-winning Café Nucleus introduces our newest café restaurant in Rainham, a warm welcome awaits. The beautifully designed continental café restaurant is a feast for the eyes and offers something unique in Rainham, Kent. Winn...
3. Frederic Bistro
French restaurant in Maidstone
Market Buildings, Earl St - ME14
2021 Review: “Huge portions” of “good wholesome food” make this “cheap and cheerful” Gallic outfit serving bistro classics “amazing value for money”. There’s a good selection of “fine wines”, but the place is “very noisy indeed”.
4. Fish on the Green
Fish & seafood restaurant in Bearsted
Church Ln - ME14
2023 Review: A “great selection of well-presented fish” is the reason to visit this seafood restaurant on the village green (originally part of the neighbouring inn, which houses their sister restaurant, Oak on the Green).
5. The Swan
British, Modern restaurant in West Malling
35 Swan St - ME19
This modernised village inn “never fails to please” with an attractive brasserie-style menu that’s “great for a casual lunch”. A covered garden adds to the package.
6. Pumproom Restaurant at Copper Rivet Distillery
British, Modern restaurant in Chatham
You couldn’t ask for a much better location than this characterful Victorian pump house attached to Chatham dockyard, whose outside terrace enjoys fine views of the Medway. Converted into a distillery seven years ago by the Russell family, it has relatively recently added a restaurant and cocktail lounge serving “interesting” cooking.
7. The Poet
British, Traditional restaurant in Matfield
Maidstone Rd - TN12
“The service and food are simply sublime” at this “lovely pub” – named in honour of the First World War poet Siegfried Sassoon, who lived nearby – which has served “the most accomplished food” for some years. South African-born chef-patron Petrus Madutlela, who has masterminded the venue’s gastronomic rise since 2015, departed in early 2023 and is replaced by Lee Adams, who worked for the late Gary Rhodes and returns to his native Kent after a decade running kitchens in Dubai and Hong Kong. Early reports suggest standards remain very high under the new regime, although consistency may be an issue.
8. The Three Chimneys
British, Modern restaurant in Biddenden
Hareplain Rd - TN27
This “delightful country pub” has a characterful fifteenth-century setting and five modern bedrooms in a converted nuttery above the gardens; it won praise this year for its “interesting and well-executed” locally sourced cuisine – served across five different dining areas – and even one reporter who had an off-visit rated it “very good”.
9. The Milk House
British Modern restaurant in Cranbrook
The Street - TN17
2023 Review: This former coaching inn “offers a good range of well-cooked dishes in its small dining room” – “pre-booking is advisable as it’s close to Sissinghurst Castle and Gardens”. In the summer, “a pop-up pizza hut is open in the garden for a more casual dining experience”.
10. The West House Restaurant with Rooms
British, Modern restaurant in Biddenden
28 High St - TN27
Former rock drummer Graham Garrett’s quirky 16th century restaurant-with-rooms in a “lovely village” in the Kent Weald has been beating off the competition since back in 2002. The set menus showcase some “very good cooking” based on “top-quality ingredients” – and while “just a few tables can mean there is a certain formality to it all”, it’s “none the worse for that”.
11. The Small Holding
British, Modern restaurant in Kilndown
Ranters Lane - TN17
A visit to this “lovely restaurant way out in the country” is “like a trip to the theatre only better – with amazing cooking” on “a top-value tasting menu”. “Dishes are often surprising – I love that much of the produce is from the garden or nearby”, in line with Kent-born chef-patron Will Devlin’s ultra-local and sustainable ethos. He also runs Birchwood, a daytime venue in the nearby Flimwell Park sustainable woodland development, but was forced to close The Curlew in Bodiam due to rising costs in late 2022.
12. Kentish Hare
British, Modern restaurant in Bidborough
95 Bidborough Ridge - TN3
In a “pretty village setting” (“what’s not to like about sitting under a pergola in the Kent countryside?”), seasoned restaurateurs the Tanner brothers run this much-garlanded gastroboozer. The food choices are “simply cooked” but “not mundane like you could do yourself” (indeed, “to call this pub food would be truly a disservice”).
13. Hotel du Vin & Bistro
British, Modern restaurant in Tunbridge Wells
Crescent Road - TN1
2021 Review: “For a thoroughly enjoyable traditional afternoon tea (HdV certainly make an occasion of this British tradition)”, or “a very good full English”, this fine-looking mansion still wins praise. However, more serious dining from its French bistro menu, as supported by its trademark wine list, attracted too little commentary for a rating last year.
14. Thackeray’s
French restaurant in Tunbridge Wells
85 London Rd - TN1
“Perhaps the most luxurious restaurant in Tunbridge Wells” – this “very smart Regency villa where [W.M.] Thackeray lived” provides a “very attractive” location for a meal; and is also praised for its “lovely, finely pitched service”. But while Patrick Hill’s well-regarded cuisine continues to win praise, there was also the odd reporter this year who felt it was “technically fine but with some over-fussy dishes that didn’t let the good-quality ingredients fully shine”.
15. St. Leonard’s
British, Modern restaurant in West Malling
47 Swan Street - ME19
2023 Review: An “excellent find” – this “friendly and professional” yearling boutique hotel/restaurant serves a short menu of “delicious and well-presented food”. There’s good generosity of spirit here: “we were given turbot when they ran out of cod!”
16. Bowley's at The Plough
British, Modern restaurant in Trottiscliffe
6 Taylors Lane - ME19
This cute weatherboard-fronted pub in a North Downs village is “well worth finding” for its “beautifully presented food” that “goes beyond local gastropub standards” – “great flavours and marvellous balance provide a real gastronomic experience”. Owned as a community asset by villagers who raised money to save it from developers, the venue is operated by the Yates family: David, an ex-Balls Brothers wine merchant, and his son Alex, a “chef very engaged in his craft who loves to get feedback on his superb dishes”. He and his young kitchen team have high aims for the 26-cover restaurant – whose regulars would “love it to go from strength to strength”.
17. Tallow
British, Modern restaurant in Southborough
15a Church Road - TN4
It’s been a good year for Rob & Donna Taylor, who moved to this “charming, cramped little room in a fun stripped-out townhouse in Southborough – a near-neighbour of Tunbridge Wells” – and who topped the Good Food Guide’s list of Top 100 local restaurants in July 2023 just two years after their opening (having moved here in 2021 from The Compasses Inn in Crundale). For a second year, it is one of the more commented-on venues outside the capital in our annual diners’ poll: the “highly skillful” food is “out of this world” and available à la carte (yay!) as well as in an alternative tasting format. Dishes include “plenty of well-judged strong touches” and “the presentation, balance and clarity of flavours are standout” (“meat cookery is a highlight, but the pastry section runs it a close second”). “Staff are super-sweet too and know their stuff!”. “The overall feeling is of a place that’s fairly priced (if not cheap) and a special place for a special occasion”.
18. Number Eight
East & Cent. European restaurant in Sevenoaks
8 London Road - TN13
“A welcome indie” launched by Stuart Gillies (whose starry CV includes stints at Le Caprice and NYC’s Restaurant DANIEL) and wife Cecilia in 2022; the “informal” venue specialises in “delicious small plates”, and while the “bill can add up”, it’s “the best option in Sevenoaks” by most accounts.
19. The Bicycle Bakery
Sandwiches, cakes, etc restaurant in Tunbridge Wells
118-120 Camden Road - TN1
2023 Review: “Absolutely delicious coffee and pastries” – all made in-house – are on offer at this “bakery with a couple of tables” – “and you can leave with a perfect sourdough loaf”. Founder Jamie Tandoh was the first independent sourdough baker in Tunbridge Wells when he opened in 2014. Top Tip – “the best croissants”.
20. The Square Peg
British, Modern restaurant in Royal Tunbridge Wells
46 Camden Road - TN1
2023 Review: This tiny Tunbridge Wells restaurant has just 5 tables, serving 12-14 covers, and offers a six-course menu. The work of a self-taught chef, Rob Marshall, it has yet to generate feedback in our annual diners’ poll, but looks worth a go.
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