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Ratings and reviews

RATINGS
Food
Service
Value
Atmosphere

Details

CUISINES
Bar, British, Pub
Special Diets
Vegetarian Friendly, Gluten Free Options
Meals
Lunch, Dinner
View all details
meals, features
Reviews (202)
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201 results
Traveller rating
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LanguageEnglish
Traveller rating
134
25
19
12
11
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All reviews belly pork casserole burger hake custard sandwiches salad pudding the pub amazing sunday lunch shepherd neame al dente friendly and efficient service freshly cooked food log fire front of house barbie
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Reviewed 3 weeks ago via mobile

A beautiful, warm, welcoming, charming rustic pub. With all the original features, fire burning, great selection of music playing. The staff made us feel so welcome, the locals were chatting and welcoming too. The food was tasty and top quality. Me and my partner had...such a relaxing evening. We will be making this one of our regular spots for sure. I had the lamb and it melted in my mouth.More

Date of visit: November 2023
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Reviewed 2 September 2023

The pub used to serve excellent food, but seems to have hit a rocky patch recently, so we originally only went for a drink. I got the drinks myself from the bar because we were out in the garden, and it was just going to...be a drink and no more: we were given some menus, and we had a look. The tapas looked interesting, and someone came out fairly promptly to see if we wanted to eat. We ordered 3 tapas, and were served within 5 minutes: mussels and chorizo, spiced figs, and pakora. All were good, especially the sauce the mussels were served in. I was a little surprised that no bread came with the mussels for that sauce, but the staff soon rectified that. Overall, we were pretty satisfied: we will return when the winter menu comes out, and try again. So, for us, a good light lunch.More

Date of visit: September 2023
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Reviewed 14 August 2023

Reading the reviews makes me think people expect different things as they are complete opposites. I've been before and think the location and building is ideal. I don't sit and wait for service, knowing staff are usually under pressure so go into the bar order...drinks and say we are here for lunch and proceed from there. The burger has gone up £2 in two months, but was good. I had the pie which had a thick crust and chunks of chicken and mushroom inside. Measly seasonal veg: half a carrot, half a courgette and a few beans! Has the management changed - not as good as before. Staff friendly as I've always found - depends how one talks to them.More

Date of visit: August 2023
Helpful?1  
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Reviewed 3 August 2023

We looked at the menu on the website before we went and it stated fine dining with lots of pictures of really good food. FAKE not fine. The menu was an A4 piece of paper that certainly did not offer what was on the website....Pizza, tapas and the usual pub grub. Not fine dining at all. I ordered the grilled cod which I expected to be a chunky FRESH piece of cod from a fish monger. What I got was an over cooked thin end which quite frankly tasted and looked like it came out of a freezer. The potatoes were a dark brown stodgy mess which tasted and looked like someone else’s leftovers re-heated. My husband ordered the burger which again had the expectation of being made on site from quality beef. Oh the disappointment when it arrived. Again this looked and tasted awful and you can definitely buy a better one in value pack from any supermarket! The staff we met were polite and attentive and just doing their job. No complaints with them whatsoever, however, management should employ a chef for starters, remove the false pictures and claim on their website and consult a dictionary next time they want to write the menu/website. Fine dining is clearly something they get mixed up with chuck a pack in the oven and hope for the best. Do not waste your money at this establishment.More

Date of visit: August 2023
Helpful?1  
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Reviewed 27 July 2023

Appalling. Short-staffed. Scruffily dressed staff who had no clue about waiting on tables or customer service. Dreadful service, more like self-service as no one bothered to take our drinks order or bring menus.; we had to go to the bar and get our own menus....The menus were scruffy sheets of A4 obviously manhandled time and again. A clean new sheet should be given to every customer. 35 minutes from sitting down to getting drinks. Eventually ordered food. Sent back the soup as it was awful; tasteless as unseasoned and made by someone with no idea. Butter was some yellowish hard lump of revolting stuff, but definitely not butter even though staff insisted it was. Probably a vegan alternative. Seafood cocktail was poor with big lumps of uncut lettuce because someone either couldn’t be bothered to shred it or didn’t know it should be shredded. Mashed potato tasted as if it was made with said vegan butter and made days before. Hake was supposed to be served with a herb crust. It was served with a green gloopy mess on the skin side instead of a crust on the flesh side, Purée and sauce were tasteless. Potatoes didn’t resemble Lyonnaise; they were just roast new potatoes. The only things cooked properly were the green beans. For a bottle of wine at £34, we weren’t asked to try first - big mistake and then overcharged for it on the bill. Water glasses were half pint Coca-cola glasses - seriously?! We couldn’t bring ourselves to use them. Didn’t bother with pudding..,most were unavailable anyway. A huge waste of hard/earned money!More

Date of visit: July 2023
Helpful?1  
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Reviewed 27 July 2023

Dear oh dear - I guess it must be really hard to get staff for rural pubs in small villages - but 35 minutes waiting to even be acknowledged by anyone, and even then we had to go up to the bar, where staff were...prioritising pulling pints for the regulars over people sitting at tables.... After we asked at the bar, there was a further 10 minute wait (while they printed some more menus) till anyone came to take our drinks order and brought us one menu to read between the seven of us.... Then a further 20 minutes till those drinks arrived...at which point we ordered, then a further 40 minute wait for fairly average pub grub. Any further drinks had to be ordered by going up to the bar. Certainly not worth the wait! When asked whether we wanted desserts, we politely declined, dreading how long that would take! To be fair the staff were very pleasant and polite, I think it is a management issue around lack of training and organisation.More

Date of visit: July 2023
Helpful?1  
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Reviewed 26 July 2023 via mobile

Unfriendly, poorly trained and inflexible staff. Small portions. No response to emailed complaint to management. Very poor would not recommend.

Date of visit: July 2023
Helpful?2  
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Reviewed 14 June 2023 via mobile

The Griffin's Head is in such a pretty location down the lanes maybe 25 mins from Canterbury. Grassy area at the front gets the sun until at least 8pm and the beer garden at the rear loses the sun in the eating area a little...earlier. Staff are attentive and helpful and food can't be faulted. We had crayfish and prawn cocktail to start and then one of us had the hake and the other the short rib of beef. Recommend each dish.More

Date of visit: June 2023
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Reviewed 30 May 2023

Booked for lunch and on arrival the place looked lovely x the chairs were comfy and nice size table. The pub was very cold needed the heating on x nice friendly staff x unfortunately the food was terrible the worst fish and chips and burger...are party had eaten, and had to wait a bit longer then wanted to x I’m sorry but won’t be returning xMore

Date of visit: May 2023
Helpful?1  
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Reviewed 25 May 2023

Called at 12 noon on the off chance of having lunch - many moons since our last visit - and were very glad we did. Very friendly and efficient service in this lovely old building. Food of burgers (my wife a regular burger fan) said...one of the best ever and my fish and chips were just right. Very reasonable prices for these difficult times. Can't wait to go again from Thanet.More

Date of visit: May 2023
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Reviewed 24 May 2023

Absolutely superb lunch and beer. Burger was perfect and fish n chips spot on. Superb service from Claire. She's a star.

Date of visit: May 2023
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Reviewed 7 May 2023

Excellent garden barbecue with big choice of help yourself salads. Very pleasant staff cooking on the barbie helpful and polite. You order at the bar and take your ticket anytime so the food is cooked for you. Bar staff where quick an efficient on a...very busy Sunday.More

Date of visit: May 2023
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Reviewed 5 May 2023

We recently discovered the Griffin’s Head and had one of the best Sunday lunches around here. Would highly recommend it and will definitely be back

Date of visit: April 2023
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Reviewed 10 April 2023

Came in on Sunday, was really busy but the atmosphere was brilliant. Was greeted by several staff members and the lady who looked front of house was very welcoming making sure we had everything we needed. Food was delicious. Would highly recommend going!

Date of visit: April 2023
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Reviewed 12 March 2023 via mobile

I looked at the menu online before and the prices were around £12 for a main course. There were some really nice dishes and they had me at venison sausage casserole. However, when I got there, the menu was entirely different and the mains were...now £15 each on average. I looked at the website on Wednesday beforehand. I would expect the website to reflect what is on offer and the current prices. It’s not a massive dealbreaker, but I felt slightly cheated as it had been a long drive to get there and once there it would have been a further drive to go somehow else. The food was good, but the atmosphere was decidedly lacking. I was expecting a cosy country pub, but it was very brightly lit. I wanted a quiet meal so opted for the side without the TV, though repeatedly loud music was playing and was irritating because I’d come out for a quiet intimate meal. . As I booked for two I expected to have a small table, but was put on an enormously long table.. i was slightly surprised given I had booked a table. When I politely asked if I could move to a smaller table when the leople on a table for four had left, the waitress brusquely announced that another party was arriving.. end if conversation. It was clear I wasn’t going to get anywhere. Perhaps a bit of politeness would have been better? The service was OK overall. Would I go back there?There are other country pubs that are better at creating an atmosphere. I thought I’d give the Griffin’s Head a whirl. But probably not again.More

Date of visit: March 2023
Helpful?3  
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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Questions & Answers
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Stephen H
31 August 2018|
AnswerShow all 10 answers
Response from W2408CIjoec | Reviewed this property |
You may be need to book for food, it’s always best to give a curtesy call. That way you won’t be disappointed!
1
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Jules5520
28 May 2017|
AnswerShow all 3 answers
Response from nickpanda | Reviewed this property |
I believe that the meet is on the first Sunday of the month.
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KimHoll
22 October 2016|
AnswerShow all 2 answers
Response from KimHoll | Reviewed this property |
Splendid!
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THE GRIFFIN'S HEAD RESTAURANT, Chillenden - Updated 2023 Restaurant Reviews, Menu & Prices - Tripadvisor

Frequently Asked Questions about The Griffin's Head Restaurant

Yes, The Griffin's Head Restaurant is taking precautions against COVID-19. A full list is available within the "safety precautions" section of this page.

The Griffin's Head Restaurant is rated accordingly in the following categories by Tripadvisor travellers:
  • Food: 4.5
  • Service: 4.5
  • Value: 4.5
  • Atmosphere: 3