At the weekend we were visiting my brother in law who has just moved to Kent. Because he does not know the area very well, finding somewhere to have a nice pub lunch was always going to be a bit hit or miss, but very luckily, we stumbled across The George Inn at Trottiscliffe which was a very welcome find.
It is tucked away in the small village of Trottiscliffe which is near West Malling. It has a very welcoming and old fashioned appearance from the outside and has ample car parking. Inside there are quite a few tables tucked away in lots of different areas which gives the inn quite a cosy feel to it. I am mainly going to be commenting on the food and the service but I did notice that it has quite a reputation for real ale which is good to know if you don't have to drive.
The pub is family run and everyone who worked there that we came across was very friendly. I was also very impressed by just how quick the service was as we did not have to wait very long for any of our meals which is essential
if you are eating with young children who soon get bored whenever they have to wait for too long. Our drinks were served while we were choosing our meals and we did not have to wait to give our orders.
The set menu is reasonably extensive with a wide range of traditional dishes and a good selection of pies. There were also a number of specials on a board so there was plenty of choice for us adults as well as there being a special children's menu too. There are also bar snacks if you only want a lighter meal.
The children's menu has all the sorts of meals that children like (mainly with chips!) and both my daughters ordered hot dogs. The children's meals were slightly expensive in my book as they cost £5.50 but I have to say that they were very big portions. However, they were probably too big and I would have preferred a smaller portion at a smaller price! That is my only gripe though and I have to say that the girls enjoyed their meals very much. The meals do come with a fizzy drink, but as I am not keen on the girls drinking these, there was no problem with swapping these for orange squash instead. There were also some ice creams on the children's menu and my daughters had a clown's face concoction for a reasonable £1.50.
All of us adults very much enjoyed our meals too. Most main courses cost between about £10 and £15 and again the portions were incredibly generous. I think we were all relieved that we had decided to skip starter in order to make room for desserts because we would never have managed all three courses! I chose a delicious vegetable bake with some lovely cheesy garlic dough balls on the side. I almost managed to eat it all and it was very tasty but I wanted to leave some room for dessert. The other meals on our table was a chilli, fish cakes and a steak and kidney pie so we had a good variety between us. Everyone enjoyed their meals and there was very little left on the plates.
The desserts were delicious and again very large helpings. My lemon cheesecake was out of this world as was the Tiramisu, Banoffee Pie and gooey ginger dessert that everyone else had. All were offered with cream, ice cream and sometimes custard. Desserts cost between about £4 and £5 which was not too bad at all. By the end of the meal we all felt that we had eaten very well and had all enjoyed our meals very much.
After we had finished eating we sat out in the large garden with our coffees. As it was a lovely day the girls were able to play on the excellent play structure that is built there as well as having great fun on the bouncy castle. The pub really does cater for children well and the fact that they had such good play facilities meant that we were able to linger over our coffees longer than if they were not available.
Overall, I thought that The George was a great place for a lunchtime meal and if we are in the area again we will definitely go back again especially as there were so many other things that I would have liked to choose from the menu!
http://www.trottiscliffevillage.co.uk/George.htm
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i'm reading this at lunch time and getting very hungry! I live not to far away from there ,I have to say although I know where West Malling is I hadn't heard of Trottiscliffe before..Great Review!
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