Best Beech Inn, Durgates, Wadhurst

The Best Beach Inn is a Shepherd Neame pub that is located on the B2100, which is a national speed limit country lane. I mention this as the outside seating comprises of four picnic tables to the left of the pub by the entrance and two at the front which are all within spitting distance of the speeding traffic. There is a gate on the pub premises that leads to the wood at the rear, but there is a sign saying ‘no public access’. A car park is found across the road with spaces for twelve cars and once this is full I think that drivers will be a bit stuffed for parking. Walking through the front door there is a separate restaurant area to the left (rear of the pub) and the main pub area is L-shaped. In the bar area there is seating along with a plasma screen that was turned off and I saw no Sky advertisements. To the right of the bar there is a country style seating area with black painted exposed beams and a wood burner in the fireplace. I was the only customer this lunchtime and thankfully there were some Dire Straits and Eagles playing in the background to mask the silence. The draught available from the bar was very limited with Oranjeboom, Asahi, Thatcher’s Gold Cider and Guinness being the only options. The bar also supports two banks of three hand pumps that were both drawing Spitfire and Master Brew with the third being unused. Food is served at lunchtimes every day and roasts are available on Sundays. I didn’t see any menus and I’m not sure if food is served in the evenings, but I do know that this place is expensive with the specials board main meal coming in at £11. I thought that this was a nice enough place, but its location dictates that it is a destination pub and I’m not sure that I would want to stay all night long.