The Two Brewers, Kings Langley

Official site of The Two Brewers - www.chefandbrewer.com

Official site of The Two Brewers - www.chefandbrewer.com

The 2013 review below is still entirely correct. One or two things to add: the interior is well-kept and in good condition, as is the beer (Cask Marque listing at time of visit). The service however was diabolical, with one hard-pressed barman trying to cope with a barful of food and drink orders and calls for help going unanswered. Unsurprisingly a number of potential customers left in search of the other pubs. It is no good having good beer in nice surroundings if you cannot get served!

The tranquil Hertfordshire village of Chipperfield still boast four functioning pubs and the Two Brewers Inn commands the best location of these four overlooking the 115 acre common and from the outside tables at the front of this 18th Century coaching Inn you can watch the village cricket team perform on the common. And for Ale drinkers it also has the best rotating guest Ale policy of the four pubs. It is therefore with some irony that The Two Brewers is the least traditional, now being a bland dining focussed chain pub restaurant currently run by the Chef and Brewer chain. Internally, although what looks like some original period beams remain in the main bar area and there is a comfortable non-dining section with stone floors, open fires and big leather sofas, the rest of the pub is laid out as a restaurant and anything traditional has long been duluxed over in the pursuit of a modern, clean, albeit sterile décor. As well as primarily functioning as a restaurant The Two Brewers keeps the Inn status as it has 20 en suite rooms available. But for accommodation here and also for eating its best to look at Trip Advisor where it appears to polarise opinion. To complement the outside seating area overlooking Chipperfield Common there is also a small patio garden area to rear. There are four Ale pumps on the bar along with the usual chrome tap draft options. Along with the ubiquitous Sharps Doombar and one badged as a Two Brewers house Ale there was Purity Brewery UBU and Red Squirrel Legally Blonde. I took my very passable pint of Legally Blonde out to the front for the view of the common, but whilst enjoying it in the evening sun, I couldn’t help thinking that the village would be much richer if this place was moved to the outside of the village and did a plot swap with the nearby Royal Oak, thus allowing that traditional pub to benefit from the wonderful location and the rotating guest ale policy. Then you really would have a fantastic village pub.