Ye Olde Whyte Lyon, Locksbottom, Orpington

Official site of Ye Olde Whyte Lyon - www.yeoldewhytelyon.co.uk

Official site of Ye Olde Whyte Lyon - www.yeoldewhytelyon.co.uk

Another Shepherd Neame pub on a busy set of traffic lights on the A21. Despite not arriving until almost 1pm on a Saturday lunchtime, I was the first customer in. The barmaid struggled to get any of the card readers working. Spitfire & Master Brew are the regular ales. The third beer was from the brewery's Cask Club range and was called Maverick. Having just tried the Dragonfire in the Woodman at Farnborough, I found the Maverick to be an altogether better beer and surprisingly good for Shepherd Neame. The pub itself lacked atmosphere though. Although a few more customers did turn up for lunch shortly before I was leaving. They headed towards a cosy looking area off to the right hand side of the entrance. There is a fairly large garden at the rear of the pub.

This is a Shepherd Neame pub, which had on Masterbrew, Spitfire and Kent’s Best during my Wednesday lunchtime visit. The pub looks good from the outside with its Tudor style beams and hanging baskets of flowers, thus making it hard to miss with its prominent position on the corner at the junction between the A21 and A232. It’s pretty good inside as well, being carpeted with furnishings mainly consisting of normal tables and chairs. Around the bar area on the left is the main drinking area, with a connected room on the right containing tables laid for diners. But I didn’t linger inside, moving swiftly to the garden at the rear to enjoy a rare summer’s day in early April. The garden area was inevitably fairly busy (unlike the deserted interior), with everybody eating. The menu was pretty standard – I had a cheeseburger and chips for about £8 or so, and have to say that as far as the burger was concerned the emphasis was on size over quality. But I quite liked this pub, even though I couldn’t give the food a glowing endorsement based on one meal. It would be comfortable enough sitting inside when the weather wasn’t as unnaturally warm as it has been recently. But it does help if you like Shepherd Neame ales, as I do.