The Kings Arms, Rochester

Very traditional pub in the upper part of the village, although the decoration is much lighter than one might expect. The front bar benefits from plenty of glazed area on two sides, and the rear bar / dining area is well lit away from the windows. With three handpumps on each counter, offering a brace of Pitchfork beers - the regular pale and Frogbit (£3.50) - and a 6% Belgian Blonde Ale from Wantsum. Also has several draught ciders and a good number of well-chosen craft keg beers.

Official site of The Kings Arms - kingsarmspub.wixsite.com

Official site of The Kings Arms - kingsarmspub.wixsite.com

Unchanged from the description below, the large dining room with its own entrance door and half of the bar was not in use on the late Friday afternoon we rocked up to this one. But the plain front bar and the bench tables to the front of the pub were in full use by locals enjoying an end of working week drink. And to concur with the review below it was noisy and boisterous and in fitting with its location, a lot of estuary English was being practiced. The front bar had a certain odour about it that I wasn’t sure was coming from the couple of dogs in situ or perhaps their owners, but it was enough to drive my good lady to the benches outside and to implore me to sink my pint with haste so that we could be on our way. A shame really because the beer offering here was rather good. There are five handpumps in total, three in the public bar and two on the dining room side and the public bar pumps are double clipped to show what’s on in the dining room. For our visit Adnams Bitter, Canterbury Ales Merchants Stout, Old Dairy Uber Brew and Exmore Beast were on with one pump reverse clipped and the Exmore Beast was rather very good. But the whole experience was all a bit too basic for my good lady, so we did not linger long.