The Tickled Trout, Ashford

Official site of The Tickled Trout - www.thetickledtrout.co.uk

The final stop in our day on the Stour Valley Walk was perhaps the most rewarding. I’ve been past this pub countless times, and might even been inside it when I think it was called something else. Situated by the bridge over the Stour and next to the station, I’d often dismissed it as a tourist trap. It advertises itself as a “Kentish Pub”, and generally lives up to that claim. Inside, it’s all open studwork and unplastered bricks. For a Saturday evening it was disconcertingly quiet-a few groups eating, but hardly busy.The staff were very friendly, and the food was very good value: the fish ‘n’ chips that most of us had would have dented the Rye Bay fishing quota. I was very pleased to see Hopdaemon Skrimshander IPA available: I’m very fond of this beer, but rarely see it on draught. I was a bit worried as it poured cloudy, but happily it settled and dropped clear by the time I sat down to enjoy it. Hops to the forefront- currants- with a grainy follow through. Also available were Youngs Bitter, Hopback Summer Lightening, Timothy Taylor Landlord and Greene King IPA, together with the usual fizzies. We liked this pub, and would come again.

Pleasant pub by the river, and being a stone's throw from the railway makes it somewhere where you don't need a designated driver. A really good beer garden, and they have five hand pumps – which is something you don't often see. They don't close half way through Saturday afternoon, which is unusual in mid-Kent. But.... THe place changes hands so often that any review will be quickly out of date.