The Fox & Hounds, Godstone

Official site of The Fox & Hounds - www.foxandhounds.org.uk

Official site of The Fox & Hounds - www.foxandhounds.org.uk

Located in the fringes of South Godstone, this is a very attractive rural pub with a great traditional interior. Arriving via the compact front car park, part of which has been given over to a row of picnic benches in a fenced off space down one side, you enter into the main bar space, which is dominated by a lot of old timber beams and pillars. The servery is to the rear and serves a couple of different spaces, all slightly opened out to a degree from what would presumably have once been a more heavily demarcated floorplan. There’s a nice rustic feeling seating area to the right, screened partly by partitioning walls from the main bar area, whilst the area directly opposite the bar has minimal seating and is used mainly as a transit area for those needing to access the bar. A room to the front has been set-up as a formal restaurant space and has rows of formal tables and chairs set for diners, who get to marvel at the fine inglenook fireplace that dominates the right-hand wall. Décor throughout is of the traditional rural pub variety, including old photos, paintings, pump clips and a saddle. A door to the rear takes you out to a nice beer garden, with a sheltered patio area giving way to a large grassy area with picnic benches and colourful planters. There’s a pirate ship play area at the far end for the kids to play on and another shelter runs down the right-hand side of the garden, offering hard bench seating under some nice old pub signs. There’s also a final row of uncovered garden tables and chairs next to this shelter, rounding out the ample seating option on offer. The pub has made recent editions of the Good Beer Guide, so I had high hopes for some decent beer and ordered a pint of Long Man Blonde from the cask range that also included Greene King IPA, Fullers London Pride and St Austell Proper Job. Sadly, my pint was in pretty poor shape, somewhere on the cusp of being sent back, although I soldiered on whilst tucking in to a mediocre meal from their sensibly priced menu. We’d driven out here on a baking hot late summer evening, hoping to catch the last of the day’s sun in their fine beer garden, but arrived to find the garden is surrounded by high trees which had blocked out the sun a bit earlier than we’d expected. This is a lovely pub with a very nice interior that is most definitely worth checking out if you happen to be in the area. The fact that they’ve made it into the Good Beer Guide on multiple occasions suggests I may have been very unlucky with my pint and I can’t fault the service, but too many things conspired to make our visit less enjoyable than we’d anticipated. I’d be willing to give this place another try, but it just didn’t click on this occasion unfortunately.

It's fine, far better inside than it looks from the road. Very friendly and pleasant, and the Greene King beers as good as they're going to get. Well worth a look, it's on the old line of the A22 so an easy diversion, but do note it shuts at 9PM. Anyhow let's hope that it is far enough off the beaten track to avoid discovery by the refurbishment brigade.