The Society Rooms (JD Wetherspoon), Maidstone

This is a totally uninspiring Spoons from the outside as it takes up the ground floor of a very boring modern red brick office block. Inside it's the predictable large single room with the bar on the right and a paved outside area on the left. On my 11:00 visit it had a fair number of the daytime brigade in as well as people out for a late breakfast. The bar has two banks of five hand pumps with the two GK beers, Adnam's Broadside, Butcombe Crimson King and Wold Top Wold Gold on the nearest one. On the far one there was Marston's Revisionist Red, Exe Valley Mr Sheppard's Crook, Hopdaemon Incubus, Stonehenge Pigswill and Adnam's Sixpoint Make it Rain. I went for the Wold Gold (£2.20) which was hazy and didn't taste that great. The best thing I can say about this place is that it is very handy for the East station and had a better beer selection than the Muggleton. Apart from that I thought it was below par despite the GBG 2015 listing.

The Society Rooms is a large Wetherspoons opposite Maidstone East Station and as usual it was the busiest pub on my wander around town. The usual deals on food and drink are present and I counted ten hand pumps drawing the usual stalwarts and some guests. The front of the pub has floor to ceiling windows so it is very bright, but at the rear it gets a bit duller in more ways than one. There is some mildly depressing outside seating at the rear that is covered by three jumbrellas. Breakfast is available from seven and I found the service to be very good. There are more interesting pubs in Maidstone.