The Imperial Arms, Chislehurst

Of the 4 Chislehurst pubs we visited yesterday, I felt this was the best. It has the feel of a traditional rural boozer, with a cosy interior and friendly owners. Table service was in place here too. But it was swift. Just Fuller's London Pride & Harvey's Sussex Best Bitter were on. A third handpull had a Timothy Taylor Landlord clip, but it was off. We didn't try the food. But it certainly smelt very nice, as we walked alongside the pub towards the Rambler's Rest. There is a garden at the rear too.

This pleasant old pub close to Chislehurst station, has a lovely rustic feel to it that many pubs in the area seem to struggle to replicate. You enter directly to the main bar area in a carpeted L-shaped room with the similarly shaped servery to the left. The bar has a nice, curved dark wood counter, simple bar back and attractive gantry and extends through to a second room at the back of the pub. The main bar area has banquette seating around the perimeter with a few standard tables and chairs filing in the gaps. Red drapes adorn the windows and the walls have in places, been covered with some rather 'loud' floral wallpaper. Muted lighting and various dark wood fixtures help create a nice ambience, aided by pleasant features such as the decorative light fittings and vases of fresh flowers on the tables. The rear room has more standard seating, this time arranged around a fireplace on the rear wall. It's a smaller space and was primarily being used by diners, although a few mouthy locals were stood at the bar here during the course of our visit. There is a formal restaurant out the back somewhere, seemingly decorated in quite an elaborate fashion, but we decided to take our food in the bar, which we soon regretted when the locals started swearing and shouting. To be fair, the bar staff put an end to this quite quickly, pointing out that there were still children present, which prompted one of the locals to give a grovelling apology to the child's father - a giant of a man who I most definitely wouldn't have wanted to upset! The pub has featured in recent editions of the Good Beer Guide and had some well known ales on the bar, with Fullers London Pride, Harvey's Sussex Best and Marstons Pedigree available on this occasion. I gave the Sussex Best a try and it was in very good shape, so much so that I decided to have a second. We had a Sunday roast here and the food was very nice, as were the very attentive staff who seemed genuinely keen to make sure we were enjoying ourselves. This is a nice traditional feeling pub that feels a lot more genuine and comfortable than other pubs I've been to around Chislehurst. I was impressed with the friendly service and tasty food and thought the beer, whilst a little unadventurous, was at least in great condition. A good bet for a well kept pint in Chislehurst and a good double header with the nearby Rambler's Rest.