The Star, Gillingham

Official site of The Star - www.hungryhorse.co.uk

Official site of The Star - www.hungryhorse.co.uk

Hungry Horse pub on the roman road (later Watling Street and now the A2) some distance south of the town centre. Given a somewhat sparse and unappealing makeover at some stage, but it retains two separate bar areas (one with a dartboard), a pool room to one side and the main dining area at the back. Outdoor seating can be found on the front terrace and in the side beer garden. Greene King IPA (£3.30) and Abbot available from a duplicated selection on the bank of four handpumps on each counter.

The Star, now a Hungry Horse cardboard-and-fat outlet, sits on a prominent junction on the A2 adjacent to the posher bit of Gillingham. The plot is large, there is plenty of car parking and the building is an impressive 1930s(?) house. Back in the 1980s this pub was a place where you could guarantee poor beer, awful disco and probably get a fight. Hungry Horse has pulled off the miracle of making it less appealing. The music is still awful, both in quality and volume. The majority of the customers are testosterone laden yoofs of Upper Gillingham and their poorly-shod (in one case, unshod) brood-fodder. It has been gutted to form a single large bar with a mix of carpeted and tiled floors, hideous murals, flat screen tvs, plastic furniture and gaming machines which conspire to make it feel like a setting for Clockwork Orange at best and a German brothel at worst. It is a very 21st Century pub, in the worst way. Staff were unwelcoming, but in fairness the Speckled Hen I had - the only ale available - was half decent. This isn't somewhere I'd choose to come to again while there are better pubs within a few minutes' walk.