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Detail Pages
The Woolpack Inn, Ashford
Warehorne
Postal town: Ashford
TN26 2LL
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 7½ of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Blue Scrumpy left this review about The Woolpack Inn
After a visit to the Red Lion at Snargate, any subsequent pubs were likely to be a bit of a letdown. But in fairness to this one, it surpassed by initial low expectations.
On approach, it appears to be more of a foodie pub than anything else, but once inside you can appreciate the multiple room layout of another historic Kent pub.
Food is indeed the mainstay of this place which belongs to a chain called Pickled Egg. I think we were the only customers who were in solely for a drink. But despite a wait for service, we were well accommodated nonetheless. Staff cleared off a long bench-like imitation bar, adjacent to the main bar and complete with 4 handpulls, to allow us to sit there.
Ales on were Harvey's Sussex Best Bitter & Old Dairy Uber Brew. A small chalkboard sitting on the bar listed 4 Kent Cider Company ciders - Lemon Cider, Henderson's Rhubarb Cider, Henderson's Spiced Cider & Discovery. I initially challenged the barman as to whether the Discovery was actually from Kent Cider Company, believing it to be from Nightingale, but on further research, he was indeed correct. So, it was a new cider for me.
We didn't try the food, but it was clearly popular given how busy the place was on a weekday lunchtime. I may not have been expecting much here, but I was suitably impressed.
On 20th January 2022
- rating: 7
[User has posted 2452 recommendations about 2451 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about The Woolpack Inn
Nice old pub - plausibly claiming a date of 1570 - opposite the parish church (whose plain brick tower is one of the newer elements of the village). Refurbished inside in a very traditional style; with most tables inevitably laid up for those dining, but some free for those just looking for a drink. Also has plenty of wooden benches out front for the better weather. The four handpumps on the counter may be partly for show as my pint of Old Dairy Green Hop (£4.30) came directly from a cask on the stillage in a side area. The seasonal Pigs in Blankets from Pig & Porter was also available, with the Harvey's put on during my visit and Old Dairy's Uber Brew being readied from the New Year's Eve celebrations later on.
On 2nd January 2022
- rating: 8
[User has posted 8117 recommendations about 8117 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Will Larter left this review about The Woolpack Inn
I was rather distracted during my visit here, because the chain had come off my bike a few metres up the road, and I spent a lot of time cleaning the muck off my hands which I would otherwise have spent making notes and looking at the important features of the pub. Fortunately Rex Rattus was here a few weeks before me, so you can read his review instead.
Service was friendly and the local beers were well kept. We sat outside in the front garden, which was very pleasant - oh, and I nearly got run down by another cyclist while taking a photo of the pub, much to the amusement of all who witnessed the event.
Date of visit: 31st August 2016
On 21st October 2016
- rating: 8
[User has posted 3746 recommendations about 3483 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about The Woolpack Inn
This pub is essentially unchanged since Wittenden's visit last year. There were four handpumps on the counter; one unclipped with the others dishing up the same beer that he encountered - Blonde Ambition, Hookers Hooch and Ginger Tom. All were £3.60 a pint, and were still on stillage via gravity dispense. As good as the ale was, food is the main player here. The menu isn't extensive, but my companions and I all had something called a "Ramblin Burger", (£13 a pop as I recall) which turned out to be three small different flavoured (beef, pork and lamb) burgers. One of our number didn't fancy lamb or pork burgers, so they made her up one normal sized beef burger, which I thought was good service. The burgers came with chips and coleslaw and were obviously served on a lump of wood. Quality was good though.
This just has to be a destination pub; it's very much off the beaten track, and if you just happen to be passing you are probably lost. We visited on a Monday evening, and even though there were a good number of punters in we had no trouble getting a table. Everybody was dining. The bar area is in the centre and faces you as you enter; to the right is another room which looked to be the main dining room (but as everyone in the pub was dining it's hard to be sure); and to the left another small room with just four or five normal tables and chairs. There's also a lot of outside seating at the the front of the building, set back from the road a few feet, but the road is very quiet.
As far as I could all the furnishings were traditional. There was masses of "stuff" all over the place making the decor very busy. Although the country pub look may be a little contrived, I thought it worked very well and made it a characterful place to visit for a meal or a drink. The service was friendly and efficient and I would be happy to visit again if the opportunity arose.
On 13th August 2016
- rating: 7
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
. Wittenden left this review about The Woolpack Inn
A whitewashed,brick and timber pub opposite the church in an isolated village on the edge of Romney Marsh.This pub, now a freehouse, has endured a chequered history for as long as I can remember: after a recent lengthy period of closure it has been taken on by the folk behind the Five Bells in Brabourne and the Globe Inn Marsh at Rye.Eclectically designed to just the right side of kitsch,the Woolpack has been given an injection of some sort of seventies countercultural bare boards and wobbly tables ethos, together with a more contemporary beer and food offering.
A central bar sports a bank of handpumps, but the beer is served by gravity from a stillage carrying suitably cooled casks . Craft keg taps decorate the bar back, together with a number of local ciders,Kent being a cider making area.I'm sure fizz dispensers are available, but they've passed me by. On our Saturday evening visit, there were four real ales on:Tonbridge Blonde Ambition, together with a house beer brewed by them-Hooker's Hooch, an Amber from a very new micro,Romney Marsh, and Ginger Tom from FILO, over in Hastings.
Arriving mid evening on a sweltering day, the pub was busy inside and out. Wanting to eat, we sat on a couple of ricketty tables in the kitchen, before moving to a comfortably bourgeois one in the front room.Our meals were very good, if a touch pricey:my hake from Dungeness was epic.Service, while friendly was flustered, though the have only been open a matter of weeks.Conversely, the chef was a master of calm and applomb while we were sitting in the fringes of his kitchen. It was very good to find a really thriving village pub.
On 13th July 2015
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 283 recommendations about 282 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Manky Badger left this review about The Woolpack Inn
Please disregard my earlier reviews which were made when different people were running the pub. The place is now under new management and is quite frankly the biggest rip-off in Kent. When I visited last October, the place was full, Today, all but empty.
When one pays nearly ten quid for scallops, one expects more than two of the things. When one orders a cesar salad, one expects more than a few lettuce leaves smeared with salad cream.
We exchanged a few words with fellow customers who were equally disgusted, and we went elsewhere. We will go back, because I can't see the current management keeping the place going for long. I shall return in a few months to see who takes over... And no matter who takes over couldn't do a worse job....
It's gone down from 8/10 to 1/10
Popped in whilst cycling past with half a dozen mates. We all ate excellent meals (thirty quid for the lot of us) the food was good, and the ales on top form. Would certainly go back.
5 May 2007
Smashing pub half an hour's walk from the railway. Good beer and friendly service.
On 5th June 2010
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 155 recommendations about 154 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Roger Button left this review about The Woolpack Inn
This wonderful old brick and partly weather boarded pub dates from the 16th century and lies in a remote village on the borders of Romney Marsh. It has strong connections with smuggling and even has a “secret” tunnel that leads to the church on other side of the road. The rambling but cosy interior is largely geared up for diners but does cater well for the drinkers also. The main bar has a tiled floor and contains a lovely large inglenook fireplace. To the right of the bar is a raised dining area with spiral staircase and until recently dried hops dangled from the ceiling (these have now sadly been removed as health and safety deemed them to be a fire risk). On the other side of the pub is a small simply furnished room with dresser, beamed ceilings and another superb fireplace. There usually some leaflets and postcards about the pub and the surrounding area which is very good for walking. Journey further on through the pub and you come to a smallish restaurant area with numerous old adverts lining the walls. They do an all you can eat carvery on Wednesdays for £7.95 which sound like my sort of thing – a shame I live too far away to take advantage. 3 changing ales available (Harveys + Summer Lightning + 1 other I have now forgotten) – very good quality on my visit. There is plenty of seating outside overlooking the churchyard and the Royal Military Canal passes a few hundred yards down the road. The 6 mile round walk to Appledore is thoroughly recommended and a few pints in the Woolpack at the end is just reward for the effort.
On 13th August 2007
- rating: 7
[User has posted 1239 recommendations about 1233 pubs]