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Detail Pages
The Gate Inn, Canterbury
Chislet
Postal town: Canterbury
CT3 4EB
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 5½ of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about The Gate Inn
Attractive rural Shepherd Neame pub with a well established reputation as a dining destination. However, this doesn't detract from its other merits as a community facility. Very traditional interior, with the bar in the centre, a dining room to the left and a more formal restaurant to the right. Also has a proper beer garden to one side, with a stream at the end. With no handpumps or keg founts on the counter, everything comes from a tap room to the rear, with Master Brew and Whitstable Bay Pale (£4.40) available on gravity.
On 22nd May 2022
- rating: 7
[User has posted 8117 recommendations about 8117 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Roger Button left this review about The Gate Inn
I had been looking forward to visiting this tucked away country pub for some time given its glowing reports and high recommendations in various pub and beer guides but rarely have I been so disappointed. The pub itself is pleasant enough but there is little about the interior that sets it apart from other similarly recommended pubs. The two rooms are divided by a double sided open inglenook fire and lit by lanterns that eminate a cosy glow. The walls offer several archive local sports team photos along with other various nick nacks. It has to be said that some of the seating is amongst the most impractical I have encounteredin a pub with pews that are far too long for the room and merely serve to block everyone in (I certainly wouldn't want to be stuck in the furthest corner on a busy night if a fire broke out!). Being a cold winter evening, I didn't get a chance to experience the beer garden with its menagerie of ducks and geese but it certainly sounds like one of the better assets. The bar itself has no pumps or beer engines, the 3 Shepherd Neame ales are poured direct from the cask either on the bar or in a room behind the counter – a small blackboard behind the bar will advise what is available. The Porter I had was very good (Master Brew & Spitfire were the other options). We would have stayed for more and possibly even entered the Christmas Quiz for which the locals were gathering (one of many interesting events lined up over the festive period) had it not been for what I will presume was the landlord (apologies if incorrect). With all the personality of a corpse, we were greeted with a stony silence and not a single word uttered until it came to paying and even then it was a curt “six pounds” (not even a please!). Presumably a graduate from the Slaughtered Lamb School of Customer Service, he made absolutely no attempt to make us feel welcome or wanted and we almost felt like we should have apologised for turning up. I arrived expecting to add to my increasing portfolio of all time favourite pubs and left half an hour later feeling like an unwanted intruder.
On 31st December 2008
- rating: 4
[User has posted 1239 recommendations about 1233 pubs]