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Disappointment of the week with Mobyduck
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The Kentish Belle, Bexleyheath
Bexleyheath
DA7 4QW
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 8 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Blue Scrumpy left this review about The Kentish Belle
The last time I was here 30 months ago, I rated this as my new favourite pub in Greater London. There was an excellent range of real ales and also real ciders for me and I felt quite at home here.
The single room is larger than most micropubs, with plenty of tables available. Seating can also now be found on the pavement at the front, which I guess is a new addition due to Covid. Toilets are still upstairs and are very clean.
The ale range has been reduced down to 4 currently. These were Brew York Minsterman Pride, Twickenham Autumn Red, Mad Cat Green & Gold & Manchester Brewing Company Elephant NEIPA.
Real ciders were Orchards of Husthwaite Galtres Dark Fruit, Galtres Toffee Apple & Galtres Katy, Mr Whitehead's Perry (not sure which one) & Equinox, Garden Cider Vintage, Harry's Scrummage, Thistly Cross Whisky Cask, Ross-on-Wye Oak Cask & Three Apple Twist & Eltham Gold.
Craft beers were Beatnikz Republic Rum Barrel Aged Blacklight Breakfast Stout, Neon Raptor Fernir Breaks Free, Full Circle Twister & Fallon Odyssey.
If there's not enough to tempt your fancy there, they also have bottles and cans in fridges and seem to recall seeing a list of gins on the wall.
The Kentish Belle no longer opens on Monday or Tuesday and it does not open until 3pm on Wednesday. As such, the first couple of beers pulled off shortly after 3pm on our Wednesday visit were in poor condition. But beer quality soon improved thereafter, as throughput increased.
Is this still my favourite pub in London? I'm torn between this, the Southampton Arms and the Harp. It's certainly up there for me and I only wish it were nearer to where I live. Also, is it a 9/10 or a 10/10. 9.5/10 would be ideal. I'll give the initial beer quality the benefit of the doubt and go for top marks.
On 8th October 2021
- rating: 10
[User has posted 2452 recommendations about 2451 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about The Kentish Belle
There was nothing like the selection of ales available that previous reviewers enjoyed when I visited recently; just three, being Misfit Brass Castles; Cast Iron - Iron Pier; and Orkney Best. But the three were quite different, being a hoppy ale, a stout, and a bitter respectively. All were £3.75 a pint. There were also several ciders a vailable, so I wondered if an emphasis is shifting from beer to cider? But I really enjoyed my excellent pint of Iron Pier stout.
Anyway, this is yet another South East London micropub, and amply described by previous visitors. I found this one a bit more comfortable than most as it was furnished with upholstered benches and normal tables and chairs, rather than the tall tables and tall stools that we see in just about every other micropub.
As I always seem to say, if you like small and compact shop conversion bars selling good beer at decent prices then you will like this place. I do wish soemone would open a decent micropub in South West London.
On 28th January 2019
- rating: 7
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Aqualung . left this review about The Kentish Belle
This is another new (early 2018) micropub in the outer suburbs of SE London and given what the William Camden on the other side of the station is like is very welcome. It's well described below but on my visit there were two women behind the bar the younger one appearing to be a new barmaid.
Seven beers were available, Beerblefish 1853 ESB & 1820 Porter, Arbor S Bomb, Gadd's Seasider, One Mile End Juicy 4pm, Little Critturs C Monster and Whitstable Hull Melon. I went for the Hull Melon (£3.75), Beerblefish 1853 ESB (£4.20) & 1820 Porter (£4.35) all of which were OK but especially the Beerblefish ones.
Withe the great choice of beers I really liked this one.
On 3rd September 2018
- rating: 8
[User has posted 2143 recommendations about 2143 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Real Ale Ray left this review about Kentish Belle
A good sized micro pub found amongst a row of shops close to the railway station. The interior had bench seating along either side and a decent collection of walnut chairs and tables, running along either side. The flooring was also a walnut colour. One side of the pub had been wallpapered in a William Morris patterned paper, whereas the opposite wall was finished in white paint. We found the beer board situated on the left hand wall near the bar to be a confused mess of writing. The problem was that there wasn't enough spacing between each brewery and beer name, along with the beer description. The beer pricing was also in third, two third and pint options, this also was the same set for the ciders at the bottom of the board. We found the owner to be very impatient when we were perusing the said beer menu and as first time visitors he wasn't very welcoming either, especially on a Sunday lunchtime, when there was only a handful of customers in.
There was a choice of 12 ales and 8 ciders on our visit, so we went for the Tiny Rebel Dutty and Salopian Half Life.
On 27th March 2018
- rating: 7
[User has posted 3382 recommendations about 3381 pubs]