From the https://www.kentonline.co.uk By Secret Drinker, 27 January 2020.

Secret Drinker reviews the Royal Oak and the Queen’s Inn, Hawkhurst, Cranbrook.

I ended up doing a head-to-head this week after visiting two pubs just a stone’s throw apart in Hawkhurst, near Cranbrook.

Anyone stepping into the Royal Oak and the Queen’s Inn will be struck by the similarities between these two sizeable village boozers.

They both offer rooms for those seeking a sleepover, they both have trendy, bleached beams and are furnished with high-backed wing chairs. The bar staff in both are dressed head-to-toe in black, they both have open fireplaces, they offer many of the same drinks, both smell of food as you walk in and even their addresses only differ by a single postcode letter.

So, you might think there’s not much to choose between them – you might think that, but you’d be very, very wrong. One is a delight, the other as dull as dishwater.

The Royal Oak Country Pub & Carvery, to give it its full title, had absolutely no life about it and felt like the lobby of a quiet Premier Inn.

The atmosphere was as flat as the Harvey’s Sussex Best and the false log walls at both ends just added to the boring sterility.

The switched off staff stood refusing to chat to anyone but themselves – the only time they looked animated was when they went outside for a fag in the front car park.

Despite the carvery, to the left of the front door, the overpowering aroma was burnt fat and the open fire grate, with stacks of logs, showed no sign of having been lit in recent times and just added to the frosty atmosphere.

However, take a short stroll along Rye Road and you will come across the well-lit "Queen’s Inn."

At the Royal Oak there is a small entrance porch leading into the pub from its car park at the front.

The toilets, for example, were clean and fresh at both pubs, but both the ladies and the gents at the Oak are long overdue for an upgrade.

With stripped beams, wing-backed chairs and tasteful lighting the Royal Oak’s bar could be a lovely place to relax.

In the Oak people sat in corners quietly and spoke only in hushed tones, almost as if they were afraid to be overhead. The only exception was a woman sitting at the bar drinking pints of Kronenbourg concentrating constantly on her mobile phone.

I’d been in a full 15 minutes before I realised the child in school uniform playing quietly at the table behind her was her daughter.

Sadly, from what I witnessed, the only time she acknowledged her daughter’s presence was to shout at her unnecessarily and tell her she would be unloading six bags of shopping when they got home.

Many of the interesting features at the Royal Oak have been retained and well maintained, but this is a pub which, with the right staff and customer service, could be so much better.

Hardly anyone was eating in the Oak, although looking through the shared corner window that led to Chinese takeaway next door it was doing a great trade.

Although the "Queen’s" is undoubtedly more cosy and welcoming, the "Oak," with hops hanging off its beams and comfortable high-backed chairs could be a decent pub.

The ladies toilet in The Queen's not only boasts trendy basins and a choice of hand cream, but also the opportunity to sit awhile and chill out.

Sadly it is the staff who really let it down, they’d much rather be talking to each other, checking mobiles or smoking than looking after customers.

Contrast this to the "Queens" where the big, bearded fellow behind the bar, could not have been more welcoming or attentive.

Geographically speaking these Hawkhurst inns are cheek by jowl, but they’re miles apart when judged on pub appeal.

From the https://www.kentonline.co.uk By Secret Drinker, 6 April 2020.

Secret Drinker looks back at his 10 worst pubs across Kent.

It’s almost a year since I landed the best job in the world and I’ve been travelling around Kent ever since discovering the very best, and worst, pubs right around the county.

Fortunately the majority of boozers I’ve been lucky enough to visit have been great, but some, sadly, have been found wanting.

I can only ever report exactly what I find at a given moment in time and I realise a fly-on-the-wall review can’t possibly take into account everything going on in a pub. - and many of these pubs may well have improved since my visit.

But, I was tasked with discovering the good, the bad and the ugly – and, in my humble opinion on the day, these are the 10 worst boozers I’ve visited...

1. It might seem a strange choice for number one, but the Royal Oak, Hawkhurst is in top spot because it is the most dull, uninteresting and soulless place I’ve ever had the misfortune to visit in Kent. Other pubs on this list may have their problems and failings, but at least they have some life about them. The Oak also deserves its position because staff completely switched off and clearly dislike the place too. And, what makes it even more unforgivable is the fact it clearly has the resources to be so much better. Describing it as being like the lobby of a Premier Inn was unfair to Premier Inns – it’s far more boring than that.

The décor has all the hallmarks of a decent local boozer but the Royal Oak is a mile wide of the mark.