please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Has been a Beefeater for as long as I a can recall, so beer is second place to food. I've eaten a few times here out of necessity and not been disappointed, but not overwhelmed either. Service is very slow, even at quiet times. Its location is the main selling point. You can take your lager or Spitfire (I'm sure that's about as adventurous as the range of ale goes) and sit by the banks of the Medway and watch the vessels drift by.
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Has been a Beefeater for as long as I a can recall, so beer is second place to food. I've eaten a few times here out of necessity and not been disappointed, but not overwhelmed either. Service is very slow, even at quiet times. Its location is the main selling point. You can take your lager or Spitfire (I'm sure that's about as adventurous as the range of ale goes) and sit by the banks of the Medway and watch the vessels drift by.
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Splendid venue for a pub, let down by the pub itself, which is really a bar serving a Beefeater, and, as such, has a poor selection of beer, being limited to usual choices of Shepherd Neame and corporate lagers.
The interior is two large rooms over two floors, both plainly decorated in corporate Beefeater colours. Fairly clean on my visits, but, as it's set-up for meals, tables are usually being cleared of plates, glasses and food debris. The food is standard acceptable Beefeater fayre: the plate of ribs I had a while ago were acceptable and served by a friendly, attentive staff.
The lower ground floor is cold throughout the year as it's not much higher than the river, which isn't great. On warm days and summer outside by the river is very nice, with garden bench-tables up against the river side, some under a large weeping willow. Lovely views of the river and the locks. Having said that, a few occasions have been spoiled by loud, large families having taken over the outside eating area where they can smoke their lungs black and use foul language that would make a docker blush - even the wee kids. It doesn't seem there are many places you can take your friends and family nowadays, especially in Kent, which is spared mobs of screaming, swearing, bellowing, aggressive families. This otherwise acceptable venue is now no longer exempt.
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I have to say that the service was excellent. HOwever, the Hobgoblin was poor and tasted as though it had been in open cask for far too long. A nice place for cyclists and walkers with a great location alongside the Medway. Real shame it is a Beefeater
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Popped in for a sandwich on Sunday afternoon. It's the usual Beefeater thing - staffed entirely (and slowly) by awkward teenagers.
My prawn sandwich was soggy, and half-way through, the prawns started tasting funny. Rank.
I left after that.
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The bar in the Malta needs a qeuing system set up it is almost impossible for the staff to know who is next and this has caused fights and arguments at the bar with customers arguing who was next to be served this is a real problem and needs adressed i have seen groups of customers walk out because of this.
Please do a qeuing system using rope thanks
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Nice for a drink, great location on the river. Can be a little pricey for food in the restaurant, better to get food in the bar.
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Had lunch today at The Malta Inn with mums from school>. considering the pub was quiet all the orders were wrong, one persons burger bun was moldy, few had cold dinner, what a disappointment. This pub is in a great location along the river but the staff need to be trained up more!!!
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The Malta has just re-opened again after yet another refurb. It is extremely classy inside now, I actually felt a bit uncomfortable just going in as a drinker. Its very dark and atmospheric, more geared towards the food side of things, which was understandable. It's pretty quiet at this time of year, so I had no problems getting served. Only Hobgoblin was on (Spitfire was off), and it was excellent to be honest, and a reasonable �2.86, I was expecting over �3.00 - but a very clean pint. Looking forward to visiting regularly over summer. Note, the footbridge over the river appears to be closed at the moment, so check in advance if walking down!
Sharp - 24 Mar 2010 20:29 |
Great location but noisy and expensive. Can get chavy too
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Great location on the River Medway near Allington Lock, but it can get horribly crowded at weekends when the sun's out. As a Beefeater establishment, this is never going to have much of a pub atmosphere, and service always seems to take a while. However, it does do two real ales (with Spitfire and Hobgoblin on today).
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I stayed at the nearby Premier Inn on a Saturday night and ventured into this pub as I had booked a table for dinner. I'm glad I did as it was very busy. I was shown to a table and although the restaurant was busy I was served very quickly and my food arrived very quickly as well. The food was very good and was reasonably priced. The staff were all very pleasant and attentive. I ordered a pint of Hobgoblin with my meal and afterwards I had a pint of Spitfire and sat outside by the river. In all it was a very pleasant experience and I would certainly consider coming back here again.
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After a relatively pleasant dining experience at another Beefeater - Coombe Lodge in Croydon- The Lady Wife and I decided to attempt replication at this establishment which was not unknown to me.
Sadly it was not to be so pleasant an experience. The bar was pathetically under-manned; queues three deep attempting to force cash on the staff in exchange for liquid refreshment. Two non-english speaking barmen attempting to satisfy demand from broad masses who's command of the English language was little better than the bar staff's. Mistakes were bound to be made, and were! (Why can't the English teach their children how to speak?)
The beverages, whan they arrived, were nothing to rejoice over. The Guinness I was served was rather flat and an enquiry as to the Lady Wife's 'Large Red' elicited a similar response.
The queue had somewaht dissipated and so a resolve was made to order food from the Bar Menue.
Once again placing an order was a test of grit. Selection of cpmestibles of course, table number etc and as on the previous sortie, to order beverages, to the same non-english speaking staff member. Returning to table 344 (I am not a number!) some fifteen minutes after departing to register our requirements.
The food arrived after a further 20 minutes and was quite edible. The Chilli was not over hot and the rice not over sticky: The Beef and Ale Pie was nourishing and substantial.
In summary, a potentially good venue where extra staff, decent training and more attention to detail would pay dividends. But for the moment rather dissapointing.
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always thought this pub could better use the space, feel cluttered,good range of beers though, and friendly.
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Come here on a boat from Maidstone town centre (licensed bar aboard) and spend a lazy summer day watching the boats come and go. Very good considering it's a Beefeater. We took a boat from here to get married at the Archbishop's Palace. Happy days.
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In the summer this pub is one of the best around, however, the queuing system is appalling when it gets busy & is enough to put you off & the pub snacks/meals are awful. The food upstairs in the restuarant is top class so its such a let down for the pub meals to be so expensive & so small.
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Was always superb on Thursday's for the quiz night (the place was always rammo!). Should bring the quiz back, it was a right laugh, especially after you had consumed a few jars in the build up.
Leebs - 16 Feb 2007 21:22 |
The location of this Pub is stunning. Always busy with families doing Sunday lunch its food bar is very good. The place is adorned with rowboats hanging from the ceiling and old farm equipment. The one bad thing I would say is the ridiculous queing system at the bar!, its just not cricket i say. All in all, the (almost) perfect boozer by the water.
anonymous - 11 Dec 2006 00:26 |
Very large and very popular Beefeater pub on the river Medway. Serves 6x and Flowers cask ales plus a range of the usual keg lagers. Cute alcove seating upstairs for those eating. But the real attraction is the splendid location on the river watching the boats go by. However hard you try to hate it for being a Beefeater pub the location will win you over. A sneaky favourite of mine.
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