Hotel Du Vin

Crescent Road, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN1 2LY 01892 526455

A big event deserves a big place to eat. Wedding anniversary being the event and the Hotel Du Vin being the place.
My wife and I love this place, we have stayed on many occasions. So, apparently, did Queen Victoria, as she stayed here on many occasions between 1826 and 1835.
You can't come here for dinner without a few glasses of something at the wonderful bar with its roaring fire, so that's where we headed first. We hadn't sat down in one of the comfy leather armchairs for more than two seconds before the barman had adorned our table with nuts and olives and thumped down a huge tome of a wine list. Now there isn't enough time in one day to read even half of this list, it is pages and pages and pages and pages. We just gave in and asked the barman to recommend us something half-decent, and with a "yes sir" he scampered off to return with a haste as if his life depended on it a few seconds later with a smart, well spoken (with a very heavy French accent of course) sommelier. It must've been the jacket I was wearing that made him choose a £37 2005 Clos Henri, I was half disappointed he didn't choose a £3,000 Romanée Conti but at the same time a little glad he could read my wallet through my jacket.
We sat and soaked up the atmosphere until we reallised that there is probably no point wasting good tummy space on nuts and olives, so we made our way into the romantic lighting of the dining room.
The food as expected was utterly wonderful, the scallop and black pudding dish that I started with was the best black pudding I have ever eaten, a perfect fat-to-black ratio. I also took the masucline route through my main course by having steak and chips, which could've been cut through with the back of the knife.
My wife predictably fell into her usual fishy trap and ordered tuna carpaccio for starters and the sea bass for main, and whilst I'm not normally a fan, we both agreed that the bass was the highlight of the entire meal, utterly perfectly cooked with a wonderful salty crust.
Again we requested the services of the sommelier to help us choose a suitable wine for each of our courses, which he did perfectly (Ribeauville Ries at £13.50 a glass and Geoff Merill at £8.05 a glass), all the while gesticulating with his hands and muttering enthusiasticly about the wine's flavours and the grapes origins, to be honest it just tasted like great wine.
No meal is complete without at least a glance at the dessert menu. We finally decided on apple crumble and the rather curious peanut-butter ice-cream. Unsurprisingly, my crumble was to die for, and was thankfully missing the normal crumble fault of drying the roof of your mouth. The peanut-butter though, whilst delicious, was very sweet and perhaps could've been a smaller portion, although your kids will love it.
A beautiful place to eat, drink and relax. Highly recommended for a special occasion.

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Comments

[Anne Elizabeth]

Beautiful site and commentary. I'm newly married and I can tell you have a nice relationship with your wife. I appreciate reading about your adventures in dining.

[richard]

Nice review and the Hotel Du Vin sounds lovely. I suspect you might mean 'gesticulating' rather than 'gestating' however, which although being worthy of Burrows, is perhaps a rather worrying turn of events in a restaurant.

[Chev]

Having read your review of Hotel Du Vin I felt compelled to tell my sorry tale to give your readers another view. I went to Hotel Du Vin for my birthday last year, and having recently enjoyed the delights of Thackerays, was expecting a similar experience. I could not have been more disappointed.

We arrived on time and after hanging about in reception for a while, were finally directed to the bar, where we were assured someone would come and take our drinks order. The nuts and olives promptly appeared but our drinks took about twenty minutes, by which time I'd been waiting at the bar for five minutes to enquire of their whereabouts. Still hopeful, we ordered food and wine and were shown through to our table.

The romantic/atmospheric lighting we had heard so much about was obviously not in service that evening, as we found the room to be bright and not particularly warm, with the tables so close together we could easily share our neighbours conversations. The waiting staff were pleasant enough, but seemed young and inexperienced.

We were pleased with our starters, but our main courses were bland and unappetising, with my vegetable order of brussels sprouts and chestnuts being so undercooked I couldn't get a knife through them, let alone my teeth! The final straw was my coat being rudely shoved at me on leaving, rather than being held up, as expected in an establishment of (supposedly) high standards.

I am always a polite and friendly diner, having worked as a waitress and behind the bar on several occasions throughout my life and I feel it doesn't take much to get it right - polite and efficient staff, good food, hot plates and a welcoming atmosphere. The price we paid for that meal certainly didn't reflect the standards we encountered or expected. We were very disappointed and will never step foot in the place again. I would be interested to know if any of your readers have had a similar experience.

[Mrs Anke]

Although we had a great meal when Mr Anke wrote the review, I have to say that on a subsequent occasion I took a friend there for lunch; on booking I told them she is a vegetarian and she doesn't eat tomatoes. On the day they told her that they had prepared something "really special" for her. She was presented with five spears of asparagus on a plate. And that's all. Furthermore, she had asparagus for her starter!! You would have thought they would have said!!!!

[dc]

thank you for all of your great reviews (both eating and on TW in general)! my grandparents have lived in TW all of my life (at least) and i am there as often as i can afford to be traveling from America. i was digging for a "contact you" link somewhere as i have a couple of questions for you (and a restaurant suggestion!)...i would love to hear from you, please email me! thank you so much!

[Manny]

Hello Anke and Mrs Anke. Been away for a while. How is everyone ?

Thought your readers would like to know Hotel Du Vin are doing a grand deal at the moment. 2 courses for 2 people + wine all for £29. Bargain. Myself and Mrs Manny have dined there a couple of times on this offer, food still great, service still great, and price even better, smiles all around.

http://hotelduvin.com/2000_and_wine_with_a_summer_twist.__still_only_29_pounds/