The Black Pig

18 Grove Hill Rd, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN1 1RZ
01892 523030

I discovered that the old Orson Welles pub had been turned into a swanky gastropub when I came across a damning review of it on the Restaurant Spy website. The reviewer's bugbear was not the food itself, but the fact that Black Pig was charging an astronomical £30 for steak and chips, poncifying the chips by calling them "pommes allumettes", misspelling wine names, and - worst of all - adding an obligatory 10% service charge to the bill. However, seeing as its sister pub is the fabulous George and Dragon at Speldhurst, we decided to give it the benefit of the doubt and check it out for ourselves.
It's been done out in textbook airy, tasteful gastropub fashion (always a sucker for a bit of black wood), encouraging you to while away the hours over a few pints, and the staff are the friendliest, most efficient I've come across. Mind you, I agree with the restaurant spy reviewer - it would be nice to be able to give them a nice fat tip off your own bat instead of being strong-armed into it. (marks docked from Service for this)
Anyway, looking at the menu, we couldn't find the infamous £30 steak and chips, which may have lulled us into thinking the prices were reasonable. We shared a starter of Game Terrine with Indian Military Chutney & Toasted Brioche. This was a beautiful, ballsy terrine - lovely huge chunks of meat and loads of garlic. I actually dreamed of this terrine last night. Being a working class boy (milky, sweet tea and bread with everything), I always think they skimp on the bread, and Black Pig was no exception.
I had Bavette Steak with the infamous "Pommes Allumettes" and Tomato Salad, served in true George & Dragon style on a wooden board with a metal pail to hold your pommes. No doubt it was a lovely piece of meat, but definitely not rare as requested. Goodness knows what would happen if you ordered medium - would it come back cremated? My wife enjoyed her Slow Roast Belly of Pork with Bean & Bacon Stew immensely, but being a working class girl, she likes her pork scratchings, and this beautifully tender, flavoursome piece of meat would have been elevated from really, really nice to perfection if only the chewy skin on the pork had managed to crisp up a bit. Absolutely no gripes about the delicious lemon posset we shared for pudding, and one pudding proved more than enough for two people.
I doubt this will be the last time we eat here, but until our numbers come up, we can't afford to make a habit of it. Sixty quid for two mains, one starter and one pudding, plus a couple of gins and beers is the kind of bill we expect to fork out at Thackeray's or Hotel Du Vin, and the food, as impressive as it is, is quite simply not in this ballpark. And small details like thumb prints on the side plates (ugh!), and the state of the gents toilets do nothing to help justify their steep pricing policy. As much as we enjoyed our meal, we will probably treat it just as a pub without the gastro from now on.
UPDATE 1Q2008 - We've had a bit of a run on the Black Pig recently, finding it a nice place to stop for a beer on the way home from a long walk. Most recently we decided to eat there again for lunch. It seems the prices have been adjusted in line with most peoples pockets these days, and a lunch of scrumptious venison pie with mash and the marvelous scotch egg and piccalilli with a couple of beers coming in at a bargain £25. Nice place to be, nice place to eat. Star ratings have been adjusted for this update.
UPDATE 1Q2008 - Another visit to the Black Pig has reinforced our feelings that this place has become a firm favourite, this time we had the steak and chips which was served with a really tasty salsa verde for dipping, it must be tried. The beauty of updates is that we have decided to ignore our own initial advice and treat this is a gastro pub with the added bonus of a nice place to sit with a beer to read the paper.

Experience
Service
Value
Food
Overall

Comments

[Anke]

You've read the review now please leave a comment to how you liked The Black Pig. I'd love to hear from you.

[Joe Hyam]

Thank you for this helpful,objective account of local restaurants. It fills a big gap. We found that there were some more good things to say about the Black Pig, notably the three boards (Spanish, Italian and English) of hams and cold meats, the home-baked bread, and the general standard of cooking and presentation. The £25.00 steak seems to have vanished from the menu. On the other hand, the menu seems unbalanced, particularly, the desserts which would be improved by one or two lighter items such as a creme caramel, or something fresh fruit based.

I notice that you haven't yet mentioned the Tunbridge Wells Bar and Grill, a chain, but they seem to try hard to serve freshly prepared food. We are reserving judgement for the moment. The quality is good on the whole, though the prices are high.

[Anke]

Thanks for your comment, Joe.

I think we are due to try the Bar & Grill sometime soon, but indeed the prices are rather scary. I think the Black Pig deserves another try too, after all it is quite a nice place to drink even if you don't eat there.

Thanks again for reading!

[Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells]

I went there for dinner just before Christmas, and to be frank, I was appalled! Portioning was sparse, I asked for my Steak Bavette to be rare, and came out looking like it had only just come off the cow - I know that rare is a term to be used loosely, however, in a place of "quality" such as this, I felt this was bad. The service I found poor, with the waitress showing little to no sign of knowledge about the menu. Much to my chagrin, i found that a service charge is automatically applied! The worst thing for me however, was a tall, jolly hockey sticks kind of girl, presumably the manager, barking orders at the waitresses and bar staff. Having worked in the restaurant industry myself for some 30 years, one of the cardinal rules in a business such as this is NEVER make your waiting staff look bad in front of customers! A total bill of £150 (not including the service) for 3 people, i feel is steep for a PUB of this quality. Sorry, but must try harder!

[jenny t]

I went to the Black pig a couple of days ago and I found it to be an incredible. The starter wa absolutely delightful. A Pate that was quite clearly deserved of an award on its own. The main course was also just as good. Pheasant served with Thyme potatoes and real home made jus..splendid!!
In my view this place is definately one of the top gastro pubs in Kent and beats its sister pub by a mile on quality!!
Excellent place for a nice evening out on the town.
Jen

[Mark]

We ate at the Black Pig last night - nice enough but menu choice not great - no chicken or steak on the menu that day. To charge for bread is not a great ice breaker either.
The Haddock and Chips was huge and tasty but think the prices are set too high for the standard / quality of food served.
Mens toilets need dealing with!
Not great where we sat as could see into kitchen with shelves stacked with plastic containers!!
Wouldn't rush back !

[Clair]

I think the Black Pig is FANTASTIC! I've eaten there 3 times and when my parents stay over from Norfolk, they don't want to eat anywhere else. When sitting in the main restaurant section, you can watch the chefs cooking and also watch how they just take their time and perfection with the presentation of the food. I just love the homemade breads and platter boards they serve. I've recommended it to ALL work colleagues around the Kent area, and some who've visited comment on how scrumptious the food tastes.

[Joe Kenward]

I went to The Black Pig a couple of weeks ago for lunch on the recommendation of a colleague. I rang beforehand to enquire about prices, and was delighted to find a range of light lunchtime meals for under £10.

When we pitched up, the place was empty of customers. We found ourselves a table in a corner and happily browsed the menu, and it all sounded very seasonal, fresh and interesting. I chose to opt out of a starter, going for the steak sandwich (£7.50) and saving space for a pudding.

This was the best steak sandwich I have ever had. I was expecting a thin frying steak wedged between two lumps of bread, so it was a very pleasant suprise when a lovely thick, sliced-so-you-can-see-the-pink-and-let-the-juices-soak-into-the-bread, steak was wedged between two hunks of rosemary flecked home-baked bread. It came with a mini bucket of nicely crisp, thin chips and a wonderful little salad of seasonal shoots and fresh broad beans accompanying the sandwich on the board.

At £7.50, this wasn't the cheapest steak sandwich, but I didn't feel cheated. This was well put together and nicely cooked. This used a good piece of meat and had perfect sides. There's also something about eating it from a wooden board that adds to the enjoyment.

I didn't have room for a pudding. But I ordered one anyway. A blueberry and citrus vodka cheesecake- a thin, crisp base, beautifully buttery, and a huge amount of citrussy, bluberry studded cream on top. Perfect. I felt thoroughly sick, but ate it all anyway. You know the feeling. There were some cute little raspberries on the side too, in a cinnammon infused syrup of some kind. They got gobbled up too.

I didn't try any wine, but I can tell you that they serve a good cold coke (the best thing to go with a lunchtime steak and chips in my opinion!)

By the end of lunch, the place was buzzing with a variety of people. There was more of an atmosphere, and everyone was eating off wooden boards. This place is serving simple and seasonal food, very honestly. Go and enjoy.

[richard]

Loved this place. I cook every day for six people and as a result I am very fussy about the way things are done. I really enjoyed my steak and chips (pommes allumettes?!) - a really good piece of steak, with some interesting sauce on it, and the chips were faultless. A bottle of merlot Soleus by montgras 2007 from Chile (organic) was just terrific. Not a big wine buff but this was fab. Home made bread pretty good too, served on a board with oil and vinegar. Price relatively modest, about £63 for a meal for two. We had a posset for dessert - that was good too. Thoroughly recommend. P.S. the staff are pleasant, and it's a relaxing environment, tasteful. And no they are not paying me to write nice stuff. Try it, it's a highly unusual and refreshing antedote to the prevalent creeping food corporatism.

[Andy P]

Inconsistent, inconsistent, inconsistent. Don't you hate it when you recommend somewhere to someone because you've had a great meal only for the somewhere to go and let you (and itself) down ?
We've had a couple of really great lunches at the Pig, mainly work related, so when some friends recently came to TW to stay for a weekend wedding and asked for a dinner recommendation for Friday night.....

"Are you mad ?" they said.
"Not at all, " I replied.

The detail followed and left me feeling really disappointed for them both; shoddy service and very mediocre gastropub food at very restaurant prices. As they said, "Don't put pheasant on a menu if you don't know how to cook it".

I suppose the moral of the story is to not to judge dinner by lunch standards or vice versa without experiencing it yourself.

I'll be more careful next time !

[Sam]

Great place, not expensive for a mid-week meal, good if fancy a little more. Their entry level wines are brilliant and the lighter meals are too. Service can be a little slow, although more waiters at the weekend demonstrated they clearly weren't expecting the mid week rush we had previously experienced. The local foods and good range of local game added to the experience, clearly living up to their aspirations of true provenance. I would dis-agree with the previous comment, the Pheasant we had was great.