The Pig & Sty, Bethersden

The Pig & Sty, Bethersden is set to open its doors to the public this autumn with an opening party on the 21st of September. It’s the 9th pub from Elite pubs, all in Kent. We were lucky enough to get an advanced invitation a few days early as they welcomed some local businesses in for a dry-run preview lunch.

Don’t say, don’t say it, don’t say it. “There’s no such thing as a free lunch”.

Well, actually there was in this case. What a clever idea, connecting with local businesses at the same time as giving your staff that all-important chance to have a few practise runs of lunch service.

The pub

The Pig & Sty wasn’t always the Pig & Sty. It is a pub that dates back to the 1500s. I’ve known it as The Royal Standard, it’s also been a Thai and Indian restaurant. I think it may have stood empty at times. It’s set on the A28 between High Halden and Bethersden, in the beautiful Weald of Kent not far from Tenterden.

The manager, Glen, showed us around the newly refurbished and renovated building. The £1m project has seen the building retain many of its historic features with a contemporary refresh. A restaurant extension opens up the interior space with vaulted ceilings and exposed brickwork. It’s comfortable, bright and is dressed with modern textiles and draped artificial foliage. This looks particularly striking in the outside bar area where clumps of white wisteria hang down. It has a lovely welcoming feel and there’s certainly plenty to look at with views on to the garden and fields beyond.

The private dining room is themed as a rocking horse workshop room complete with a vintage rocking horse on the ceiling and walls of tools and workshop paraphernalia. It’s a deliberate nod and homage to the famous Stevenson Brothers who make traditional rocking horses in nearby Bethersden.

“We use natural ingredients sourced locally whenever possible, our ecofriendly menu aims to excite and inspire and is continually changing with the seasons, always offering a variety of healthy local and international dishes with proven provenance.”

The food

As with most pubs, they have a selection of different menus: a daily menu, children’s menu, Sunday lunch and so on. They also have a pizza menu as they make woodfired sourdough pizzas and flatbreads. The pizza oven is the restaurant so you can take a look while they’re cooking.

There are lots to choose from including vegan and vegetarian options, also steaks, burgers, fish, gluten-free pasta. The sharing board of mini hot dog sliders caught my eye – maybe next time. I also noticed some very local produce on the menu including Wise Owl Cider jus on the local belly pork and a cobnut salad with the vegan mac ‘n’ cheese.

What we ate

We started with a sharing fish board. It was probably a bit much for two people to share, between three as a starter would’ve been perfect. That’s one of the nice things about the daily menu, it has nibbly dishes, sharing dishes, smaller dishes, bigger dishes and sandwiches, you’re not stuck in the formal starter then mains choice.

Actually, our ‘board’ was served on a plate with a couple of generous hunks of crusty malted bread. The platter included salmon gravadlax, marinated king prawns skewers, smoked haddock bonbons, salt & pepper squid and soused herring served with radish, cucumber & samphire salad and a pot of avocado crème fraiche.

For my bigger dish, I had a steak ciabatta sandwich with Tewksbury mustard, crispy shallot rings and watercress, served with sweet potato fries. You can choose between chips, fries or sweet potato fries or even skin-on fries – oh yeah!

Shaun ordered one of their artisan pizzas named The Fancy Goat. The sourdough base was topped with goat cheese, pickled beetroot, caramelised onion, pine nuts, mint and aged balsamic vinegar. 

Looks like we’ll have to try pudding next time. I couldn’t eat another thing.