The Windmill Hollingbourne

We had a fabulous family meal here to celebrate my birthday. There were 11 of us and we were seated in an alcoved area which meant we did not have to worry if we got a little loud with our chit chat and catching up. The food all came out together, piping hot and without any problems (impressive when dealing with 11 orders at once) - all was delicious too! We went on a Wednesday which is steak night and both the sharing beef wellington and sirloin steak went down particularly well in the group. The service was friendly and attentive from everyone and I would happily recommend The Windmill to anyone thinking about visiting

Right, two versions of this review. A short one for anyone in a hurry, and a longer one for those who, like me, think good people in hospitality deserve proper credit. Short version: We went back to The Windmill in Hollingbourne and it was absolutely worth it. Great food, lovely atmosphere, brilliant service and a team who really care. Highly recommend. Long version (because they really earned it): I’ve moved away from the area, but it was so nice going back to The Windmill in Hollingbourne. We went for a late Sunday roast and it reminded me exactly why I used to love coming here. From the phone call around half five to check they were still serving, to the warm welcome when we arrived, everything was spot on. The food was fantastic. The roast potatoes were just as good as you’d expect at the start or middle of service, the meats were tender and not the dry ends you sometimes get later in the day, and the Yorkshire pudding was huge. The rolled pork was especially tasty. For dessert we had sticky toffee pudding and crème caramel with almonds. The crème caramel was outstanding, and I don’t even usually like crème caramel, and the sticky toffee pudding, always my favourite, didn’t disappoint. The place still has that same lovely feel about it. I didn’t realise there was a new head chef, Oscar, but we ended up chatting when he passed by. Really friendly, easy to talk to and clearly loves what he does. You could feel the good energy coming from the kitchen, and it was great seeing the chefs still smiling after a long Sunday shift. The front of house team were brilliant and a real credit to Bart, who wasn’t on that day. I used to come in often when I lived nearby and always appreciated his humour, attention to detail and the way he runs a place. He’s one of those people who just gets hospitality, remembers faces, makes everyone feel welcome and somehow keeps everything running perfectly while still keeping it personal. You can see that same spirit in the team he’s built. Everything ran like clockwork and the atmosphere was relaxed, friendly and full of good vibes. Hospitality’s not an easy game, but these guys have nailed it. A brilliant all-round experience from start to finish. Can’t wait to go back.

We had a lovely Sunday lunch here yesterday as a family of 5. The pub itself is lovely with old beams and lots of character and the staff were friendly and accommodating to my elderly mum. Highly recommend the pie on offer and the sticky toffee pudding was delicious. And the wine flight…We’ll definitely be back!

I cannot rate this pub more highly if I tried. We stayed for two nights while my brother was getting married nearby and it was simply perfect. The meals were great, rooms lovely and the staff made it so special for us. Phil was the man! We chatted with him endlessly. What a great venue with fantastic staff.

We visited this place back in March whilst staying at the Mercure Great Danes Hotel just a couple of minutes up the road, the menu was much more appealing then and everything was in stock. We decided that it was worth revisiting with some family members, but, after singing its praises in our family, we were all a bit dismayed by the somewhat limited summer menu, lack of 0.0% drink choice and the number flies in the back room where we moved to. Hope to see a radical improvement should we visit again, especially considering the price of food and drink.

Excellent all round. The staff were really friendly and the room was lovely. When we go back to the area, we will 100% be staying here again. Highly recommend to everyone—keep up the great work! We unfortunately arrived late and missed out on food in the evening, but the breakfast was delicious.

Pub meal review: The staff were lovely and friendly, and the interiors of the pub are nice. The smokehouse sharing platter (for 2 people) had some ok elements, but really not very much food for £60. Would give dessert a miss - the peach cake was a bit strange and tasted like baking soda.

We had been looking forward to our visit to The Windmill, after a day out playing cricket. Unfortunately the overwhelming feeling when we left was one of disappointment. We visited on “Steak Night’ but chose to eat from the main menu. Instead of a starter we chose to have bread from the nibbles selection. However our main courses arrived without any sight of it - so we did without. Our waiter told us that ‘We are baking it fresh for you’. Obviously a nonsensical thing to do - you want your nibbles with your drinks - not to wait for bread to be baked! One can only assume that they had not made enough for the evening. And if they had no bread ready they could have told us and we would have ordered something else. The main courses (fish and chips and sea bream) were well cooked, although not exceptional. We would have had a pudding but the dessert menu was very disappointing - fine if you like fruit (or cheese and biscuits) but there were no choices involving chocolate in any form or any traditional puddings (like sticky toffee pudding for example). So my wife just had one scoop of vanilla ice cream - hardly celebratory fare. We were thinking of coming as a large family group - but after this experience we won’t be back.

Amazing food, with great options. Lovely wine list as well. There were three of us, one had the lamb rump, one the sea bass and one the cod. All were brilliant. Starters and main courses were good size portions and there was plenty of food. Only criticism was the pace of service waiting to give out order and afterwards waiting for the bill - but other than that it was great. Would highly recommend and will definitely go back for one of their specialty evenings.

This is a lovely olde worlde pub set in the quiet village of Hollingbourne near Maidstone, just a short distance from Leeds Castle. We have been here twice, once on a Sunday for lunch and once on a Friday for dinner. On both occasions we found the food to be superb. It is plentiful and well presented and the menu has something to suit everyone from home made burgers to Lobster Thermidor. I'm not sure that anyone could manage 3 courses here. I had the roast lamb dinner on Sunday which was lovely and served with roast potatoes, yorkshire pudding, mange tout, carrots and corn. My husband had the mixed grill and it was enormous - rump steak, gammon steak, lamb chop and 3 sausages, served with chips and mixed salad. If you like desserts they have home made cheesecakes and fruit crumble, apple pie, as well as ice cream sundaes and sorbets. They have a fairly comprehensive wine list, although I didn't partake of any (sadly). All in all, both visits were lovely and we look forward to going again. From Monday to Thursday they do a 2 course menu for £10.95.

No reservation and it seems one should make one. My friends and myself were highly anticipating the Pork Belly but was not available. Compromised with the Fish Pie x 2 and Lamb x 2. Reasonable wine list enjoyed the Malbec as a good middle of the road Red. The Fish Pies were very good if somewhat on the small size. The Lamb proved very disappointing, dry, shredded and overcooked and the accompanying Rosti was merely a small lattice crisp of potato. Spring vegetables had red peppers although we were assured they would not be present. Service was on the slow side but one assumes likely relative to it being busy. Being seated away from the rest of the customers did allow us easier conversation so that was a plus. Noted many happy and smiling customers as we left so maybe we had some bad luck. The outside seating is well appointed. Almost forget ...the Creme Brûlée type desert was excellent.

The Windmill has recently been taking over by Richard Phillips, Richard Phillips is the man behind Thackeray's of Tunbrigde Wells , Hengist of Aylesford and The Pearson's Arms Whitstable. The Pub now leans towards being a restaurant, but this not your usual pub grub, this is fine dining at a reasonable price. The food is very good, very good indeed, the staff a very helpful and super friendly. For starter I ordered Dorset Crab on Toast , which was delicious crab mixed with onion, shredded lettuce served on broiche toast, it also had a bit of a kick to it, very pleasant indeed. Our table also ordered the Scotch Egg with Black Pudding to try, OMG it was heaven, crispy on the outside, the egg nice and runny on the inside really pleasurable. For mains I ordered a old classic, Cod In Whistable Bay Ale Batter with Triple Cooked Chip, everything you want from posh fish n chips, cod was nice and tender, batter nice and crispy, chips were lovely and fluffy. I really recommend this place to you, really good food at a reasonable price, also good just for a pint or a spot of lunch, go check it out.

This was one of the best places we visited in London. The service was great and friendly, the building was over 500 years old and beautiful. The food and wine were excellent and the pudding desert was absolutely the best desert I have ever had in my life!

When we arrived we waited to be seated and two waiters looked at us blankly and didn't say anything, eventually the manager came over and sat us down - that part isn't a massive complaint but just wanted to point out it was an extremely cold reception. My husband ordered the meat platter as his starter, when it arrived the meat was 3 slices of salami and 1 parma ham which were very fatty and the parma ham was so dry it had gone rock hard. I just want to point out it didn't specify on the menu what type of meat it would be and it really didn't have much meat for a 'meat platter'. I'm a massive fan of salami and parma ham but even i couldn't swallow it. My husband sliced the pork pie in half and it was literally glistening with so much gelatin/fat which was very disappointing as the menu stated it was homemade one would expect decent quality. The sauce which wasn't to our taste was spread on the bread which meant he couldn't even eat that. When the waiter came to clear the plates he asked what was wrong and all my husband said was 'it wasn't to his taste', he asked if we wanted him to tell the chef and my husband said its up to him. He disappeared and came back 5 minutes later to say the manger would see us in a bit which was fine and removed our plates. When he did arrive and I'm not exaggerating as everyone in the restaurant stopped and looked, he shouted at us for at least 5 minutes saying it is a meat dish, what did we expect, my husband shouldn't have picked this dish if he is a vegetarian, its all locally sourced produce, theres nothing wrong with it. He kept repeating these things and throughout it, myself and my husband kept trying to talk to explain but he was so loud, i ended up shouting at him 'can you let us explain' to which he suddenly stopped and we got the chance to go through and the issues we had with the dish. Whilst doing this we had to continually ask him to stop butting in and to listen so we could explain and once we had done so he couldn't have been more apologetic saying he had got the wrong end of the stick, but when we asked how could he have when he didn't even ask what was wrong at the beginning, he couldn't answer. He then proceeded to shove a menu in my husbands face asking him to pick something else, even though the waiter was standing there with our mains in his hands. He kept coming back and apologising and asking if he could get us a free drink, when we declined he then offered free puddings and tea or coffee which we also declined. He had upset us too much. I can honestly say there was no reason for him to attack us the way he did, especially telling my husband he shouldn't have picked the dish if he was a vegetarian, not once did my husband say he was, nor is he and i just cant understand how he would think a vegetarian would choose a 'meat' platter. If it wasn't for the fact it was a wedding gift voucher we would have certainly walked out, it was disgusting customer service and we know we weren't overreacting as the people on the next table told us how shocking his behaviour was. I would also like to point out that it was so cold in the restaurant i had to wear my coat the whole duration and the waiter that served us never smiled, no please or thank yous and when we needed serving he was always saying one minute and going off doing other things which made us feel very unimportant. The worst customer service i have ever experienced and can safely say we will never return not use any of their other establishments.