First Impressions of the New Ivy House....

I finally made it to the New Ivy House for a quickie the other night after work. As I was on me bike and a bit parched, I thought I'd have a larger shandy and sit on the tables outside. Very pleasant it was too, although that was more to do with the glorious evening sunshine than anything the pub had to offer. My first impressions were: Oh that looks quite nice! Smart looking tables and chairs, still the old basic layout, bar area seems to have been smartened up a bit. The larger shandy, shandy mind you, cost me £3.50, which I must say I questioned having thought he must have got it wrong. It's cheaper than that in the Rose and Crown Hotel, I thought to myself, which is saying something, although I'm not quite sure what. But no that was the correct price; I think the bar man, or was he a waiter? said that the Harvey's was £3.20 a pint. Now I don't go out much these days, and at those sort of prices it's no wonder, but I'm pretty sure you can get a perfectly good pint in Tonbridge for a whole pound less than that. The Ivy Dining Room and Bar, to give it its full and rather grand name, is obviously trying to position itself from the word go as a slightly upmarket experience. Good luck to them but I rather fear that they will have a job on their hands and that there will be lots of nights when the inside of the pub (sorry dining room) is on the empty side. All I'll say is the food, which I haven't tried yet, better be damned good! Last Saturday evening, and to be fair it was only about 7pm, there was one person eating, and she was sitting outside, the inside tables were completely empty. I had a chat with Simon, the owner of Cycle Ops, who I usually only catch the odd hello and cheeky passing comment with, so that was quite a good thing, and I would have stayed for another drink, so glorious was the evening sunshine, but at £3.50 a pint I decided to toddle (actually wobble since I was cycling) off back to my 50p can of ice cold Fosters in the garden....