Richard Phillips at Chapel Down

Amazing, Wonderful, Heaven on Earth! Can't saying anything more about this place other than I'll be returning for every Birthday Anniversary etc!!!!

Lunch Menu is amazing value!

Will be trying Richard's other restaurants!
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Tracy
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Friday, November 07, 2008

Went to this restuarant for the first time at the weekend. WOW what a find!

Great setting, great food, great service and great English wine.

I'm not going to prat on, because you have to go there and try it for real.

Well done Richard Phillips, more of the same please.
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Harry Kemp - london
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Well I have to say that this was the most extraordinary and exciting new find I have ever discovered. I think expectations outside London are quite low both in terms of food and service and always in terms of decor. At first glance, even though I knew the Chapel Down wines to be quite chic and in some uber cool places in my native Hoxton, the setting and the outside, whilst "nice" didn't prepare me for the surprise upstairs. This is really well developed. From the corkscrew greeting station to the chefs table the design is very good (although some of the cutlery and the V&B new wave cups was a bit tarty..). The opening to the kitchen (with Aggie around) is inspired and there was a good atmosphere. People seemed to be enjoying themselves, and it "felt" good.

The food was good value and whilst not Michelin star stuff, well presented and well made. I thought the wine list was original, funny, quirky and inspired and available by the glass. The selections went really well. The Chapel Down wines were particularly good. There is foreign wine here and its pretty good, but the stars are the English wines. My vegetarian friend wasnt overwhelmed with options, but the overall menu was delicious. Service was all perfectly good.

Go. You'll be surprised even though you now know! You'll also get a feeling that you are somewhere a bit special. And thats worth the extra that makes you remember.
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Graham Taylor
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, October 14, 2008

I visited Chapel Down Restaurant last weekend 11th October 2008, and I have a few words of which to some up my experience- TRYING TO HARD!

What they have done in relation to styling the restaurant and bar area is superb and very stylish, with great attention to detail, but that is where is ends.

The service fell far short of what I was expecting. The barman although polite, was very inexperienced, as were the rest of the bar/waiting staff, with no clear leader present on the night. The cocktails we had on arrival were far from fabulous and not very well made-definatley showed lack of knowledge & experience. We then ordered a bottle of Chapel Down sparkling wine (I will at this point mention no champagne on the menu-much to my disppointment), the barmen then opened the bottle with a large majority of the bottle being spilt on the floor, he then served us the bottle (and still had the cheek to charge us full price for it) then much to my amazement no attempt was made to clean up the mess for the rest of the evening-shocking!). A few guests were even ignored at the bar, whilst staff were going about their business, eye contact wasnt even made, whilst the barmen was missing.

We then watched other guests being shown through to their tables, with waiters carrying through their drinks, we however did not recieve this service, we were asked to carry our drinks through ourselves (this is many restaurants would not have been a problem, however if you are marketing yourselves the way they are, you have to live up to the standard, otherwise it will eventually fail)

Our starters were served, nicely presented, and all was fine, however I could not believe, that the waitress traying the food, was very poorly dressed for the restaurant, wearing skinny black jeans, no socks and ballet pumps-again shocking!

After we had finished our starters, we were served mains, the presentation was how can I say it.....interesting to say the least....I had a duck breast which was cut up into cubes??? why?? I have no idea? In the words of Ramsay you do not need to mess around food!

I am a huge fan of Gordon Ramsays the Maze restaurant, and I have to say although, Richard Phillips is trying to attempt to copy such restaurants as this he is not only falling short, he is not even in the same league.

Maybe I expected too much, but Chapel Down are definatley trying to hard to mimic great London Restaurants, and insulting local customers, by thinking we will be happy with substandard service, and over styalised food, in lieu of nice decor.
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Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 2
Monday, October 13, 2008

Had a la carte lunch here on Tues 2/09/08.Food was excellent but will not rush back due to a couple of things.....we were made to feel rather uncomfortable because a table for four people had been reserved instead of for two.(not so as I drove down from Headcorn the week before to book a table for two!) Inspite of the quality of the food,a couple. of things from menu not on our plates...no oat biscuits with the cheese...no walnut salad with the beetroot carpaccio and no chocolates with the coffee.Small things I know,but it was a birthday treat and a restaurant stands or falls on such details when competition is so great.
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jackie - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Thursday, September 04, 2008

I and a friend recently 'took a chance' and decided to visit this new restaurant instead of our usual eaterie. Having absolutely no idea whatsoever as to the type of place this might be, we were absolutely delighted to find such exciting decor, welcoming staff, and superb food, extremely well presented. There is an excellent choice and the 2 course lunch we felt was really good value. The wine we chose was first class, and this will now be our meeting place every time.
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Josephine Moon
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, September 03, 2008

I took my husband to this restaurant for an evening meal to celebrate his 65th birthday and retirement and it was a truly superb experience.

Each course was excellent - scallops risotto followed by calves' liver, and lobster and prawn cocktail followed by duck breast. We also had desserts and coffee. The recommended English wines were excellent and I love the fact that they can be bought by the glass as that gives a couple eating a chance to taste different wines - we usually have to have 1 bottle and decide which to have.

The service, atmosphere and comfort were excellent and it truly felt like a celebration but was very reasonably priced. I shall certainly return and will recommend it to anyone!
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Margaret
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, August 25, 2008

I have family down in deepest Kent and my brother rang me excitedly to tell me about a new restaurant in Tenterden. He rang me last time about a new restaurant when they opened Apicius in Cranbrook, and thats just won a Michelin star, so I tend to listen. He's also a bore about English wines and Chapel Down in particular. So this new restaurant is at the vineyard / winery of Chapel Dwon.

Went for lunch. I have to say, my bro got it right again. A three course lunch that would grace any one star London restaurant for £12.95. And even more amazing - the English Wine was fantastic and a perfect complement. Scallops risotto to start and then sea bream on ink squid noodles. Not the most searingly novel dishes, but extremely well cooked and presented. The best crumble I have ever had for pudding. Better even than my brothers...

Very stylish and rather cool for Tenterden. Trendy chairs and Bang and Ol sounds. Staff were friendly and very quick. Went into the shop (also rather nice) afterwards and spent over £100 on wines having been told all about them by a lovely lady. Fantastic day out and I will get my brother to write up too.
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Doug - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Friday, August 22, 2008

I was lucky enough to dine at this new restaurant shortly after it opened. It is always risky trying a new restaurant so soon after opening but hearing that Richard Phillips was behind the venture and having eaten at the Hengist I decided to try Richard Phillips at Chapel Down as a wedding anniversary treat for my wife.

I was amazed at how smoothly everything was running the staff was friendly and attentive and the food was exquisite. Something that came as a pleasant surprise was the size of the portions. Often with fine dining I have left a restaurant - though pleased with the taste, aroma and presentation - feeling hungry. Surely the point of any dining experience is to be served excellent food in the right quantity and I was very pleased to say that the portions at Richard Phillips are generous.

The other enjoyable surprise was the fact that many of the dishes were sourced locally, I believe the potatoes only travelled a few hundred yards from a local farm in Tenterden. Much of the produce was also sourced locally. The only criticism I would have is the desert spoons are fiddly because of the small size. The atmosphere at the restaurant was good and you would not have known the restaurant was just a few days old. The design was just the right mixture of modern and quirky. My wife loved the seats in the bar area where we settled after the meal to enjoy a cup of coffee. The combination of the on-site vineyard and superb rolling countryside only added to the overall experience. We will certainly return.
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Darren Laws
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, August 20, 2008

I have now been to Richard Phillips at Chapel Down twice and on each occasion found the food, wine and service truly excellent.

The atmosphere and setting is a really relaxing and the views across the countryside and vine yard is amazing.

This part of Kent was really crying out for something different and this concept of restaurant has achieved that need.

The first time we went was for Sunday lunch and we all had the charcuterie plate to share for a starter, the different types of meat, pates and chutneys were delicious and the quantity was very generous.

Main course was Kentish Beef with seasonal vegetables….to die for! Couldn’t manage a desert after the fist two courses.

On our second visit I had garden pea soup, which was poured over flaked ham hock, broad beans and crispy cured bacon, a great combination and really different.

Main course was deep fried pollock which was prepared in a light curry Chapel Down beer batter. This was all presented on really quirky wooden plates with triple cooked chips and a home made tartare sauce. I have never had fish and chips quite like this and the kids totally enjoyed it.

All this was washed down with a very pleasant Chapel Down English Rose.

I think that the attention to detail with the cutlery, plates and coffee cups are very cool.

We have now booked the Chefs Table in November where we are looking forward to sample the fine dinning menu.
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Lucy Hewett
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Wednesday, August 20, 2008