Squerryes Winery

Do you ever book things in on the pretext its for your partner but really you just wanted to visit it yourself?

On Saturday I booked a table at Squerryes to take Mr Poachie out for an early birthday lunch, I don't think it was his number one place he wanted to visit but I had wanted to go since December 2019 when we met someone who was selling their wine at a Christmas market.

Sadly though, our visit was ruined by terrible service. 

I won't go into it too much here as I think it's not the right place for it so whilst the food and setting was great, a lot of people were complaining about the staff so I think maybe bear that in mind before you visit.

The vineyard is located in Westerham which is a very pretty part of Kent. I thought it was a big country estate as that's what the website makes it look like but the house is located somewhere else, the vines are on the same plot of land as a brewery and a farm shop so it's got a good atmosphere. There is plenty of parking.

Due to the covid we were all sat outside and luckily we had superb weather so we kicked things off with some fizz and a beer for the birthday boy.

Once our table was ready we ordered some bread and olives (more fizz for me) and enjoyed the September sunshine.

Mr Poachie is so difficult to think of things to buy him, he has everything a man needs and when we started dating we said we didn't want more 'things' we would rather have experiences but trying to buy or book experiences in lockdown is hard!

To start, I ordered scallops with chorizo, I adore scallops and will usually order them if they are on the menu.

Mr Poachie ordered langoustine spring rolls which were very good.

For my main I ordered the crab linguine which was delicious! Mr Poachie had duck leg confit with mash.

More fizz for me! I also tried some white wines which I wasn't keen on but the Vintage rose brut was very good.

Mr Poachie is on a diet so didn't order a dessert but I had Kent raspberries with fresh double cream. At £6,50 I think it was very overrated?!

They have a terrace restaurant here (where we ate) and they also offer picnic in the vines which I liked the sound of, they have created socially distanced areas amongst the vines. I think it sounds romantic, Mr Poachie thinks it sounds uncomfortable.

I am going to write to the restaurant manager to give some feedback as to why we removed the service charge (it wasn't just us, lots of people were unhappy) we couldn't understand how it could be so bad but I think it must be down to staff training so rather just not pay the service charge and slag them off I think it's best to explain why we didn't pay a tip...

I hope they sort this out because although we had a nice afternoon, it was expensive and it ruined the birthday treat a little. Luckily, I have lots more planned for Mr Poachie so he will be thoroughly spoilt!