Where to Eat and Drink in Eynsford and at The Lodge Clubhouse

Three pubs, a riverside bank that doubles as the village beer garden, and a clubhouse kitchen that shuts at four. Here is what each one does and when it does it.

If you are looking for places to eat in Eynsford after a round, or planning a day that takes in the golf, the Roman villa and the river, you have two separate decisions to make. The clubhouse at Lullingstone Park serves food on the course itself, and it closes in the afternoon. Eynsford village, down in the valley, keeps going into the evening. Which one you want depends almost entirely on what time it is.

The Lodge: what the clubhouse actually serves

The Lodge is the clubhouse at Lullingstone Park Golf Course, on Park Gate Road at Chelsfield. It works as a cafe and bar for golfers and for anyone walking in the country park, so you do not need a tee time to eat there. It opens daily from 7:00, which makes it one of the few places in this corner of Kent where you can get a cooked breakfast before an early first tee.

The catch is the closing time for food. The kitchen runs from 8:00 to 16:00 Monday to Friday, and from 8:00 to 17:00 at weekends. A four-ball that goes out at 13:00 on a Saturday and takes the usual four hours will finish after the kitchen has stopped. If you want to eat as a group after golf, either go out early enough to be back before service ends, or plan to drive into the valley.

The everyday menu runs from breakfast through to light lunches rather than a full evening carte. For a private event the catering is arranged separately with the booking, which is covered on our function room hire page.

The three pubs in Eynsford village

Eynsford's pubs are unusually close together. The ford across the River Darent and the old bridge beside it sit at the centre of the village, and you can walk between all three in under five minutes.

The Plough Inn, 24 Riverside

The Plough is the riverside one, a few steps from the ford itself, with a courtyard and a restaurant that runs over two floors. There is a separate bar area where drinkers and dogs are welcome, which matters if you have walked up from Lullingstone Country Park with a wet spaniel. The kitchen leans towards proper restaurant cooking rather than pub staples: spit-roasted chicken, slow-cooked pork belly, salmon, and a house beef burger for anyone who does not want a production. Real ales and lagers are on alongside a decent wine list. Booking is sensible at weekends, on 01322 862281.

The grass bank by the ford is wide and open, and in summer it becomes the overflow beer garden for the whole village. It is the single best spot in Eynsford to sit with a drink, and it is free.

The Malt Shovel, High Street

The Malt Shovel is the village's real ale pub, a 16th-century building in Brewers Tudor dress on the High Street. It keeps three regular cask ales plus a weekly guest, and it has a long pedigree: it appeared in the very first CAMRA Good Beer Guides in 1972 and 1974. There is a garden, parking, live music once a month, and an open quiz on Tuesday evenings. It is open seven days and serves freshly cooked food. The CAMRA entry for the Malt Shovel is the place to check current beers.

This is the one to choose if the beer matters more than the plate, or if you want somewhere that feels like a village local rather than a destination.

The Castle Hotel

The Castle Hotel is a small boutique hotel with seven rooms, a bar and a restaurant, and it is the most formal of the three. The kitchen works with local produce and covers traditional and modern dishes, small plates, sharers, burgers and a cheeseboard. It does a full Sunday roast with Yorkshire pudding and all the trimmings, cooked-to-order breakfasts including a full English and eggs benedict, and a high tea that has to be booked in advance. Tables can be reserved online through the hotel's own booking system.

If you are putting up visitors for a golf weekend and want them within walking distance of a decent dinner, this is the obvious answer in the village.

Which one to pick

Parking, and getting between the two

Parking at The Lodge comes with the building. It is a golf club car park, not a town centre one, so there is no meter and no two-hour limit. That is a genuine advantage if you are meeting people who are driving in.

Eynsford is different. The village is narrow, the riverside is the busiest part of it, and on a warm Sunday the roadside spaces near the ford fill early. There is a station car park a short walk up the hill, and Eynsford is on the Victoria to Sevenoaks line, so arriving by train and walking down is a reasonable plan if you are not carrying clubs. Our guide to the ford and the village covers the approach and where the road narrows.

If you are making a day of it, the Roman villa and Lullingstone Castle and the World Garden are both in the valley within a couple of miles of the pubs, and the full day-out itinerary puts them in a sensible order.

A note on opening hours

Village pubs change their kitchen hours seasonally, and the two things most likely to catch you out are a Sunday evening with no food service and a Monday closure. The times given above for The Lodge come from the golf course's own listings and are the ones to plan a round around. For the three Eynsford pubs, ring before you set off with a group. All three take bookings, and all three are small enough that eight people arriving unannounced on a Saturday is a problem rather than a welcome.

More on planning a visit, tee times and green fees is on the Lullingstone Park Golf home page.