Shepherd Neame Reviews 20

Unable to find Shepherd neeme 1698 in any local supermarket. Buying online was dearer with delivery.
Went to the company site, prices were not only comparable but no delivery charges. Beer arrived the next day, very well packed.
Extremely impressed with the product and company.

I went to the Ship Inn in Herne Bay last Sunday 3rd August 2025 as I had eaten there previously and was previously impressed by their food and conduct, However on arrival this time my partner who is from Ukraine and lived here in for 20 years asked them if they could serve us as we had not booked and they told us they were very busy and could only serve people with reservations as they had no free tables (the pub was only 1/3 full and there was a vacant table next to the bar) which I politely pointed out and they still stood by their initial decision also adding that they had a small kitchen and could not serve us, we purchased drinks and went and sat outside on the decking. Whilst there we got talking to some other people who had come in after us without a reservation and were served food!, I went to the bar and asked why I had been lied to and asked to speak to the manager (Alex) who upon hearing what I had to say reated by immediately asked me to leave after I said to her this was an act of racism towards my partner and told her I was disgusted by her conduct. The Manager followed me back to the decking to my partner andcrepeated that shecwanted yscto leave and that she would give us plastic cups to take our drinks in andcl that she would call the police if we did not leave. I told her we were paying customers and would leave when we had finished our drinks. Upon finishing our drinks we went to the toilet and (Alex) the manager followed my partner into the toilet still insisting we leave! As we left they called out to us saying that we were rude and ignorant and I replied to them saying that they were rude racist a☆☆☆☆☆☆s. I would like to point bout at this point that I am 100% white English and was born and have lived in Kent all my life and never ever been treated in this manor before in any other pub or establishment. I have run my own business for over thirty years and am a 56 year old man with a lot of life experience and Alex is a lot younger (no more than 35 I would say)

I wrote to Shepheard Neame CEO and told them everything and that they could view the CCTV recording and see from that that I was never at all aggressive towards the staff at the Ship Inn. He wrote back saying this was a tenanted pub snd that he had no to say whatsoever over them with regard to their conduct and could do nothing to compensate me.

I and my family have given them a lot of business over the years and I am disgusted by both thevl pub and Shepherd Neames head office conduct over this and have asked them to hive me a lot of their jon tenanted pubs as they have said that they woukd have been able to do more to deal with the situation and compensate us with a free meal if it had been a non tenanted pub and admitted that it's difficult for their customers to know which pubs are tenanted and which ones are not and I am now waiting for their reply to my second email to them in response.

As a result of this I would not recommend this pub to anyone, and probably will never go to any Shepherd Neame pub again!

We booked a Sunday meal at The Heron in Herne Bay, having checked the Sunday menu for that weekend on the official Shepherd Neame website, we booked a meal and paid a £60 deposit. When we arrived, we found the menu had changed dramatically: prices had nearly doubled, vegetarian options were removed, and several advertised dishes were no longer available. We were given no warning of this.

When we asked for our deposit back due to this bait-and-switch, the manager refused. We sent screenshots of the advertised menu to Shepherd Neame, but they brushed it off, saying: "The tenant is not employed by or answerable to us."

This lack of oversight shows that Shepherd Neame takes no responsibility for misleading information on their own website or customer experience at their branded pubs. Be warned: you're on your own if something goes wrong.Tried twice

Oh dear! We are so aggrieved after having purchased Gift Cards for our two sons in December last year. We are pensioners and feel that we have not been treated fairly as loyal clients of this Republican House & restaurant chain / brand. The promotional material and underlying Ts & Cs for gift cards in respect of expiry dates are totally misleading and will not pass the criteria defining fairness and Treating Customers Fairly (TCF). Our reasonable and best efforts in engaging with the company in terms of honouring the spirit of the £60-00 spend on one gift voucher have left us completely disillusioned. Yes, there are always two sides to every story we concede. Nonetheless, we urge consumers NOT to purchase gift cards for family and friends. You may well find yourselves in an unfortunate position. What a pity!

Great food and service at your Minnis Bay bar and Restaurant “The Minnis Bay”. The food was excellent as always, as was the service. Friendly staff and our waitress was Chloe who is polite and friendly. 10 out of 10. Thanks!

The staff today were absolutely fantastic. Wish I had their names. The young lady that served us had beautiful red hair and a wonderful smile. The Whitstable Bay blonde lager is the best pint in Kent. ❤️

We have dined at The Duke Of Cumberland many times with an excellent experience. Sunday the 29th September myself and my husband were looking forward to another pleasant Sunday lunch but unfortunately it didn’t live up to our passed visits. We waited over an hour for our lunch it eventually arrived luke warm and very disappointing. We were not the only couple complaining. We will be frequenting The Marine in future so disappointing

Our U3A Real Ale Group visited Faversham for a tour around the Shepherd Neame Brewery. We all agreed our guide was very knowledgeable and amusing at times. He covered all the history of the brewery and the various processes the ales went through before it was finished. Afterwards, we saw the small museum area and ended up in the bar for a tasting of six different beers with a clear explanation of what to look for in a well kept beer. There was also well stocked a gift shop which unfortunately we didn’t have much time to spend there due to the time of catching our train back home.

From start to finish the tour was informative and sometimes funny our guide Nick kept the tour flowing at a good pace.
Getting back to the bar for sampling the beers was a nice finish to the day , The gift shop was well stocked and Sue was really helpful in getting me the right size T-shirt Irequired.
Cheers Team.

Went to The Vine in Tenterden on Saturday. Unfortunately I didn't know it was a Shepherd Neame pub and till my food arrived (I'd went to The Old Mill Kennington only a few weeks ago). Beefburger in a green bun. I'd asked for no salt on the burger , the meat was covered in it as were the chips. If I'd wanted a high salt meal I would've gone to McDonalds. Pudding menu bit pretentious, nothing on it that I liked as even the chocolate brownie was caked in hazelnuts. It's a shame that all Shepherd Neame pubs have the same limited menu. Service was good but as the meal was awful I wouldn't have left a tip but the service charge is on the bill, needless to say I won't be having any more family meals at this pub chain.

Appalling way to treat customers who sign up to their birthday club which offers a free main meal when you buy another

Booked a table at Ship & Trades in Chatham then the day before we went the voucher disappeared from the email link !!!!

Called the number and just got an answer machine, 2 weeks later got no reply at all

Sent them an email, 2 weeks later got no reply

The voucher for the birthday club is just a scam to get you to sign up and book one of their pubs

It's completely rude and ignorant to not even respond to multiple messages sent to them

Avoid this chain if you don't want to get scammed

I visit quite a few Shepard and Neame pubs but was very disappointed that they didn’t take cash in The Albion, I will not be going to The Albion in Broadstairs again.

Have wanted to try Horse & Groom in Wilmington for a long time and had signed up to the emailing list.
I recieved a “free meal” for my birthday and was sent a voucher.
I eagerly booked with my friend to come to the restaurant for a nice birthday lunch and surprise surprise, Go to load the voucher and it doesnt work. Spoke to the manager and offered to show my ID to prove it was my birthday, even showed the email to her and she refused to honour it. Ive then had to email the company (by which time any reply would be too late because I already had to pay) ive now been sent a new voucher that does load (conveniently after already spending money there) and they wont refund me my birthday meal even if I send them a copy of the receipt (shock)
The reason for my review is that I feel its so trashy for companies to offer deals and “free meals” which actually arent real and the alone deserves a 0 star. Oh and the chicken was dry!

Booked a table online for 8.30 pm and when we arrived they handed us menus, 5 minutes later the waiter came over and said we don't have some items on the menu and then named at least 50% of the menu they did not have, we chose two main courses but when the waiter came back he said "oh I knew there was another meal we didn't have" which was one that we had chosen. we chose another meal and 10 minutes later a waitress came to the table and said "sorry we don't have any home made burgers" with this we got up and walked out, they had less than 25% of the menu available. I complained to Jonathan Neame the Chief Executive and frankly his reply was astounding. Avoid at all costs.

Service was good but steak was not very good. We had a birthday voucher get 1 main meal free. Just as well, as they were charging £21.95 for a sirloin steak.But, the steak was mostly unedible fat, and chewy bits, I estimate that about 3oz out of 8oz was OK, not even my cat would eat the leftovers. As I got 2 for 1 it wasn't too bad, but had I been paying full price ir simply was not up to par. Staff and service though, lovely. But won't be be ordering their chewy steak next time I go.

I arranged a lunch for 20 people at The Old Doctor Butlers head in the City of London. The facilities were excellent in a lovely old world atmosphere. Private room first class and the food of good quality and served hot. Special dietary needs were taken care of.
The communication with the management was first class.

Always love the bottled ales - Bishops Finger, Spitfire, Master Brew. Great Kentish beers. My one niggle is they should bottle them in brown glass as they can be affected by light. Great to have them on line, although prices are obviously higher than in the shops

The order process was very easy and delivery was fast!