As we had friends over for the day, we thought we should probably  interrupt the drinking with some food. We’ve been to the Herbert Kilpin a number of times for the great selection of craft beer but we’ve never eaten there so thought we’d give it a whirl.

We had brunch a just a few hours earlier  (🐷) so decided to share a few small plates. From the menu, we chose the baked Camembert box with garlic, rosemary and red wine which came with crusty bread. We also ordered the white bait with alioli dip and a bowl of fries.

The camembert was warm and gooey as you’d expect with a strong garlic and rosemary flavour. I’m not sure the red wine added much though. This tasted amazing when eaten with the crusty bread. The only issue we had was there were large chunks of garlic in there which we would prefer to be chopped smaller – it was a surprise when you crunched down on one!

The whitebait came breadcrumbed and  and were a bit dry for my taste and didn’t taste fishy enough. We’ve had more delicious whitebait/crispy sprats at Loch Fyne. The dip though was really good though and I did end up dipping the fish in the camembert. Is that weird?

The chips were good if not slightly on the lukewarm side –  pretty standard but well cooked and well seasoned. These also ended up dipped in the cheese. Mmm

Our friends both ordered the Kilpin burger. They said it was a good patty and the red pepper sauce was really tasty. The only gripe they had was that the burger was £9 and didn’t come with chips so they had to spend another £3.25 each for these. At that price I would expect to be served fries on the side.

In conclusion, the Kilpin offers an ok menu for drinkers, with some gems, but we’re not convinced it’s a food destination yet. We did enjoy the food and think the small plates are worth a go but we wouldn’t take friends for a sit down meal again. The price also felt really too steep. The beer selection is great though so grab some mates, order yourselves a cracking craft beer, shoot the breeze and eat something tasty and quick to line your tum tums – that experience we definitely can vouch for. 

Overall score: 7/10

Experience: 8/10

Food: 5/10

Beers: 9/10

Value: 4/10

Service: 9/10

Atmosphere and surroundings: 9/10

Emily and Stuart