Kent Dining Pub of the Year Finalist: The Tiger Inn

Nestled in the affluent village of Stowting, situated just outside Ashford, The Tiger Inn has become one of Kent’s most popular food and drink destination venues. This beautifully refurbished and restored pub offers fantastic gastro food of the highest quality, utilising Kent’s best products and suppliers.

This ethos is reflected in our drinks offering, with handpicked wines curated by our Master of Wine consultant who works with us to bring the very best wines from Kent and the rest of the globe. Our gin distillers and breweries are typically from Kent, keeping our local sustainability at the forefront of our minds, with additions from further afield based on their taste matching the rest of our offering. The design of the pub is unique and spectacular, matching contemporary and classic design to the highest quality, flowing inside to out.

The Tiger Inn was purchased late 2021, with refurbishments getting under way in March 2021 and completing at the end of May ready for reopening.

Covid-19 affected our industry as well as many others. Waiting on the completion of the pub, on 23rd December 2020 our management team and chefs volunteered with the Hythe Imperial Hotel to feed the truckers who were stuck on the M20, catering for 1,000 people. Throughout the lockdown period, we teamed up with our sister site The Marquis of Granby and routinely visited the elderly and vulnerable with our weekly Meals on Wheels providing more than 450 meals and bringing some homely food created by our chefs to residents within a 15-mile proximity most affected by the restrictions of lockdown. This wasn’t a solo effort by any means. Our butcher, Block and Cleaver, supported us by donating what meat they could for us to create the relevant dishes.

During lockdown, the interior went through a complete transformation, with the bar being relocated to the centre of the pub, utilising dining and drinking space, creating a warmer ambience. The renovations are vast while still paying homage to some of The Tiger Inn’s history with some key memorabilia from previous ownerships and ornaments such as the original sign, which now hangs from one of our internal walls.

The front terrace, which had become a former shadow of its former self, is now a floral masterpiece, with external seating for up to 100 guests creating an atmosphere that is unrivalled within our competitive proximity.

Our food offering is fresh, classic, quirky and diverse and is perfectly in synergy with our front-of-house team and service. Our à La Carte menu is diverse with some of Kent's "pub classics", done at their very best, as well as some more complex dishes created by our team of talented chefs, most of whom have worked in either Rosette or Michelin-starred kitchens. Our USP are the individuals involved, from the management and admin team - kitchen and front-of-house staff, all bring something special, completing our offering.