Hoptics, West Wickham

The West Wickham Real Ale Way is very much your standard micropub: a square room with stools and ledges around the perimeter and a few low and high tables squeezed into the middle; most are taken, such is the popularity. 7 ales brewed in Kent were listed on the board when I visited, as well as a single lager in Westerham's Helles Belles. There's a list of ciders, also sourced from just over the border, if that's your preference. Prices are keen with most of the cool-room stored cask giving you change from a fiver and the quality is, naturally, excellent. Good place and worth a visit, whether your bus is diverted or not.

Just over 3 years after my visit to the Real Ale Way in Hayes, I was looking forward to trying the West Wickham version. Having been suitably impressed with the Hayes pub and awarding it an 8/10, I found this one to be slightly better still. This one is much brighter inside and has a more welcoming feel. The real ale range was good, with Tonbridge Traditional Ale & Larkin's Pale Ale being the regular beers. In addition, there was Larkin's Porter, Tonbridge Countryman, Mad Cat Crispin, Kent Green Ernest & Pig and Porter Albedo. Ciders were Biddenden Dry, Medium, Bushels & Monk's Delight, Kent Cider Company Toffee Apple Cider, Rhubarb Cider, Lemon Cider & Waken & Dudda's Tun Bone Dry, Cherry Cider, Salted Caramel Cider & Elderflower cider. Remarkably, all ales and ciders were from Kent. The full list is displayed on blackboards to the side of the bar. When I asked for a snack to accompany my beer, the barman reeled off a long list of different offerings. I opted for some kind of baked cheese snack with caramelised onions. Although, I'm not sure it was the best accompaniment to my porter! Inside is a single room with toilets to the rear left and the bar and cold room to the rear right. Tables in the windows offer the opportunity to watch the world go by, whilst sofas are available for those who wish to become even more comfortable. Slightly better than the Hayes version, but I'll stick to my score of 8/10 for this one too. Note that despite being on Station Road, it's a good 7-10 minute walk to the railway station.

The newest venue in this small chain of micropubs (see also: Hayes and Westeram), this is a typically compact, single room affair, with a decent location between West Wickham High Street and station. The pub occupies a nice old shop unit with a great little entrance porch with art-deco style front doors and a pleasant mosaic tile entrance step. Inside, things are a little blander, with the decor taking a leaf straight out of the Hayes’ branch’s book. There are exposed floorboards throughout, broken by a few strange strips of carpet here and there, plain painted walls decorated with slightly more contemporary-styled paintings, photos and the like, some of which were for sale, and a decent servery to the rear. The bar has a nice dark wood counter, perhaps salvaged from another pub, and a simple mirrored bar back on a red painted wall with beer boards to the right. The room is of a decent enough size and can accommodate a good deal of seating in the form of high tables and drinking ledges with bar stools through the centre and to the left, some upholstered benches in the front window and a mix of basic tables with chairs and low stools elsewhere. The front window has a frosted pane with the pub’s name picked out across it and the whole feel of the place was of a traditional pub shrunk down to micropub proportions. There was a good sized mid-week crowd in too, with only one unoccupied table remaining when I arrived, which I quickly took advantage of. As with its sister pub, there is a good selection of cask ales available on gravity from the temperature controlled taproom behind the bar. The selection on this visit was Tonbridge Traditional Ale (a house beer) and Coppernob, Larkins Pale and Porter, Wantsum Imperium and Fortitude, and Mad Cat Golden Ale. The beer boards also indicated no less than thirteen real ciders were available to choose from as well! I gave the Porter a try, served to me by an efficient and cheery hipster barman, and thought it was in great shape. This is a really good micropub that serves a neighbourhood devoid of any serious beer options and relatively under-pubbed for its size. The place seems to have won over plenty of people and with the prospect of some interesting Kentish ales kept in tip-top condition, I’d say this was worth making a bit of effort to seek out.