The story
The Small Holding is a modern British restaurant on Ranters Lane, Kilndown (TN17 2SG), in the Royal Tunbridge Wells area, and it holds three AA Rosettes for 2026. Brothers Will and Matt Devlin opened it in 2018, and much of what reaches the plate grows a few steps from the kitchen door.
The building was once the stables of a seventeenth-century coaching inn, later a community pub. Today the farm grows 180 varieties of produce, using organic, no-dig methods, and also supplies a handful of local restaurants. What the plot can't provide comes from small producers nearby, such as rare-breed pork from a farmer just up the road.
The seasonal British menu changes daily. Choose the seven-course Full Acre, the five-course Half Acre, or the three-course Garden Menu, which runs Thursday to Sunday at lunch and on Thursday and Friday evenings. The Good Food Guide (Very Good, 2026) praised a Maldon rock oyster with lovage cream and halibut with fermented wild garlic. It also singled out hogget served several ways, and an apple sorbet with aged cider vinegar and powdered pine.
Wine and soft drink pairings follow the seasons. The list draws on organic and biodynamic vineyards, with a good selection of Kentish labels.
Recognition
Ambience
Details
History
The winner of our 2020 'Chef to Watch' award has justified the faith we had in him. Not only has Will Devlin opened another restaurant in the area (Birchwood at Flimwell), but he's also built up the marvellously rural Small Holding as a destination with a fondly loyal following. Readers are impressed by the unflustered efficiency with which it is run, and the measurable sense of refinement that has taken place in the cooking. The multi-course menu changes daily, and while the lack of choice may not suit everyone, there’s no doubting the quality of ingredients. What hasn’t been grown or reared on the one-acre plot (on splendid view from the large terrace fronting the simple white-painted building) is sought from small-scale sustainable artisan producers in the area. Nor does the cooking pile on ingredients or decorative bits for the sake of it, but concentrates on essentials. At one meal, a Maldon rock oyster was served with an ‘exceptional’ lovage cream, perfectly timed halibut came teamed with fermented wild garlic, sea herbs and a ‘sweet and delicate’ sauce made with Squerreyes sparkling wine and chives, while hogget (two-year-old lamb) served various ways – pink rump with tenderstem broccoli, sweetbreads glazed with honey, a brioche bun made with hogget fat and stuffed with lamb shoulder – was beyond reproach. Desserts tend to stick to a theme of iced and crumbed things, though an apple sorbet offset by some aged cider vinegar and sprinkled with powdered pine was a masterful play of sweetness and acidity. An enticingly broad-minded, well-sourced wine list includes a good selection of Kentish labels.
3 Rosette Award for Culinary Excellence
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