I tried new £2.99 Wetherspoon’s small breakfast under a huge chandelier at possibly Kent’s most surprising pub

Spoons loves a deal. A quick look at the menus in the Wetherspoon’s pub KentLive visited this week shows just how much. Deals and clubs, Wetherspoon loves – now that’s a jingle-ready line.

There’s mix & match, two for one, three for two, curry club, steak club, Autumn deals, Monday club, real ale Wednesday, deli deals – and that really is naming only a few.

I was at the Opera House in Tunbridge Wells for one of the latest deals – the small breakfast offer launched on September 4, at 650 Wetherspoons across the UK. This is a compact breakfast: a fried egg, a rasher of bacon, a sausage, baked beans and a hash brown.

It’s a great antidote to super-sized, full English affairs which leave you dragging open the side of your mouth with your finger to cram in yet another towering forkful. I tried this ‘bijoux’ brekkie at the Opera House, possibly the most sumptuous or glamorous Spoons in Kent.

This pub has a sell-out opera once a year and the stage, which is used the rest of the year for customer seating, becomes a stage once more, and there is seating in the gods and even the boxes, so get your opera glasses ready.

The vibe

The Opera House, as with I believe all the others in the chain, does not play music, which gets 10/10 from me. At around 10.50am when I got there, I counted around 70 people. There was the pleasing sound of low conversations.

People were actually talking to each other, reading books or newspapers, doing the kind of things people did before mobile phones were invented.

This is a converted opera house, complete with a stage and chandelier. It flabbergasts visitors with its magnificence, its interior shimmering like burnished gold, with deep velvety reds, and of course, the famed Axminster carpet.

It’s a showstopper from the outside, with its Wren-like dome, and long steps up to grand doors. People stepping into the Opera House in Mount Pleasant for the first time can hardly believe their eyes – and I think for locals that feeling remains somewhat.

Seeing me tipping my head up and taking photos, the lovely couple next to me nodded and smiled, knowing I was taking it all in.

The seats are comfortable, and there are lush red banquettes at the sides. It’s peaceful enough, at the time I was there anyway, to have babies with you, and a father was bouncing one on his knee.

The temperature in there was perfect: you only notice things like temperature in a place when they get it wrong, and you’re shivering in a jacket or sweltering.

The food

The breakfast looked exactly the same as the menu photo, apart from the egg being slightly more cooked. The bacon was excellent. The baked beans were good quality. The hash browns were crispy enough and the sausage was herby, which I liked.

It was served on a pretty blue and white ‘countryside’ plate, with cutlery and a napkin. The plate was warm – I am a stickler for a warm plate. It was served by ‘Peter’ who had a megawatt smile and made me feel very welcome.

I noticed him smiling and greeting other people, and thought to myself, ‘give that man a raise’. As was ‘Ed’ who was telling the couple next to me all he knew about the opera event there. And while I am on staff, Ty who served me at the bar, was also extremely pleasant.

The free refill Lavazza coffee is fantastic. It’s only £1.56, and you can refill your mug as often as you wish. I had three! I ate every scrap of my breakfast and I also noticed there was no grease or oil on my plate.

This isn’t organic, free range, provenance-proved, locally-sourced posh nosh. As the gentleman I spoke to said, “it’s good, cheap grub”.

And you can’t get a cup of tea for three quid, so a cooked breakfast with £1.50 for limitless coffee is a winner – especially if you’re looking for warmth and human interaction as the seasons change.

Conclusion

My visit was excellent, not just because the breakfast was perfectly good, but the refillable coffee is such a winner, the surroundings are flippin’ fabulous, the low lighting and gentle conversation is relaxing, and just as important, the staff were lovely.

And if you’re on a budget, say a pensioner, and it’s a belly full of warm food you’re after in somewhere you can seemingly stay for hours, topping up your coffee, and where staff will probably soon learn your name, then don’t miss this.

Get Kent’s latest breaking news and top stories from Tunbridge Wells on WhatsApp