For beer drinkers in Petts Wood, the Daylight used to be the slightly posher pub.
Sure, there was always a wine bar round the corner but it wasn’t a pub.
Now the villagers have the excellent One Inn the Wood micropub which is even more refined, by which I mean it has nice furniture and you may have to take out a mortgage to buy a sausage roll.
Seriously though, I love it.
The upshot of this is that it’s left the Daylight in somewhat of a middle ground and, on paper, I was starting to struggle to see its raison d’etre.
Then I went back and it all made sense.
The building is still striking – one of the best in Petts Wood. Inside is airy with lots of varied seating and standing room while it offers the most enticing outside dining space in the village. It’s on the posh side too, so that makes you feel a little smug.
On all of those grounds, it beats the Sov.
The Daylight has, however, always had a bit of a reputation for being pricey so I did hang on til payday before slipping through the doors.
While it will never compete for price with the Wetherspoons over the bridge, it’s not actually bank busting.
There are enough decent ales behind the bar (though not as many as either the Sov or One Inn the Wood) and the food menu is stuffed with classic and interesting fare.
For a long while, Shopper reporters have lunched at the Daylight and the food is always pretty good. There’s a myriad of offers too. If you sign up online you can get £5 off, if you order a burger and drink you can get something else off, if you order two of the right meals they’re just £8.49.
Of course, all of this makes ordering a bit like a maths puzzle or a Playstation cheat. Tap circle, circle, square, R1 and they’ll give you’ll get infinity lives.
Luckily, the requisite ‘would you like to go large for another 30p’ was all made bearable but some actual human interaction from friendly bar staff.
And before long we were able to tuck in to some decent tucker in the suntrap of a garden. Not a bad way to spend a lunchtime.
The Daylight Inn, Station Square, Petts Wood
How it rated:
Decor **** Lovely building
Atmosphere *** Reasonable enough, depending on the day and time
Staff **** Friendly
Food **** Reliably good
Drink *** Decent range
Price *** Not as expensive as feared
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