Nine pubs, hotels and restaurants around Dartford open on Christmas Day 2026, from £61.99 at the Bull to £145 at Rowhill Grange. Updated November 2026.
Nine pubs, hotels and restaurants in and around Dartford are open on Christmas Day 2026, and this guide puts their prices, deposits and booking deadlines in one place. The cheapest menu is at the Bull at Horns Cross (£61.99 with a glass of fizz), the one in the town centre is the Royal Victoria and Bull Hotel (£79), and most of the village pubs, from the Lion at Farningham to the Horse and Groom at Wilmington, sit between £105 and £115. Every entry was checked against the venue’s own site on 8 November 2026.
Christmas Day is a Friday this year. No trains run that day, so plan a lift, a taxi or a walk home; our Christmas trains and travel page has the details. Almost every booking needs a deposit and a pre-order, and the payment deadlines start on 1 December. Prices are per adult unless we say otherwise.
Dartford and Greenhithe
1. The Royal Victoria and Bull Hotel, High Street
The Royal Victoria and Bull is the old coaching inn at the top of the High Street, and the town-centre choice for Christmas Day lunch this year. The hotel’s Christmas Day menu is three courses for £79.
Starters are a confit duck bonbon, garlic and chilli tiger prawns, fried Camembert or a sage and chestnut sausage roll; mains are traditional roast turkey with pigs in blankets, roast aged sirloin of beef with Yorkshire pudding, salmon en croûte or a stuffed aubergine with feta and pomegranate. Puddings include Christmas pudding with brandy custard, a crème brûlée and a Baileys and white chocolate cheesecake.
The hotel says spaces are limited. Before the day, its festive menu is £25.95 for two courses or £29.95 for three.
Price Christmas Day 3 courses £79; festive menu 2 courses £25.95, 3 courses £29.95
Booking call the hotel; it says spaces are limited
Call 01322 224415
Address 1 High Street, Dartford, DA1 1DU
Website royalvictoria.southcoastinns.co.uk
Good for town centre, vegetarian main, hotel rooms upstairs, walking distance from the station
2. Miller and Carter, Princes Road
Miller and Carter is the steakhouse on Princes Road, open until 11pm on Christmas Day according to its Christmas page. Its Christmas Day menu is £109.95 a head and starts with Miller’s sourdough to share.
Starters include a twice-baked cauliflower and Camembert soufflé, a prawn and smoked salmon cocktail and a duck, port and brandy parfait; the centrepiece is “the steak experience”, with a turkey main for anyone who wants the traditional dinner. The young guests’ Christmas Day menu is from £49.95.
A bottle of Moët is offered as an add-on at £50.
Open Christmas Day until 11pm
Price Christmas Day £109.95, young guests from £49.95
Booking £10 per person deposit; full payment and pre-order by 1 December
Call 01322 287766
Address 522 Princes Road, Dartford, DA2 6NQ
Website millerandcarter.co.uk/restaurants/london/millerandcarterdartford/christmas
Listing Our listing
Good for steak, children's Christmas menu, evening sittings
3. The Bull, Horns Cross
The Bull is the mock-Tudor Greene King pub on London Road at Horns Cross, between Stone and Greenhithe, and it has the lowest bookable Christmas Day price around Dartford. Its Christmas Day page and menu offer three courses and a glass of fizz or orange juice for £61.99.
Mains are hand-carved turkey with two Yorkshire puddings and a pig in blanket, a flame-grilled 8oz sirloin topped with pigs in blankets, grilled salmon with king prawns, or a mushroom, Camembert and garlic bake. Children get three courses and an orange juice for £24.99, and a menu with no gluten-containing ingredients is published too.
Price Christmas Day 3 courses and a welcome drink £61.99, children £24.99
Booking £10 deposit per adult, £5 per child; pre-order from the Christmas menu
Call 01322 382006
Address 292 London Road, Horns Cross, Greenhithe, DA9 9DA
Website greeneking.co.uk/pubs/kent/bull/christmas/christmas-day
Listing Our listing
Good for lowest price here, welcome drink included, children's menu, no-gluten menu
Wilmington
4. The Horse and Groom, Leyton Cross Road
The Horse and Groom is the Shepherd Neame pub on Leyton Cross Road, and its online menus carry the most elaborate Christmas Day lunch among the village pubs: five courses for £110, “carefully crafted to showcase the finest locally sourced produce and our brewing heritage”. It opens with amuse-bouches including a smoked salmon roulade cured with the brewery’s Iron Wharf stout, and the mains run from Larchwood Farm roast turkey to fillet of beef, lamb cutlets, halibut and a vegan beetroot and chestnut Wellington.
The children’s Christmas Day menu is four courses for £60.
Price Christmas Day 5 courses £110, children's 4 courses £60
Booking through the pub's website
Call 01322 290056
Address 15 Leyton Cross Road, Wilmington, DA2 7AP
Website horseandgroomwilmington.co.uk
Listing Our listing
Good for five courses, children's Christmas menu, vegan main, dogs in the bar and garden
5. Rowhill Grange, Rowhill Road
Rowhill Grange is the Alexander Hotels country house and spa off Top Dartford Road, and it is the dearest Christmas Day lunch around Dartford. Its festive dining page lists two.
The five-course lunch in RG’s restaurant, with canapés and a glass of fizz on arrival, is £145 and is “currently operating a waitlist”. The family lunch in the Clockhouse (£110, children 5 to 12 £45, under-5s free) is marked sold out.
If you miss out on the day itself, the hotel still has a Christmas Eve dinner with a Champagne reception at £70 and a Boxing Day tasting menu at £75.
Price Christmas Day in RG's £145 (waiting list); Clockhouse lunch £110, children 5 to 12 £45 (sold out); Christmas Eve £70; Boxing Day £75
Booking online through the hotel's festive dining page
Call 01322 615136
Address Rowhill Road, Wilmington, DA2 7QH
Website alexanderhotels.co.uk/rowhill-grange/rowhill-grange-christmas-dining
Good for country house hotel, Christmas Eve dinner, Boxing Day, spa
Along the Darent valley
6. The Lion, Farningham
The Lion is the Vintage Inns pub beside the River Darent and the old brick bridge at Farningham. Its Christmas page offers Christmas Day lunch or dinner from £104.95 a head and £42.50 for children, three courses each.
Mains include hand-carved turkey breast with a pig in blanket, roast duck, lamb, monkfish, 50-day aged Black Angus beef and a vegan truffled mushroom Wellington. A £10 a head deposit secures the table; full payment and the pre-order are due by 8 December, and tables of seven or more pay a 10% discretionary service charge.
Price Christmas Day 3 courses from £104.95, children £42.50
Booking £10 per person deposit; full payment and pre-order by 8 December; 10% service charge for seven or more
Call 01322 860621
Address High Street, Farningham, DA4 0DP
Website vintageinn.co.uk/restaurants/east/thelionfarningham/christmas
Listing Our listing
Good for riverside, lunch or dinner sittings, children's Christmas menu, vegan main
7. The Fighting Cocks, Horton Kirby
The Fighting Cocks is the riverside pub and restaurant on The Street in Horton Kirby. Its Christmas page links this year’s Christmas Day menu at £105 a head: canapés on arrival, starters such as smoked salmon and lobster mousse or haggis bon bons, mains of roast turkey with pigs in blankets, dry-aged ribeye, pan-seared hake, a festive nut roast or a vegan butternut squash cannelloni, then Christmas pudding, and coffee with mince pies.
It asks for a bigger deposit than anywhere else here, half the bill at booking, and adds a 12.5% discretionary service charge.
Price Christmas Day £105; 12.5% discretionary service charge
Booking 50% deposit per person at booking; call, email thefightingcockshk@gmail.com or call in
Call 01322 862299
Address The Street, Horton Kirby, DA4 9BY
Website fightingcockshortonkirby.co.uk/christmas
Listing Our listing
Good for riverside, canapés and mince pies included, vegan main
8. The Plough, Eynsford
The Plough is the white-painted riverside pub by the ford at Eynsford, a few minutes up the valley from Farningham. Its Christmas Day menu is four courses for £115, starting with rustic breads, then starters such as baked seafood thermidor, crispy pork belly and French onion soup.
The mains are hand-carved turkey, braised ox cheek, pan-roasted halibut, a 21-day aged fillet steak, venison haunch steak and a sweet potato and chestnut roast that comes in a vegan version, followed by Christmas pudding, a bourbon apple tatin or cheese and biscuits. The children’s Christmas Day menu is three courses for £57.95.
It is the only menu served on the day.
Price Christmas Day 4 courses £115, children 3 courses £57.95
Booking £10 per person non-refundable deposit
Call 01322 862281
Address 24 Riverside, Eynsford, DA4 0AE
Website theploughinneynsford.co.uk/christmas
Good for riverside by the ford, children's Christmas menu, vegan main, Boxing Day menu
Already full
9. The Bear and Ragged Staff, Crayford
The Bear and Ragged Staff is the Greene King pub at the Crayford end of London Road, and its Christmas Day menu was one of the cheapest around Dartford at £57.95 for three courses, with a children’s menu at £27.95. Its Christmas Day page now says the pub “is now fully booked for Christmas Day”.
It is worth a call nearer the time in case a table comes free.
Price Christmas Day 3 courses £57.95, children £27.95 (fully booked)
Call 01322 522906
Address 2 London Road, Crayford, DA1 4BH
Website greeneking.co.uk/pubs/kent/bear-and-ragged-staff/christmas/christmas-day
Listing Our listing
Good for beer garden, children's menu
How we chose
These are the pubs, hotels and restaurants around Dartford that publish a Christmas Day 2026 menu with a price on their own website, from the town centre out along the Darent valley to Eynsford. Brandshatch Place at Fawkham and the Ship at Southfleet are not here yet: the Ship’s only Christmas menu online is last year’s, and Brandshatch Place’s festive page would not load to confirm this year’s price. Wetherspoon’s Flying Boat serves its Christmas menu on every day except Christmas Day. Run a place that should be here, or spot something that has changed? Email newsdesk@dartfordonline.co.uk. Taken a good photograph of any of these places? Email it to newsdesk@dartfordonline.co.uk and we will add it with your name as the credit.
If Christmas Day is booked up, our Christmas dinner guide has the festive menus that run through December, and Sunday roast in Dartford covers the rest of the year. For the season, see the Dartford Christmas lights switch-on, the Orchard Theatre pantomime, Bluewater Winterland, ice rinks near Dartford, what’s on in Dartford this month and things to do in Dartford, or browse pubs in our directory.
Frequently asked questions
Which pubs near Dartford are open on Christmas Day 2026?
In town, the Royal Victoria and Bull Hotel on the High Street and Miller and Carter on Princes Road serve Christmas Day lunch. Around the town, the Bull at Horns Cross, the Horse and Groom at Wilmington, the Lion at Farningham, the Fighting Cocks at Horton Kirby and the Plough at Eynsford all publish Christmas Day 2026 menus. Rowhill Grange has a waiting list, and the Bear and Ragged Staff in Crayford is fully booked.
How much is Christmas Day lunch in Dartford in 2026?
£61.99 with a glass of fizz at the Bull, £79 at the Royal Victoria and Bull, £104.95 at the Lion, £105 at the Fighting Cocks, £109.95 at Miller and Carter, £110 for five courses at the Horse and Groom, £115 for four courses at the Plough and £145 at RG’s, Rowhill Grange.
When do I need to pay for Christmas Day lunch?
Most places take a deposit when you book and want the balance and a pre-order in early December: Miller and Carter by 1 December and the Lion by 8 December. The Fighting Cocks takes a 50% deposit at booking.
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