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Gracelands Palace, 3, Cumberland Walk, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN1 1UJ


3, Cumberland Walk, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN1 1UJ

01892 540754

There were 30 of us revellers, a belated xmas meal arranged by a friend of ours anticipation hung in the air, we had all bought our cheesy secret Elvis presents and looked forward to an evening of drinking and eating while singing out of tune along with the chinese Elvis, the chinese Elvis was certainly something to sing along with, while attempting your best lip curling Elvis take off, and indeed it caused a titter amongst us all but after the initial amusement the novelty soon wore off and the need for fine wine and MSG soon kicked in, the wine was poor and in bottles labelled GRACELANDS, Elvis was obviously now into shaking his thang up and down the vines of some vineyard in Kent or they were topping up bottles with the cheapest plonk out of boxes just to enhance the whole Elvis experience. After consuming enough wine to start a large utility truck it was time to bring on the much anticipated Elvis Chinese Fayre, presentation was basically of the school dinner variety and one dish ( I believe it was the beef with spring onion) was so bad that literally none of us '30' could face it even after the unique GRACELANDS beverage, the rice was cold and served in large bowls, there was barely enough crispy duck to feed a mouse, and being as the table AND menu had been booked since before christmas it's not like they had no time to prepare for our arrival (we are now the middle of January)!! This whole experience cost us around £30 incl. wine, no dessert, I could barely eat anything apart from the crispy duck, the cucmber and spring onion were the only things that looked fresh. This Elvis guy has become a cult and rides on the success of this which is why the cutting corners on the food front has continued to happen, when going up for the obligatory karaoke song my 'voice of a eunuch tuneful, better half' does a fantastic Bee Gee's 'Tragedy' and was asked for his autograph by adoring fans afterwards perhaps we should start up a place called 'Masachussets' over the road and just serve drinks (minus the 'Masachussets' label). DISGRACELANDS - Don't bother if you like good food or good wine or even if you enjoy listening to tuneful music........ Hans Bonanze 2005
By m at 09/02/2006 - 11:53 | 2000 | Chinese | England | Kent | Rejected | Review | ££££/$$$$ | add new comment | 419 reads

You are paying and you be the boss!

A night out at Gracelands can be a bit of a mixed bag. The place is more famous for parties and Paul "Evis" Chan swinging his hips. Whether you call that singing is another matter, but plenty of people come for the laugh. On a busy night, the atmosphere is good, but Fridays are a better bet if you want a decent table. The drinks are not cheap, but nothing special and the food is a bit of a gamble. It can either be pretty good or truly awful. The set menus are a major problem as the management prefers people to have those instead of ordering from the a la carte. The these set menus aren't cheap. So what you should do is to book in advance and state that you want to order from the a la carte menu. It is best to go there and order a few ribs and some duck, than a lot of food you are not wanting to eat. The management get all huffy and puffy if you do that, but you are paying, so you ought to decide what you want and not what they want. From a glance, the place looks a like a shrine to Elvis, on closer inspection, it is really tacky. Gracelands is a bit of a gamble, but far more interesting than any other Chinese restaurant in the Tunbridge Wells area. Note that a lot of hen and stag nights are staged at Gracelands, so if you are thinking of bringing children, beware.
By Racing Green at Wed, 20/12/2006 - 17:18 | reply

Gracelands

has now closed due to a fire.

By m at Mon, 07/01/2008 - 15:31 | reply

Gracelands becomes the Cumberland

This has closed very recently and is now known as "The Cumberland" with the slogan, "Elvis has very definitely left the building!" The food is reported to me to have still been very bad, which may explain the closure. There is however a different Elvis impersonator (SAL) appearing at the Raj Pavilion in the town. Livindoll

By m at Wed, 06/02/2008 - 11:07 | reply