Curious Brewery & Taprooms — Attraction in Ashford

This is an honest review as I think its inportant that businesses know why they are half empty on the busiest nights of the week. This place at the beginning used to be amazing, it was exactly what ashford needed an exciting new venue, with amazing staff and a limited but fantastic food and drinks offering that was always consistent in quality, they had a superb front of house manager and everything was superbly executed and it was packed, for quite some time. Time has moved on and now im not sure what is going on, this place has so much potential and yet is totally under acheiving in every respect, menu is ok, but food is fairly tasteless and indifferent, service is mediocre at best, we sat and had a meal, the wine is just dumped on the table and not poured, the waitress did not once during and even at the the end of the meal ask us if it was ok, never checked in for drinks and the music was intermittent, basic stuff that costs them money, we'd probably have had more to drink and because they couldn't be bothered by the time we got asked for dessert we couldnt be bothered to stay. The place was half empty the waitresses didn't have much to do, businesses are making mistakes, maybe because of a fixed 10% service charge, so staff have no incentive to be good anymore?? The potential for this place is huge and im very aware of how hard it is to find good staff and set standards, but with the right management, quality control, motivated staff and a few ideas to draw in the numbers this place could be superb, as it stands decidedly average and not much different to eating at weatherspoons and thats from a regular customer who has watched it progressively deteriorate. I wil not be rushing back anytime soon and im guessing neither will the othee customers who used to pack it out. Business is not hard, if it used to be full all the time and its now half empty, owners please ask yourself what has changed and don't sit on the fence saying ita a sign of the times, ive been to many restaurants lately that are packed and more expensive and arguably with a less impressive venue. Youve dropes the ball....

The one beer that I actually wanted to try and they were out of it! The staff appear far too often to the point where they are like annoying children. I know it wasn't busy but they kept asking if we were ready to order 3 times in the space of about 7 minutes, not sure what the rush was. Did the kitchen staff want to go home? I'm not a regular so had to read the menu top to bottom to see what I wanted to eat, as you would in any other restaurant. The meal arrived quickly as I'd expect with the eagerness of the staff. When we received the meal, within a minute of the sauces being brought over, another member of staff appeared to ask if everything was alright with it. I had only just received it and hadn't even had a chance to taste it at that point. I'm sure they must be running a tag team in the kitchen as to how to annoy customers. The meal was OK, nicely cooked and filling. I'm not sure the reused Wilkins jam pots are a good idea for serving sauces in though as the label had left a sticky residue on it and so I had to hold it with a napkin. A pretty gross feeling to be honest. With all the constant bothering by staff I couldn't relax and felt really rushed. On top of that I couldn't figure out the old collection of record sleeves on display. Almost all of them would be for fans that are now in their 60s and 70s. What type of person are you trying to attract with that? Doesn't seem to even fit with it being a brewery but then I'm not an interior designer or run a brewery so what do I know. Needless to say we were only there for about 45 minutes and left to find somewhere nicer that we would be left alone by staff to enjoy ourselves and our drinks. Is this place worth a visit? Probably yes, if you're in the area. Would I return? Not...

We went along to the Curious Tour as a group of 6 to celebrate a birthday. We were part of a larger group (about 15 total) which was great given that everybody was on the same wave length and up for a laugh!

The tour guide (who's name escapes me but from here will be referred to as "The American") was extremely informative, lighthearted and laid back. His approach made set a relaxed tone from the start.

The tour was reasonably priced and The American really knew his stuff! We got the chance to have a really good look around on a Saturday as production is Monday – Friday. As The American explained, had we have gone during the week we would not have been able to go as deep into the factory as we did. That said, I think you would have gotten more than a good enough view and experience from the top gantry (which we missed out on seeing in production due to it being the weekend)... My point being that there are pro's and con's to going on a Saturday!

After the tour, The American offered up a mixture of 4 beers and ciders for us to sample and explained each ones flavours – they each went down very well!

We (obviously) enjoyed the drinks but we also pleasantly surprised with the restaurant upstairs. Yes, the food was priced a little on the "luxurious" side but you could certainly taste why!

Overall we all agreed that the tour was a fantastic, social way to spend a Saturday evening and the quality of what they are producing is unlike anything else coming out of Ashford right now!

A fantastic...