The Carpenters Arms — Restaurant in Basingstoke and Deane

The food was average, but the service was appalling. There were many errors, but I didn’t think much of each of them at the time. However, when looking at them all together it really was a bad experience. We had booked a large group well in advance and pre-placed our orders from the menu provided. We were greeted at the door with a list of things which were not available, and even the manager had to tell the waiter off in front of us to suggest that we be seated before going through those things rather than confront us at the door. As the afternoon went on, there were more more things which it transpired were not available - Seemingly in an excuse to charge more for substitutes. Even then we were ‘told’ what we were having as substitutes rather than being asked. Some of the drinks were wrong; we didn’t bother complaining about that, but it just got worse. The service was very slow. One of our group complained about some of their dish being undercooked and the waiter simply walked off. No apology or even acknowledgement. This is despite the fact that the waiter actually asked how the meal was so the complaint was in response to his question, but he couldn’t have cared less about the answer. The icing on the cake is that I only realised once I got home that, having been told (rather than asked) that I would be having a sirloin steak because they were out of bavette steaks, they had the cheek to charge me the Supplement. They also charge me the higher price for drinks, which they got wrong. It’s seems a Mickey take that they added a hefty service charge when service was so poor. I would never paid that, and I known of the overcharging. A shame as we have had Christmas lunch for our whole team before, so for a large group, and were planning to return this year, but there is absolutely no chance of that. We will not be...

My partner and I, and our two dogs, came to stay while visiting family in Newbury. We were only going to be using the room as a base, to then spend a weekend seeing my parents and walking the dogs, but due to circumstances beyond our control, we ended up extending our stay and spending 5 days pretty much confined to the Carpenters Arms.

This, however, was in no way a hardship!

The room was ideal for our needs, with the usual TV, Kettle, ironing board etc. it had a large ensuite, spacious shower cubicle, luxurious bed and French doors opening out to a view of the large pub garden. This gave us easy access to a space for feeding, training and entertaining the dogs, as well as access to our car.

The location is in a beautiful village, with quick and easy access to major road networks and the local town, but in the countryside enough for you to enjoy wildlife during the day and dark starry nights.

The complimentary breakfast quality and selection exceeded our expectations, and the lunch&dinner services were equally impressive with the quality and presentation. Of particular note were the specials, with their pies being made fresh daily in house!

There is a small, dedicated team, who were endlessly kind and helpful, with hands-on owners who you will see working hard wherever and whenever they need to making sure their high standards are maintained.

We have travelled a lot with our dogs, and have stayed in a variety of very nice places up&down the country. James&Alex and their team far exceeded every expectation in their quality of service, friendliness and care during a very difficult time for us. They have raised the bar, and set a new standard that I do not expect to be matched by any other establishment for a very very long time.

I cannot wait to visit...

We chose the Carpenters Arms so we could visit Highclere Castle. Upon arrival we were greeted by two cheerful members of staff who were so friendly and asked about our reason for visiting (in a very pleasant manner and not oh no more Downton Abbey tourists!!)

We were some 4 hours early for check in and understandably our room wasn't ready so we got a couple of drinks and sat in the picturesque beer garden and enjoyed the view.

We were shown to our room which was so full of charm and uniqueness. The gentleman showed us around the room pointing out the essentials including complimentary snacks tea coffee and water it was a win as the rocky road bars left were delicious.

We booked a table for dinner and wow the food was tasty and such good value for money.

We were lucky to have booked in on a quiz night and what fun it was. We were initially worried it would be a serious quiz and we may do dismally but the quiz was so well constructed everyone had a chance to get some points on the board. Andy the quizmaster was welcoming too.

We even managed to come second which was a great achievement for the pair of us.

As there was also a 16th birthday celebration the same night we even got offered some cake which was a bonus

We then had a wonderful night's sleep and woke up refreshed and ready for our breakfast which again was tasty

This place is a real gem and so close to Highclere Castle so much so we will be back again next year.

The...