My friends and I dined at the pub/restaurant for about 3 hours. I vividly remember saying to my friends âwow, this is incredible. People are so quick to leave negative reviews when things go wrong at restaurants, we need to make sure we leave a good review because this has been phenomenalâ⌠within a few minutes of saying that my review went from 5* to 1* (lower, if I could).
We arrived at 4pm. Seated promptly. Incredibly clean and our waitress was lovely! She couldnât do enough for us and was quite honestly, along with the food, the saving Grace of this place. Unfortunately I didnât get her name but she was very attentive.
We sat, we ordered drinks, ordered our roast dinners and ate. We didnât know there was a time limit on the table to be honest (our own fault, we hadnât looked online hard enough, but in our defence, this hadnât been explained upon arrival either). After we had finished our dinner we ordered a few more drinks (I believe we ended up spending about ÂŁ142). We were drinking and a waiter, who hadnât served us up until this point, came up to the table and said we had half an hour left on the table as they needed the table back - absolutely not a problem! We were enjoying ourselves and hadnât realised 1) how long we had been in there for and 2) that theyâd need the table back soon for other guests. I would say about 25 minutes later we started to finish our drinks, we were a party of 4, we hadnât ordered anymore drinks and had requested the bill. We had paid and 2 of us had gone to the toilet whilst the other 2 stayed at the table to wait for them to come back, we were putting our coats on and bags on and clearly finishing up. The waiter then came back over, and unleashed such a level of rudeness, it wasnât until we got outside that we really embraced what had just happened to us and how unbelievably ill-mannered this waiter had been to us. He told us that we had had the table for 3 hours and needed to leave, usually people only get 2 hours (he had told us 25 minutes ago we needed to leave in 30 minutes and were clearly in the process of doing so, putting our coats on and getting up etc). He then said I could finish my last sip of wine at the sofas near the bar (which was cluttered with someone elseâs empty glasses) I said âno, itâs fine, Iâll just drink itâ, I actually thought he was joking due to how little was left so I laughed. Anyway, I finish it whilst he was clearing our glasses. It wasnât until he suddenly turned and said âIâve been nice up until this point but now youâre annoying everyoneâ that I realised he wasnât joking! He was behaving as though he had asked us to leave and we were staying and ordered more drinks, we were clearly getting ready to leave. At this point, we were embarrassed so my friend and I got up to stand in the middle of the pub to wait for our friends to finish up in the loos, probably making other guests uncomfortable as we just loitered, but we had been pushed out of our seats so had no choice. As we stood there, the waiter bellowed to the poor young lovely waitress âTHAT TABLE NEEDS TO BE CLEANED IMMEDIATELYâ, I wish I could say I was shocked at the way he spoke to his colleague but at this point I had realised how sharp, unpleasant and impolite this man was. I strongly believe in tipping service staff and upon seeing the bill was delighted that a service charge was added to our bill as at that point, the staff deserved it. However I now wish it wasnât added because I would like to have given our waitress the tip, it seems a shame she has to share it with a colleague who, while she provided us with exemplary service, was horrendous. Hopefully this isnât the case and she receives the full tip. Anyway, food was incredible, service by our waitress outstanding, pub decorated lovely, incredibly clean, state of the art ordering system however all of this has been let down by one person. I like to take everything into consideration when writing a review, I weigh up EVERYTHING that happened but Iâm afraid to say this one worker has let you down and turned a 5*...
   Read moreReview: 5/5 â A Pub So Perfect It Feels Like Coming Home to a Hug From the Universe
If pubs were cathedrals, this would be the Sistine Chapel of pints and pork scratchings. From the moment I stepped through the low, creaking door, I was embraced by a warmth so deep and so pure I nearly wept. The lighting? Golden. Not âbulb goldenâ but âsunset spilling across a field of wheat as a choir of angels hum softly in the distanceâ golden.
The bartender, Dave â or Saint Dave, as I shall henceforth call him â didnât just pour me a drink. No. He bestowed upon me a hand-pulled ale so perfectly balanced, so miraculously foamy, I couldâve sworn I heard a harp. Each sip was like being wrapped in a cashmere blanket and kissed gently on the forehead by every good decision Iâve ever made.
The atmosphere? Imagine the platonic ideal of comfort. If the concept of âbelongingâ could be distilled into a scent, it would be this pubâs faint blend of wood smoke, citrusy hops, and the intangible magic of memories waiting to be made. The old man at the bar told me a story about how he met his wife here in 1967 and I cried into my pie. And what a pie. Steak and ale that tasted like it had been simmering for a thousand years in the cauldron of some ancient god of pastry.
The toilets were cleaner than my soul. The music? Acoustic covers of classics, played just softly enough to let conversation bloom like spring flowers between strangers destined to become friends.
I left three hours later, blinking into the cold night like a newborn deer, unsure how the world outside could ever hope to compare. If I could marry this pub, I would. If I could bottle it and carry it in my coat pocket for rainy days, Iâd never be sad again.
To say I recommend it is like saying the stars are âquite nice.â This is not a pub. It is...
   Read moreArrived for a pre-booked table on Sunday 7th Sept at 7.30pm for food and drink. No signage or directions, but found the bar, which had no server for approx 3mins.
Only about six tables in use.
We were shown to a table by Josi, between two guys and a family of 5, including a somewhat unrestful baby.
Menus left (shortened Sunday ones) and Jodi returned 5 mins later - sociable and easy to have banter with. Drinks arrived within 2 mins.
Food arrived after about 15 mins. My fish and chips was mixed state - the thick cut chips were gorgeous, hot, and crispy. However, the fish was cremated - extremely hard to cut the âhard shelledâ fish and the fish was very dry and chewy. Clearly been in a deep fat fryer for too long. Not worth ÂŁ19.25
My wife had the Crispy Skinned Roast Chicken dinner. However, they had poured gravy over the Crispy Skin, so it was soggy - my wife left over half as the gravy was also barely warm. The two strips of parsnip were rock hard and hard to cut and chew - query pre-cooked and microwaved.
We decided against a desert given the poor food quality and the rising vocal status of the baby at our side.
The chef (an Asian lady) and another guy not wearing a hair net or hat were hugging in the kitchen area - maybe how they forgot to take my fish out of the fat fryer.
Overall, considering they call themselves a gastro pub, we were extremely disappointed - not helped by paying ÂŁ9.10 for a glass of red wine.
The only real positive was Josi - pleasant, sociable and always on the move. Cost me ÂŁ65 plus ÂŁ22 in taxis....
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