The Railway Tavern — Restaurant in Chelmsford

James Bragg in the last week I've been going to pubs now since I was 18, I'm now 48, I'm also a big fan of nicely brewed beers and ales. I had just had a lovely evening meal with my two children, and on the way home to Chelmsford station I was caught short. So I thought I would pop into the railway tavern and have a swift half and use the loo.

The pub is quite narrow, I made my way to the back of the pub to use the toilet, as I was half way a door swung open on the bar, I heard someone shouting. "Excuse me" "Excuse me" I didn't look round as I thought I don't know anyone here so it's obviously not for me. I carried on walking, suddenly I realised it was me they wanted. I looked round and this lady obviously the boss, said "Can I help you"? "Where are you going"? Are you meeting someone? All very quick fire and with an aggressive tone. Obviously I was on the back foot, in a place where I didn't know anyone surrounded by locals, and expected to respond to a question that I've never been asked in the 30 years I've ever drank in pubs.

What could I say I thought, so I said, "I'm going to use the toilet. The look on her face said that I wasn't allowed to use the toilet, she looked aggressive and said "You gonna buy a drink"? I replied, " Are you telling me I cannot use the toilet"? She said, in front of her local entourage "This is a public house darling, not a public convenience, if you want a toilet there's a public toilet up the road!

My Sudden urge to wee was gone, but equally a sudden urge to not try one of the pubs nice ales had also gone, I left the pub clearly upset. I got the train back to London and I could't stop thinking about what had happened, this type of in your face customer service is extremely rare, so rare that's I've never experienced this in London. Was it my face? Was it because I was from out of town? Did I look out of place? What was it that upset her so much? Did she have lots of people using the toilets and not buying drinks?

Anyway I shall not be popping into this pub again any time soon, this is the first review I've ever written in my life, I was only motivated to do so because I had suffered such a bad experience. I shall be telling the world how bad this pub is. (I'm a bricklayer by trade so I'm only as good as my last job). A wise man said to my "Jimmy", when you do a great job and the wall looks great and the customer loves your work they will tell a few people, however you do a bad job they will tell ten times the amount of people and you won't get any work. It's all about experience, I believe customer service should be the same, be nice as my mum always said to me, because being nice and polite cost nothing. I did tell her where to go as I left the pub but I think you would agree it...

We popped into the Railway Tavern to have one for the road about 30 mins before closing time. My boyfriend accidentally knocked over his just poured pint of beer over the barman and we could see that the barman was a bit upset about that. We offered to buy him a drink and pay for any cleaning. He politely declined both and adding that he had to drive home. He poured another pint for my boyfriend and didn't charge for the spilt beer which we were very grateful for. It came to chucking out time and we finished our drinks. On our way out, my boyfriend once again offered the barman who had originally served us when we arrived a drink and a cleaning fee, and another barman who we assume might have been the manager piped up and told us to "hurry up and get out and you're not welcome here", to which I responded "wow that's rude". The barman then said "you're not welcome, don't come back". I've no idea what we have done to offend them, but he was very aggressive with his comments. I could understand it if we had done something wrong and we knew we had upset the barman over the spilt beer, but apologises were made at the time and an offer of a drink or cleaning fee was made and it was declined. Therefore it didn't warrant the rudeness we had when we left the pub. We have been going down there on and off for about six years, and we have never experienced this kind of hostility. Dreadful staff and the owners of the Railway Tavern need to...

I went to this pub when I was at university in Chelmsford. This was a long time ago when the university was down the road before it got knocked down and flats put up in its place. Anyway the last time I was in this pub in around 2001, I was there with my university friends having soft drinks in between lecture. The old man behind the counter who is probably the owner, told me off and shouted at me for taking a satsuma out of my bag and eating it! He said 'don't you know that very rude to eat that! What a miserable old man! I didn't know what to say. Was it really worth shouting at me over a satsuma! It's not like I was snorting coke or anything like that. How petty! Since that I never went back there and before that my experience there was good. I think the staff and the miserable old git owner need to be careful with their customer service as the other reviews seem to reflect that. Even if eating a satsuma violated some sort of rule in the put there was a better way of him informing...