Boar's Head, Aust — Restaurant in England

My wife and I visited this quaint pub outside of Bristol, in the small village of Aust, for a special occasion evening meal. It is a traditional looking pub, with an authentic style of decor.

Whilst the interior atmosphere had a delightfully authentic feel, our dining experience was somewhat disappointing.

Whilst they had floor markings reminding of social distancing and two sanitary stations at the entrance, none of the staff were wearing any PPE. Although we had booked a reservation, there was little effort to space out the seating of guests (in an empty section of the pub where our reserved table resided, another group of two guests was assigned seating to the table right next to us).

The menu selection had a good variety of different starters and main courses. In addition to main courses, they also had a selection of burgers. However, when it came to ordering, the staff seemed unsure of the availability of each of the main dishes we ordered.

At the time of writing and during our visit, we had done our research and saw that Boar's Head participated in the "Eat out to help out" scheme, which was one of our deciding factors for our visit. from a order of two food starters, two main courses and drinks, we only received a discount for one of the cheaper main courses.

When inquired as to why the other main course was not discounted (the rib-eye steak), we were told that because so many people were ordering the rib-eye steak and, I quote, "...taking the pi**", they decided to not give the discount. We were sure that the discount applies to all foods, and understood that any discount the restaurant gives would be reclaimed back from the government. It was disappointing that they chose not to give us the full discount that we were entitled to, which would be at little loss to them.

The main course I selected (pork belly) was beautifully presented, although there was much more mashed potato and marmalade than actual pork. This results in a dish that is primarily sweet and bland, with little of pork belly flavour to experience. I advise caution when requesting meat to be well done, as your steak will come out very well done.

In current times, their COVID-19 management could do well with a revision. Their handling of the "Eat out to take out" scheme was also discouraging (it was their reasons and irrelevant justification given, rather than the lack of discounts, that was most irksome).

Overall, it may be worth the visit for the immersion into the atmosphere of a traditional pub set in the rural countryside. There is on-site parking. I can not comment on the drinking experience, but the food experience was lacking. They could also benefit from improving their response to the pandemic (e.g: PPE provision for all floor staff and to wear them during...

After hearing great things about the place, was sadly set up for disappointment. Promptly greeted with my family on arrival (6.30pm last night) and shown to table, asked for drinks within 5mins. One other table dining in the small area from what we could see - can only assume outside garden area was busy for what was to follow..

Seemed to take too long for drinks to arrive for what I would deem prompt. All staff were friendly enough and you could tell it was a very local pub with that ‘click’ of conversations going on with patrons and I guess one of the owners.

We had only ordered mains for myself, husband and two boys, but time kept ticking away.. After about 40mins there was interaction from a manager/owner who seemed to ott joke about the situation and said “thanks for our patience”..without further explanation as to what’s happening. After a further 20mins (1hr now) and random side order of garlic bread arrived, perhaps in the attempt to appease but should have been part of our mains - so thought yes finally.. kids were starving and thought Mains must be on the way. But no.. a further 20mins mains arrived. Food was good all round - tad overcooked steak to my liking and hard egg yolk, but by this point didn’t mind we were all hungry. Though perhaps providing steak knives would be helpful in future as I did leave half of it as simply couldn’t cut. We were checked back on no less than 4 times whilst trying to eat , where was the interaction & explanations during the last 1hr20mins? Certainly didn’t seem be a front of house staffing issue as a good 6 members where busy embarrassing the lady with happy birthday singing next to us. Something had clearly gone wrong in the kitchen, nearby table who must have arrived just before us had their starters, mains, desserts and paid the bill before we touched a bite. As we were nearing end of meal it was prime time and was busy, other diners being sat and overheard them being told of delays. Would have been nice if we were told of any delays or rather any explanation at all, but simply ignored.

Not sure what we were expecting, but no real apology for crazy wait, no offer of a free drink or any sort of discount on the bill. Kinda left a sour taste about returning. I understand things can go wrong, kitchen staffing issue / unexpected delays but don’t leave customers hanging without a word, give people an informed decision at the start if there is a wait and we could have made an informed decision about staying or going. I’m an ex chef and restaurants manager of 25yrs I know the industry inside and out, just be upfront and honest and I know the tricks - the charm & smiles don’t wash with me, it may be embarrassing for the younger servers to have to deliver bad news to tables - but it would have been more a...

Went here yesterday for a birthday meal for father in law. We'd gone to the effort of pre-ordering mains as advised when booking (party of 12, 7 adults, 5 kids) and whilst the food was reasonable (with the exception of the burgers, which I'll address later) the service was dire/non-existent. Inattentive and slow staff, drinks took an age to come. Asked for some drinks without ice and they arrived half-full. Post mix drinks so literally pennies to fill to the top, and charged a premium for.

Gammon, scampi and curry were good portion sizes, however the burgers were terrible. £15 for a small basket of chips, a tiny bit of limp lettuce in the bun, and such a small piece of Stilton as couldn't be tasted. That was it. No side salad, coleslaw etc. Really poor.

We ordered top up drinks which took on average 45 minutes to arrive, and one Coke must hold the world record for slow delivery as by the time it arrived we'd actually forgotten we ordered it. Terrible experience. We raised it as an issue several times, and nothing was done. It took over 40 minutes to get desert out to us,and even then it arrived in dribs and drabs. Table was booked for 1.30pm and by the time all said and done, we didn't leave until gone 5pm.

Admittedly some of the deserts were removed from the bill, but to be honest we'd rather the pub takes steps to ensure enough fully trained staff are on especially if they are expecting/hosting big parties. A lot of the staff were young people maybe college or late school age, and seemingly poorly trained. One table next to us waited patiently for 1.5 hours only to be told their meal order hadn't been put through to the kitchen. Terrible experience all round, especially when prices...