Craven Arms Pub & Cruck Barn — Restaurant in England

Came here last Sunday as have been recommending this place for months to my friend and their friends. Firstly, the beer is great. And the premises are wonderful, it’s a truly rare and beautiful place to explore and relax.

However, staff are incredibly surly, broaching on rude. Poor signage indicating there is a one way system, no sign at back door to tell you to use front entrance, no sign to make you aware you need to “queue outside!!!!!” (as we heard people repeatedly being told during our visit.) There used to be menu’s on blackboards, these are now just, blank! After standing at the bar, socially distanced, ordering and waiting and paying for drinks, I could’ve surely viewed the 6 or 7 main menu items on the blackboard, rather than having to faff around with a smartphone, qr code scanner, appalling mobile internet reception and then finding a very small notice telling me how to connect to their limited wifi, JUST TO VIEW THEIR (very limited) MENU? And yet, you still have to order and pay at the bar?? All this aside, though not a great start to showing off one of my favourite local hostelries that used to exemplify everything about Yorkshire hospitality, we received our, ahem, food!! When I looked at the menu, and roast beef dinner and trimmings for 15.95 a pop, I thought great! As a manager of 20+ years in hospitality, restaurants, bars and hotels, I understand pricing is important, the 16quid tag indicated superior quality that I’d come to expect from Dan and David and the rest of the CA crew. Oh dear! Oh dear oh dear! Yorkshire pudding was great, homemade, big, fluffy and crispy. Cauli cheese, carrot mash, green cabbage, all done well! But the star attraction, the beef and gravy, was appalling! Using the lowest quality cut of topside rump, it looked and tasted like the rubbish you get from the local con club or backstreet boozer where you can watch hull tigers get trounced on sky sports whilst someone throws another beer mat at your head. I was really hoping to show off the quality homecooking that helped put this place on the map, sirloin of beef, cooked rare, resting over proper fat roasted potatoes with rich, stock gravy, and a nice big dollop of horseradish. Nope, no horseradish either, non, not even in the building, when one of your 7 main courses on your now permanent everyday menu is ROAST BEEF?! Gravy? More like gloop made from own brand granules. And roast potatoes, whilst some obvious effort had been made, the tough rubbery exterior is all the evidence you need that someone was clearly not just cutting corners but was actively driving directly across the grass to avoid the hard work and get back to the straight as quick as possible.

The point is, don’t charge 15.95 for 6.95 experience.

Also the glassware needs some serious cleaning and/or renovate.

Please don’t let your reputation slide just because of current circumstances. Everyone is trying their hardest to spend their money wisely whilst observing rules that keep people safe. Limit your menu, fine, but don’t limit your hospitality...

my wife and I booked a table for two. Saturday 14th July. the pub was packed inside and out when we arrived. we spent 15 minutes queuing up simply to ask where our table was! we were then eventually shown our table, sat down, and then asked what we wanted to eat. " can I see the menu please"? I asked. " there isn't one. you need to look on the board on the wall" came the reply. so up we got, walked back into the bar area and attempted to read the menu on the wall. this was difficult as so many people were in the bar, they were blocking our view. anyway, we eventually saw something, ordered it and when it arrived I asked the waiter if we could order a couple of drinks too. " you have to order from the bar, sorry about that" came the reply and he was gone. the food was in front of us now and we wanted to eat together, not leave one to eat while the other one waited 15 minutes for another drink. also there were lots of flies about and I didn't want to risk them landing on my food. I hurriedly left my meal, managed to( eventually) get the barman to bring us our drinks and returned to my now luke warm dinner. the food itself matched our general experience. the steak pie was nothing special. we were keen to escape the madness of poor service, the crowds and the flies, but we had to pay first. the irony being we had to queue again, for another 15 minutes just to do so. we did in fact leave the pub, sat on the wall outside for about 20 minutes before returning to do the honest thing. this enabled the queue to die down a bit. had we not paid, I don't think anyone would have noticed. I was sorely tempted to not do so, purely because of the poor service, average food, the chaos, the flies and the general bad experience. this may be a lovely pub in a lovely location but our experience here was our worst experience of our whole trip to Yorkshire. luckily my wife is painfully honest. had she not been with me, I'm not sure I...

We booked a meal here as we were camping at the lovely site just down the road. We've been before a few years ago and really enjoyed it and were really looking forward to eating here again.

On arrival our reception was frosty....the chap behind the bar wasn't serving any other customers or engaged in anything in particular yet left us standing there literally 2 feet in front of him whilst he looked down at the bar for about 2 or 3 mins before announcing that he was ready to speak to us.

We eventually were seated at our table....then 20 mins later I returned to the bar to ask for menus. The same chap told us he would bring the menus over and at the same time mentioned that there was a 2 hour turnaround on table bookings. I may be being fussy here but if you want the table turned round in 2 hours then I would expect the onus to be on the restaurant to be on the ball with service so that they turn the table round in time for their next booking...not put it on the customer to be out of there quick enough for them to sell another table.

After another 15 mins or so sitting there with menus we eventually caught the attention of someone to place our order....the waiting staff were perfectly polite but we had to chase pretty much everything....bearing in mind the warning from the jobsworth front of house guy that they needed the table back within 2 hours.

The good news is that the food was really excellent. Lovely steak, beautifully cooked, great fish n chips and really delicious puddings that the kids were delighted with.

We waited about half an hour to eventually get someone's attention to take our payment which seemed at odds with Mr Bossyboots at the bar and we were well over the 2 hours that he'd warned us about but only due to the painfully slow service.

So really lovely food but I won't be rushing back due to how...