Exelby Green Dragon — Restaurant in England

My wife and I had the pleasure of staying at the Exelby Green Dragon Inn in Exelby near Bedale on 17th of March 2023. It was meant to be just a routine b&b overnight stop on the way home, but it turned into one of the most pleasurable memories of of holiday. We discovered the Inn was now owned by the local community, after nearly going out of existence a few years ago. On arrival, we were greeted by Tom Baker the inns proprietor, who leases the Inn and runs it on behalf of the community owners. Within minutes, we were made to feel welcome by Tom and local customers who were having a drink at the bar, there was a real feeling of local pride and community spirit that made me remember that this was how local village inns and pubs used to be be many years ago. After a couple of hours rest in our comfortable, spotlessly clean room, we came downstairs to eat in the restaurant to find the Inn full of happy locals and people from nearby villages enjoying the excellent food an drink. The old adage of USE IT OR LOSE IT came to mind, you need local people using a pub and having it as a place to come together and not just relying on passing holiday or second home visitors for a few weeks of the year. The Exelby Green Gragon Inn was balm to the soul. Go and stay at the Exelby Green Gragon , not only as a great place to eat, drink, and stay for a few nights, but to experience how a local pub or inn can become the very soul and spirit of the of the local area. To Tom and the team at the Exelby Green Dragon plus the locals we met there, THANK YOU. Barry and...

I read the other reviews and wondered if I'd been to the same place. However, I think many of them are from locals trying to get their pub off the ground. I have just arrived home - eight miles away after a dreadful Sunday lunch experience. We ordered six adult meals and sent six back. Cold mash, cold roasties, cold beef, cold Yorkshire pudding, cold plates. How they left the kitchen in that state I have no idea - amateurism perhaps. I asked the waitress why no one senior from the kitchen could come and talk to us - we were there to celebrate St Patrick's Day as advertised by the bar -however no one could be bothered to come to us and hear our thoughts and no explanations were offered by either landlady or landlord. This bar has been advertising for investors to help the village community to buy the place. I think the problem may be that running pub by committee is detrimental to success. I have never given such a bad review before - it's not in my nature - and I would have avoided it had someone come and explained to us that the kitchen had a one-off problem or whatever. They didn't care about us - after all we were only six customers who expected the advertised Sunday roast lunch would be one that was edible . There are plenty of other good friendly eating...

Attended during their beer festival. Vast array of tasty beers on offer. Street food snack boxes were very yummy. Live guitarist/singer was great entertainment. Only negative was the unwillingness to give a refund on the token card. £16 gets you a token card, sheet of A5 with boxes that are ticked off for £1, 50p, 20p etc. No other option to buy beer from the bar outside as payments are not taken any other way. We had a pint, we ate, we had another pint, and this left £2.60 on the token card. We politely requested a refund and was told "we don't do refunds" There are no Ts and Cs on the card, and no explanation from staff upon purchasing a token card that this is the case. Bars and restaurants have been hit hard with the recent pandemic so I fully understand they're doing all they can to build business but this was downright theft. Shocked by this, I asked to speak with the proprietor, and was then begrudgingly given a £2.40 refund with no thank you, sorry or anything else. Being too embarrassed to ask for the missing 20 pence, we left feeling a little disheartened. Would have gladly left a 5 star review had it not...