Holme Bush Inn — Restaurant in England

It’s concerning how many 5 star reviews are here judging by everything we saw on our visit to the Holme bush yesterday.

We own a local holiday cottage so visited to see if we should recommend to guests

Called to make sure they had tables available which they did.

When we arrived the bar was filled which is great to see , but with kids toys all over the floor as you walk in and no one to serve you as they’re too busy chatting to each other. We waited to speak to someone but no one came so we seated ourselves as we presumed that’s what you had to do. No menus on tables and no one arrived to see us still despite a waitress walking past us and talking to another staff member on his break. They then both disappeared to go sit outside leaving one man behind the bar and one man who didn’t look like he worked there wandering around on the phone or behind the bar.

We decided to get up to order food at the bar as no one was coming. We ordered with the guy behind the bar no real problem, the bill for 4 people came to around £85.

We sat back down , to find another couple sat in the restaurant moved tables because the bar was too noisy and the local drinkers made it impossible to hear themselves. Their food arrived at their table shortly after we sat down and my apologies to the lady on this table for not saying something for you. But she ordered fish , which you could smell across the restaurant was most definitely off , the smell was disgusting.

Our food shortly arrived afterwards and to look at was very nice. My partner ordered the schnitzel which was on the specials board , it looked okay but we very tough , the anchovy hollandaise wasn’t very nice at all.

Myself and my mum ordered the pork belly which wasn’t great , expecting a nice crispy top , only for it to arrive gelatinous and stodgy. My dad ordered the ribeye medium , which turned out to be right but had forgotten (but also not asked ) if he wanted peppercorn sauce so we ordered one there the waitress was very quick to sort that for us , however the watery sauce that came with far peppercorns was not a peppercorn sauce at all. More of a packet gravy with peppercorns put in a microwave.

We decided it would be better to not order pudding and stop at the coop on the way home instead , far cheaper and far better quality.

Sadly we won’t be recommending the Holme bush and I can’t see this owner lasting much longer than the last few if they don’t take any actions towards their “business venture” as the bar man described it.

Many years ago the Holme bush had a lovely group of regulars that would invite you in to keep the pub going and it was almost as if they worked there. This has clearly been lost to a rowdy bunch that don’t welcome you in and are likely only there for free drinks from friends...

We went on a bank holiday so there was music put on which is great but if you want electric you have to be on a main road and consequently right next to the music (not very peaceful for camping). The communication was awful, hard to get through or a get a response, wrong prices given. Wrong information given and very limited with food due to requirements (gf and veg). Overall for the price you don’t get much and the whole site isn’t well kept at all. Very untidy, random stuff everywhere not just on site but in the pub as well (visited a year apart and noticed there’s just boxes and stuff piled up in a corner on both occasions) and the loos were below par unfortunately as the whole place has a lot of potential. Worth considering...

Very disappointed came in earlier in week really good. So we were looking forward to a meal on our last evening if our holiday. Unfortunately tonight, everything we orderd had run out , and the poor waitress had to keep coming back to tell us sorry run out from chef. Not very good at all so just had drinks. Steak off menu, Lamb off specials board, Halloumi burger all run out and it was only 7pm. Waitress was was totally unaware of this. Specials board should have been updated , and before we ordered we should have been notified of food unavailable. Bad organisation. Sorry to review this, but we recommend people to come, on same evening. Not a good advertisement. Hopefully these issues can be dealt with better...