John O'Gaunt Inn — Restaurant in England

I arrived at John O’Gaunt car park in my Ford Transit self converted camper van at 9pm. I had been driving for two hours from London and my girlfriend and I were in need of some dinner and refreshments.

As soon as I stepped out of the van I had a young lady stood in the car park with the chefs (all smoking) ask ‘Is that your camper van?! Are you leaving it there?!’ (It was neatly parked and the car park was virtually empty). I said, ‘Yes, I’m planning on getting some food.’ She asked, ‘Are you getting it here?!’ I said, ‘Yes, I did read the sign. It says the car park is for customers only. I’m fully aware, thank you.’ She then said, ‘Well, AS SOON as you get in go STRAIGHT to the bar and give them your licence plate as it gets ‘CLAMPY’ here after 10pm.

I went in and did as instructed. There were three staff at the back of the bar all talking to one another for five minutes or so paying no attention to me standing there. Eventually I had to call one of them over to me. I explained what had happened at the entrance and the lady said that nobody had ever been told to give their details at the bar before. She asked who had told me to do this and the girl who I had been speaking to popped up and said, ‘It was me, he has a camper van!’

The lady behind the bar (the owner/manager I think) said as long as I wasn’t planning on spending the night (I wasn’t) she wouldn’t clamp me.

She then handed me an extortionately priced menu given the location/average pub setting vibes (I’m a Londoner saying that) and then said I should come and order from the bar when I saw there were other customers receiving table service at other tables.

I just got very bad vibes all round from start to finish. My partner was the one to actually suggest we leave.

We ended up at the The Bear (a Green King pub) around the corner. We ended up spending £60 on a huge dinner, desert and drinks. We had amazing service from start to finish and the food was delicious. We had such a good experience there in fact that we decided to go back for breakfast the next day and spent another £30.

I’m not sure why we were treated the way we were at John O’Gaunt on arrival. Perhaps they just don’t like people with camper vans, perhaps they didn’t like the fact that I was an ethnic minority/man of colour… maybe all of the above. All that aside they certainly lost out on my custom.

I would suggest they change their attitude all round and try to be a bit more welcoming. They should also consider lowering their prices, they are ridiculous. Awful introduction to an otherwise...

We came here with high hopes due to good reviews and were very disappointed. The table ordered three burgers and a roast, one of the burgers was ordered with no cheese or sauce due to preference and the first time it came out it had cheese. The server tried telling us there was no cheese but eventually accepted it, then it came back with a ridiculous amount of sauce and had to send it back again. It came out the third time fine except it looked like someone had crushed the burger and broken it up because the patty was in pieces and hard to eat as a burger, and the meat did not taste or look like beef as well as being greasy. The roast looked quite small for costing nearly £20 and honestly was a disappointment. On top of this a lot of the servers seemed quite rude, especially when talking to us, lots of huhs and talking to us like we were stupid, like it was a local pub for local people and as a result, us “outsiders” were left feeling very unwelcome. I understand it may have been an off day for them because their reviews are normally so positive but I feel the reviews were absolutely not reflected in the service we received. It’s a shame because before we received the food, we thought it was a...

Disappointing Experience

I visited the John O'Gaunt Inn after seeing it recommended online as one of the best places in Hungerford for Sunday lunch. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to the hype.

The food looked good on arrival, but there were very few vegetables — just a couple of carrots, half a parsnip, a few green beans, and some odd-tasting red cabbage. The roast potatoes were either overcooked or undercooked (one was black inside), and none were crispy. No condiments like mustard, horseradish, or cranberry sauce were offered, which was disappointing.

Service didn’t help the situation. When asked how the meal was, I gave honest feedback, but the staff just smiled and walked off, which felt dismissive. If you’re going to ask for feedback, it should be taken seriously.

Everyone has different ideas of what makes a good Sunday roast — sadly, this didn’t hit the...