Jacobean former coaching inn offering original character, stylish guestrooms and classic pub food.
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I stayed 2 nights with breakfast and dinner on one night. When Is arrived, late afternoon, there was no one to check in with. Myself and another guest had to wait while the waitress found someone who could do it. The feeling was that they were understaffed and disorganised.
My room and bathroom were lovely and clean and was quite spacious. However, the intense heat hit me as soon as I walked in. I attempted to lower the heat using the thermostat but it didn't work even though there was information available that said guests could alter the temperature if necessary. I went down to dinner hoping that the temperature may have gone down by the time I returned to my room , but no, and that was with 2 windows open.
As it was late and I wanted sleep, I did not ask for help in turning the heating down. Instead I left the windows open all night which was annoying as there was a busy road outside. I was absolutely sweltering all night - the radiator was absolutely boiling hot to touch.
In the morning I told the guy who was waiting on and he told me that the heating was on a timer and should have gone off at night. Hello sounded surprised that this was not the case but said he would look into it whilst I was out. When I returned, there was no heat at all from the radiator but it was fine. However, no heat came from it at all by the time I left next morning!
Dinner was also a big disappointment. I booked a table for 7:30 but did not receive anything til 8:50 pm. I went to the bar to give my reservation but was completely ignored by the one person on as he was making up drinks. In the end, another person came who showed me to a table. I told him I was gluten intolerant so a girl came back with an electronic device that I had to fill in. No one returned for it. By 8:15 I was getting extremely hungry and impatient and hadn't even been asked about a drink. The table next to me commented that they had been waiting for their food to arrive for a long time. In the end, I went to the bar, said I'd been waiting too long and ordered. I ordered chicken and chips for £17:95 and did not think it good value at all compared to other places for the same kind of price. The chips were overcooked and I could not get my fork through them. The vegetable was a paltry portion of green beans. The chicken was ok. I mentioned this to the waiter when he asked me how my meal was and he offered to see if he could get a reduction, which he did and I was thankful for. Breakfast was also disorganised. I had to ask, from someone that was passing, what the procedure was as all I could see were juices and hot drink machines. A waitress came who was obviously under stress and she took my order and it arrived quickly. I was extremely disappointed with my stay because I had driven past the Bears Head on numerous occasions when visiting my parents and thought it so lovely from the outside. I had also eaten there many years before and enjoyed it. This was supposed to be a treat for me while I started clearing out my parents house. It wasn't. I won't be returning....
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A bit of an odd one... we went for Sunday lunch and I genuinely feel the front of house staff let the side down completely. Food was nice, roast potatoes weren't fresh - slightly stale but the rest of the food was pretty nice.
When we arrived we were stood hanging around near the bar as we weren't sure whether to wait or just grab a table, staff just walked past and ignored us and the queue of people forming behind us. We asked a passing waiter whether we should just pick a table and he replied with "uh dunno just ask at the bar" - not great. So we waited and waited, I'd say nearly 10 minutes and when we finally got someone's attention we were greeted with an aggressive "have you booked?" and an eye roll and sigh when we said we hadn't.
When it came to ordering, again I was kept waiting a good 5 minutes at the bar whilst staff were just milling around, they were more than adequately staffed but there just seemed to be a lack of managerial direction/urgency, the pub wasn't particularly busy.
Our sticky platter (absolutely delicious!) starter arrived and we had no cutlery so I had to go and request from the bar, the bread was missing so again took a lot of effort to get someone's attention, my son's chips were missing from his plate which again took a while to get from the kitchen.
We finished our starters and the plates were just left on our table for ages, staff walked past, saw them and ignored them.
Just generally a very disappointing experience that can't be blamed on being short staffed or the pub being being too busy for staff to cope. Had the customer service been adequate (not even amazing) I would have easily given at least a 4 star review - I can forgive a few stale roast potatoes if everything else was fine.
All of the above was in full view of the manager and he seemed equally not bothered.
Probably won't come again which is a shame as the chef obviously knows what he's doing but the rest of the team has let them down.
Not particularly cheap either over £80 for 2 adults and a child (no alcohol), I've had cheaper and better Sunday lunches with nicer...
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We stayed at the Bears Head sat 30th Dec23 for one night. Room 210
Overall it was just OK, but I would not stay there again, so ultimately I would not reccomend for an overnight stay . The poor night's sleep caused by staff was the major deciding factor.
I have rated the different aspects with a reason behind the marking at the bottom of my review.
Overall impression from outside 5 out of 5 Check in procedure 1 out of 5 Interior decor/appearance 5 out of 5 Service from the barman all afternoon 5 out of 5 Evening meal 4 out of 5 Breakfast 4 out of 5 Room 3 out of 5 Comfort of bed 4 out of 5 Quality of sleep minus 2!!!!! Overall cleanliness 3 out of 5
Total score 32 out of possible 50
Good points: Nice decor friendly and helpful barman , decent food service, pleasant and comfortable ,
Bad points : EXTREMELY BAD sleep very noisy room from internal noises from staff not guests. Bumping and banging of chairs and doors etc went on till midnight , very noisy water pipes but the REAL BAD POINT WAS THE LOUD TALKING AND SMOKERS TYPE COUGHING COMING FROM THE PRIVATE QUARTERS THAT WENT ON TILL GONE 2AM. Opposite our room window was a small open area with patio doors( no view ) one of the staff was smoking at the opened doors and talking loudly plus coughing regularly at 12, 1, 2am see photo , it was just feet away and really loud ,he may as well Been standing in our room!! Other problem was POOR CHECK-IN ,after standing waiting and being ignored for 5 minuits I stopped a member of staff and asked him how we check in. " no idea mate pointing at his pini , I'm a chef " then walked off .... eventually the same girl that had passed and blanked us twice came back and checked us in. The room was nice although obviously not been vacuum cleaned properly. The room was a bit in the small side as was the bed.
The service of the evening meal was good as was the food although the king prawns were missing from the sea bass
Breakfast was full English which was great apart from the soggy sausages also the tables although set, still had salt granules across the table top from the...
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