The Bell On The Common — Restaurant in England

Well I dont know what to say about this place, it was like a Mad cartoon on Hill Billy land, we had a nice day out and coming through this area with a friend whos family had lived there for many years we thought it would be nice to stop off for her to collect some nice memories, shock horror, I had gone to the rest room and heard the word menu and thought great!!!( starving) On entering the bar my friend said come on we are going( hey) why? The land lady won't let us see the menu, seriously can't be true, I had not heard the conversation, so I said to the landlord lady who had a silent man behind the bar just staring at me like a ice ponywhich o thought was weird or maybe he had learning disabilities being kind!! Anyway I asked could we start again and said we had traveled far to eat here after reading there reviews * wish we had of ob trip advisor ( take a look) i asked if we could eat, answer was a rude noooooo( not wanting to be rude I thought maybe she had eaten it all) I asked a few more calm diplomatic questions and her justification was I'm fed up of people coming in her asking to read the menus ( I chuckled hard inside in disbelief at how mental that sounded( understandably reading trip advisor i now know they are both mental and have anger issues, maybe if I'm kind , they do have learning difficulties and no social skills and must be very unhappy in life and keep eating all the food as they don't wish to share it!! And can hardly move to even cook it, being kind again!! I've never laugh so much as this cartoon of madness is found myself in, and life is full of 1st, never in my life have I gone into a place for food and been told I'm fat up with people asking to see the menus, honestly you couldn't make it up, just soooo weird, yet what do you expect really when you confronted with a hob nob and yetti, it's a weird combo for sure😅 i have told so many people they wish to go there just for the experience of these to weird ones after they read trip advisor to, crazy beans, I may even take a group just for fun, not to eat, can't imagine the hygiene after looking at these two and the poor dog that was there...

This used to be one of my favourite pubs but unfortunately I feel like it’s a totally different pub now.

The energy wasn’t friendly when we walked in, it felt cold and stale. The lady behind the bar made me feel very unwelcome for bringing my toddler with me (it was 1pm on a Monday). The lady behind the bar seemed really on edge when my toddler was looking curiously at their trophy collection which they had left on a shelf half a metre from the ground, so very inviting for most children to look at being at such a child friendly and also accessible height. (I suggest moving it to a higher shelf if you don’t wish children or even animals to touch/look at them).

The lady behind the bar impatiently rushed me and my partner into ordering our drinks and seemed extremely fed up when my partner asked to try one of the ciders. It felt like doing her job was a massive chore for her everything was a hassle and she’d much rather be some where else.

We ended up drinking our drink quickly and leaving as we simply just didn’t want to be there after such a unfriendly and uncomfortable experience.

We ended up going to the pub up the road called the Fox & Hounds which was so so lovely. The staff were so friendly warm and welcoming we sat talking to them for hours and our little one explored and played with the vintage cars they had in the garden. We also had some delicious food there which I rate highly. Such a shame I can’t say the same for the bell...

I rarely bother leaving a negative review but felt compelled to warn other people about the owners. I can only assume it is a "locals pub" that doesn't welcome tourists. 5 of us are cycling through Wiltshire. My wife ordered a Pepsi and on tasting it we all felt it was flat and that the pubs gas needed changing. My wife went inside to tell them it was flat and the lady dismissed her concern, telling her that she could see bubbles in the Pepsi. One of our friends runs two pubs so we were sure it was flat. My wife, who is 7 months pregnant, was shocked with the landlady's response and repeated that she thought it was flat. The landlaDy then said "well, what do you want then" in a harsh tone. My wife felt the response was hostile so said she didn't want anything and went to leave the pub. The lady called after her saying "what did you not understand about asking what else you wanted." We'd hoped she would check the gas and refresh the Pepsi but instead she berated my wife who came back out to us upset and feeling deeply unwelcome. Best to avoid this pub if you're not...