The Countryman — Restaurant in England

The staff and food are very good and the pub itself is very pleasant. They do advertise that they welcome dogs and as we were staying in a cottage nearby decided to give it a go and took the dog with us. She is quite a nervous dog with new experiences but does improve and this is the first time we have taken her into a pub with us. She was quite whiny at the beginning and gradually improved as the meal went on and became quieter allowing us to enjoy the meal and not feel that we were upsetting people with the noise. We also went back the following night without the dog as one of our party stayed behind in the cottage.

The following night we went again with the dog who settled without whining this time. However, another dog with another group started to back and our dog responded and they did a bit of back and too barking at each other. The landlord came over to me and right up to my face asked me if I could keep our dog quiet as he was aware that we had been in two nights previous and some other customers had left owing to the noise. He went on a bit about putting up with it as he didn’t like turning people away but was quite abrupt and aggressive in his attitude and didn’t want to listen when I explained that the other dog had set off my dog responding but was much improved and more settled.

While I can see this as an issue, we had tried our best to keep the dog quiet under the table but she was just being her usual protective self and had vastly Improved since our first visit. The landlord didn’t approach the other group that had also a dog that had barked (and set ours off!) and they left soon after without any comments around their dogs behaviour (the same as ours just being a dog!). I thought the way he spoke to me was quite rude and disrespectful and over the three nights we had spent almost £400 and had left tips each time for the service.

During our last visit, there was a man at the bar doing a very obnoxious and loud laugh every so often but nothing was said to him being disruptive. If dogs are “welcome” at this pub they should expect that not every dog is going to be fast asleep and perfectly quiet as it’s in their nature to be protective and as long as they are not running around loose or barking constantly some tolerance should be given as they don’t understand the same as people do. As mentioned, our dog is new to this type of experience and had improved greatly on the second visit.

We spent quite a lot of money the three night we visited and would have done the same on our last night but decided not to go after feeling annoyed and upset at this incident which we felt was a bit over the top especially as it’s the decision of this establishment to...

We booked for a Monday night thinking it would be quiet, as it usually is, but it was very busy and most tables were full. Unfortunately there were only two waiting staff on and they were clearly struggling to cope. Both were absolutely lovely but managing so many people led to errors, inevitably, and one of our two meals wasn’t put through, meaning my meal wasn’t served until my friend had almost finished hers. The waitress was very apologetic and I assured her it was just an error and didn’t really matter, but it was a symptom of not having enough staff working. However, when the food arrived it was really disappointing to see that the broccoli on both our plates was not only over cooked but was clearly well past its best and was brown and rotting in the centre. The pea shoots were also brown and well past their best. The katsu was average and tasted soapy and the chips were lukewarm. Yes, we complained to our waitress but aside from an apology nothing more came of it. We reiterated that our meals were far from satisfactory when we went to pay and this is when we were told about the lack of staff. While we were sympathetic, this doesn’t account for using produce that has clearly gone off. It’s so disappointing as this is our nearest pub/restaurant and we’ve always had good food from them before, but those meals should never have left the kitchen. How has produce in that state been allowed to be served? Neither of us finished our meal and you can see how brown the broccoli and pea shoots are in the attached photo. Very...

A Sunday afternoon meal.

We visited as a party of 6 for my grandparent’s wedding anniversary, the dining area is spacious enough that you don’t feel like you’re sat on top of other customers, the place has been decorated beautifully too!

All the drinks came out which were great except one of our guests complained about his shandy, the waiter quickly took the drink away and investigated to find the lemonade was the issue - they replaced the drink and the problem was quickly resolved without fuss.

Our meals arrived, I personally opted for the roast ham Sunday lunch and my partner went for the beef dinner so she could give me her beef (she isn’t overly keen on the meats that were on offer and would’ve preferred a chicken or turkey option but there wasn’t one on the menu)

The ham was delicious and very succulent, the beef was also good, there were just a few little chewy bits but nothing major that put me off.

The veg and gravy were nice too, extra gravy was offered without us asking which was a nice touch, also the Yorkshire pudding was great - crispy and quite fresh which is usually what lets a lot of pub Sunday dinners down.

The staff were all very friendly and the food was brought out at a fast pace.

Overall it was a lovely Sunday pub lunch and I’d highly recommend it to anyone looking for a modern, spacious pub with good quality food.

Just a side note - the parking isn‘t great at the busiest times, twice now I’ve been here and had to block another family member’s car in because there weren’t...