The Mitre — Restaurant in England

I was delighted when Brew York took over The Mitre earlier this year. It was my "local" in the mid to late 2010s, always with a friendly buzz and loyal regulars - but in recent years it had lost its way, and most of us became regulars elsewhere. In its first few weeks of re-opening, the buzz returned, the pub was busier than it had been in years, and my hopes were high. So, why the 3-star review? After all, the beer is gorgeous, the pub is well kept... and yet that early buzz hasn't been maintained, numbers are down, and most of its trade seems to be coming from visitors, not from locals. That might have worked OK over the summer months, but in order to get through the winter, I think a shift of focus is required (in this regard, the forthcoming changes to the kitchen sound very promising).

And here we get to the nub of the problem: no matter how good the beer is, the "hospitality" is almost non-existent. I'm not saying that the staff are rude, but there's no friendly greeting at the bar, beers are served in almost total silence, and the bar staff come across as entirely indifferent. (And just for the record, this is a commonly held view around the town; I've had a lot of conversations about it.) This just won't work in a town like Knaresborough, where friendliness and good conversation are the norm. If The Mitre wants to build up a solid base of regular customers, it MUST engage with them, make them feel welcome, and make far more of an effort to create the sort of good-natured vibe that you'll find in so many other Knaresborough pubs. I still want it to succeed, but I don't think it will succeed until heart and soul are injected into the very bones...

A warning sign to us upon arriving was that a couple near us had been forgotten completely for 30 minutes waiting to pay, no staff came out even though the front was busy and it was indeed table service only! I ordered some drinks. Staff were then standing and chatting to other customers, no drinks arrived. The couple opposite received a discount for their lack of service, they even rang the phone and no one answered, and yet they were not run off their feet inside after checking. A young family with a child ordered just after us, 15 minutes later our drinks arrived, I called the member of staff 3 times and they just stood there, and it took another member of staff to prompt them that I was speaking to them, at this point a little narked and parched. The drinks were all dropped. I really feel for the member of staff as they were soaked and do hope their phone etc was not damaged. We were then promised a quick replacement by the lady, but to our surprise she came out and instead of bringing drinks, slowly collected glasses from here and there. There was a 3 or 4 year old girl in 20 degree heat who was waiting for her drink, as were we and yet the member of staff prioritised collecting a few glasses (of which they were not short as I saw there were plenty a full 25 minutes after going in to order.) I cancelled the order as we had waited so long and they had not cleaned up the 3 glasses of beer and wine and in the heat it stank. I feel sorry for the family with the small kid as no one should be forgotten like that. This put a real dampener on what was otherwise a thoroughly...

Me and my friends were sat in the empty beer garden waiting for our train debating whether to buy a drink, so as still deliberating we stayed sat until greeted by the assumed ‘manager’ (tall, slender, with light brown/ ginger hair) who comes asking if we are okay and if we were going to buy a drink to which we replied yes we probably should (as we were very aware that it is custom to buy a drink if we wanted to sit in a pub). He then began to become extremely rude and nasty snarkily remarking ‘yeh you should otherwise get out my beer garden then’. This hostile behaviour and overall aggression took us aback so we did not want to buy a drink at this establishment. Also, after the commotion as he began to walk away from us with such a smug look on his face the two tables next to us shouted calling him a c*nt telling us how he was also extremely rude to them as well - the two tables told us about how he nastily treated them although they were paying customers from the beginning! ||To end this - I am unsure if this was racially motivated or not as on top of us being attacked by him, the other two tables were made up of Americans and other ‘unstereotypical’ brits.||So disappointed as we had such a nice time in Knaresborough today, such a disappointing end to a great day! For others who just want to stop for a drink please go to any other pub as there are friendlier staff who will actually make you feel welcome as opposed to uncomfortable...