The Old Horse — Restaurant in England

a patron I will not be supporting this establishment in the future. Visited the pub and parked in the car park attached to the pub. Unbeknownst to me, I was required to validate my car reg. apparently, there were many signs but visiting the pub after many years last there I did not see. If you visit the pub you will however be distracted by the death themed decor ie. Coffin table. After receiving a fine a week later for £100 I researched online and found that I am not the first for this to happen to. I contacted the pub and spoke with the manager to ask for some help in resolving the issue. Unfortunately, being old school I paid in cash. I even tried to discuss the conversation that I had with the person behind the bar at the time to recall the interaction but the manager relinquished any responsibility and basically told me it was not their problem. In this day and age you would think these independent establishments would try to help and support their patrons when occurrences like this occur but clearly they are doing so well in their own financial situation that they can afford to lose customers to scamming parking companies. Hey, here’s a novelty idea, with all the apparent signage it is actually still possible to not notice them so maybe it would be helpful to customers to mention at the bar that their car park is linked to scamming IPC companies and point them to the area where they should register their reg to avoid a fine. I’m a decent person, so I know I would! Because let’s be honest, if I had seen the signage I definitely would have added my car reg. I mean, who needs a £100 fine when you’ve actually visited the establishment! So, imagine supporting your local pub, paying in cash and being hit with a fine a week later. In conclusion, if your local publican doesn’t support its community then don’t support it and take your business elsewhere!

Response to managers reply:

From your reply you definitely have a passive aggressive attitude. As do all negative reviews you reply to. Take some responsibility. When I spoke with your manager on the phone there were “16 signs”, and your online reply, the number has practically doubled. Do you have a vested interest in fines given? Otherwise I can’t understand why you wouldn’t want to verbally warn or point out to genuine customers that there is a potential fine if reg isn’t recorded. I am not the first of your customers to have this happen so the issue is on you. I am not at fault because I didn't see your signs. I have been punished for visiting your establishment and your unsympathetic attitude...

Would NOT recommend!!! Where do I start? Service - young lady, lovely with blonde hair plaited and worn up, polite and courteous. However, other lady, much older, (dark hair worn in a high pony tail) also serving at the same time to a customer behind me. Very arrogant. Kept pushing the lovely young lady serving me out of the way, consequently customer behind me recieved food before me. Next, the old lady (i use the term lady loosely who i can only assume was the landlady) was obnoxious to the enth degree. Whilst the lovely young lady was serving the plate for the eldest child (a 10yo) the landlady snatched the plate off the young server shouted at the young server, totally belittling her scooped the dinner away (which was ready for the child to take away) then scraped the food off the plate back into the serving dishes ready to then pesent to the next customer!! Who actually does that???? The food - cold, chicken dry and over cooked, roast potatoes, outer was burnt and unpleasant. Portion size was controlled - not permitted to plate own vegetables like in other carvery restaurants. General ambience - appalling. On arrival, all was well. However, a live band started (no indication prior to ordering was there any mention of a band). I have nothing against live music in an appropriate setting, not during a Mother's day Sunday lunch. Myself and 4 others lost the ability to continue our conversation because we simply couldn't hear ourselves. Both adults left with headaches. 2 out of the 3 children were crying because the noise was too much!! Then... the car park! OMG! Where do I start? Before we left, 3 other customers had to go back inside to complain because they were 100% blocked in. On return to my car, I was completely boxed in on all 4 sides. Who in their right minds thinks it's acceptable to do that??? Seriously!! Do other customers not give a damn about the owners of cars who have parked with due consideration?? To summarise. If you want a cold meal which is served by people who aren't courteous, noise levels so high conversation is impossible and to park your car in a car park you cannot leave... I thoroughly advise this as your place to go.

We left with all of us dissatisfied and hungry. Thank goodness for Macdonnalds!!! The food we recieved was piping hot (ikr), served by staff that were full of smiles and polite.

DO NOT GO TO THE OLD...

came here tonight in a group of 7 adults and 3 young kids, menu looked fab we ordered off the regular menu and the tapas, a lot of it was spot on, there was 2 dishes I didn't like on the tapas but absolutely nothing wrong with them just my decision on those, 1 tapas dish was so dry It was un edible and the 10 hot and spicy wings just weren't and also very dry, my wife was served a closed tight mussel in her paella and sadly our waiter had no idea how bad this was, he agreed at the table to refund the wings but when questioned about the un edible tapas dish he said we cannot refund just 1 tapas dish as they are sold in sets, I did say at that point oh so you want me to pay for it to be thrown away, at that point he got a little sharp and attitudey but I just let it go, upon on leaving I went to the bar to discuss the refund to which he agreed to refund the wings and 1 set of tapas which resolved the matter, I would like point out it may be a good idea to train all waiting staff on shellfish safety, on a plus note, it is a very nice pub, staff are mostly pleasant and you have a great range of beers, I have given you a 4 star rating which I think is fair, sorry but I just cannot overlook the mussel, but I would rather be honest :)

In response to the reply, we had no issues with allergies so I'm not sure why you mentioned that, the main problem is a closed mussel if consumed is not an allergy risk but a food poisoning risk, genuinely this is the 1st time we have ever been served 1, I was trying to be constructive with my review, sorry if you miss read that, just another point the paella was far more spicy than the dusty dry wings, that and the complimentary olives and bread were by far...