Three Pigeons — Restaurant in Guildford

If you have a student at the University Avoid this pub, I think this review coupled with the managers response will tell you all you need to know.

Went here for my daughter’s 20th Birthday. A student at the University accompanied by 2 parents. She forgot her ID and we were all asked to leave despite them serving us all drinks prior to her arrival, and trying to arrange to put money behind the bar because it was her Birthday. A huge misjudgement, confirmed by a member of staff who said they believed she was 20. There was no need to ask e to e to leave especially as she was getting a taxi back to the house to get it. Very poor customer service, especially when I was told I was being aggressive which was absolutely laughable. If your children are students here I would go somewhere a little more friendly.

Response to the message from the manager below:

Thank you for your response to my recent complaint. Unfortunately, I must raise serious concerns regarding both the legal accuracy of your response and the characterisation of my behaviour.

First, with respect to the law: my daughter is 20 years old and was celebrating her birthday with her parents I made this point clear before she arrived. It is not an offence for a licensed premises to serve alcohol to someone over the age of 18 who does not have ID with them. While I recognise that you operate a Challenge 25 policy, this is a discretionary best-practice policy, not a legal requirement. You have every right not to serve them and to ask them to leave, but you suggest that your premises could have been “punished” for her being present without ID. That is not correct in law, and I am concerned that you and your team are not clear on the legal framework that governs your licence. You are also not breaking the law if you do not have ID if requested to produce it. The fact you think there is a law stating this is very concerning.. I have just called your premises to speak to you and your Manager doubled down with this false narrative. I would suggest that in a University town, a family entering your premises saying they are celebrating the child's 20th Birthday, on the face of it, are probably telling the truth.

Second, your response falsely claims that I was “aggressive” and attempted to “intimidate staff into bending to my will.” That is simply untrue. I was not aggressive at any point. You were not present and therefore cannot make such an allegation based on first-hand observation. This misrepresentation is both inaccurate and defamatory. In order to clarify the matter and to protect all parties, I formally request a copy of the full CCTV footage of the incident from start to finish. Please provide this footage, or a secure link to access it, within 5 days of this response. I also suggest that you speak to all of your staff about your interpretation of the events. Some of whom look very awkward about what...

Never will return, the completely uneducated (for not using better words), useless and unpolite "manager" (Stu is called) or at least he calls himself that is the stereotypical representation of horrible client care; He talks rudelly to everyone, if you try to talk with him about anything simply becames more rude and unpolite (and i'm not going to get into his lack of personal hygiene as that is something for his boss to notice). Today was the third and last time that we had to cope with his disrespect as he has a history of misstreating my friends and myself, i don't know why is that as there are always more people in this PUB thats are always behaving rudelly, massively drunk and making noise big time but his concerns and ill behaviour is always targeted towards us (makes me wonder if is probably because of the way we talk), hets even worse having in mind we NEVER had any problem with any other worker in the PUB only him, always him. Last one was when i arrived to this sorry excuse of a PUB without having drunk barely anything and in an attempt to order (without me pronouncing even one word) this clown behind the Bar says "i think you had already too much" too much of what? I could have ordered a lemonade but for wathever reason he decided not, truth is he is also a liar, a big time liar as he also stated i arrived stumbling and everyone saw it, well ive been already there for 45 mins and none of your colleagues mentioned anything of anyone stumbling. By the way on the smoking area and in the toilets were people really stumbling but i saw you pouring drinks to them without hesitation. Good luck, rest asure i'll never return and all the people that were with me neither, i hope you get more clients than can talk the way...

Service was really very good, atmosphere not bad, general interior and furnishings cosy/historic/attractive; beer OK; but the food was not cheap and a big disappointment. A red wine beef pie for near-enough 12 pounds was mainly puff pastry, very little beef, hardly any seasoning or extras (e.g. no herbs, no pepper, lots of onion, one slice of carrot), and the "gravy" was very watery - it looked like a soup, and the liquid was an inch high in the dish. I would have needed a (big) spoon to make any headway. The veg was cooked al dente (which is good), but almost cold and very plain (no seasoning, no butter, no herbs), the chips limp, lukewarm and overdone (yes, they should ideally be deep-fried twice - but these were probably just microwaved?). The chicken pie (almost nine pounds) was very salty (and I like salt, so it must have been extreme), and lacking anything of real character. It was again a lot of puff pastry hiding a small pool of uninteresting and unsubstantial filling (zero veg, as far as I could tell, a generic, viscous white sauce). When asked for my opinion by the very obliging serving staff member, I gave it - the answer came promptly (so at least he did pass it on/made an effort): "The chef says that is the way they come" (in other words, it would seem the food is supplied to them as "ready meals" that they heat up/shove in the oven; and that was it as far as they were concerned). I was pretty hungry but left most of my meal uneaten. There were a lot of tourists around - and maybe that plays a role? Repeat business...