Coach House — Restaurant in Huntingdonshire

This is a re-review. I came down to St Neots to see a friend a couple of weeks ago and plumped for a visit to the Coach House, having been many times before. Having bought the first round, we were told that the type of shorts he was wearing were 'unsuitable'. The manager didn't specify what this meant, just 'those type of shorts'. This is the summer and people all around us were also wearing shorts. FYI - we really are the least rowdy people you'd find out so it just made incredibly little sense. Having enjoyed the first beer, and one of us owing another round, we got another one in, which nobody stopped us from doing, following which security came and asked us to leave, or more specifically my friend but as I was with him, I go too. Literally, it's a busy Friday night in the summer and we're bothering no-one, and are sitting there now with newly filled glasses. Security looked unbelievably apologetic as it was just complete nonsense. He did stand there are watch us uncomfortably finish the beers as quickly as possible though. It makes no business sense to make good customers feel that victimised.

Horrid service; certainly won't be going back.

EDIT - just read below that you mean jogging shorts as being unsuitable. My friend doesn't own a pair of these and was wearing cargo type shorts, similar to ones worn by a guy two feet away from us. You a) Clearly don't know what jogging shorts are. b) Enjoy a spot of unnecessary confrontation AFTER having got two rounds of cash from us and c) Don't enjoy nice reviews from nice people. Will be sticking to The Ale House in future. Lovely ownership, beer and...

Had a ‘Works Do’ here recently. As there was over a dozen of us we had to pre-order and give our food choices in advance, which was a warning sign.

From a limited menu I went for the BBQ Chicken. The meagre portion of chips, and the chicken were both only lukewarm, and the chicken so dry and tough that I couldn’t cut it and had to resort to picking it up and just biting pieces off. A colleagues who also had the chicken experienced the same problems. In the ‘debriefing’ at work, ‘lukewarm food’ and ‘small portions’ were the most commonly used phrases. No one was positive about their meal. Several people even admitted they had something else to eat when they got home, myself included.

Going by the menu (mostly Sharing Platters, with limited Mains) the kitchen is only geared up for cooking three or four snacks at a time, hence the request for us to pre-order. Meals were obviously cooked in advance and then kept warm or reheated (badly) prior to serving, which would explain why the chicken was so dry and tough.

If I’d been eating with just a couple of friends I’d have complained but as it was a works do, I didn’t want to spoil the occasion any further. Shan’t be eating here again, personally or as a group.

The beer also reminded me why I don’t drink here either. Even by Greene King standards, the Level Head IPA was poor. Described as having a ‘Hoppy aroma, with delicately balanced tropical & grapefruit notes, ‘ it had none of those, it was just bland.

On a happier note, the chutney was nice, as were both(!)...

Myself and a mate were refused entry as he was wearing jogging bottoms. As it was explained to us that it's smart casual we pointed out that we could see people in shorts already in the pub. The door staff then changed the explanation saying that if my mates bottoms had a zip that we could have got in. when we challenged this he then said we couldn't come in as we were drunk ( we weren't) someone we assumed to be in some sort of charge then came out and told us that as the door staff had repeatedly refused us entry for a variety of reasons that we weren't coming in.

At that time of the evening the pub wasn't busy so that's income that they have lost I could understand the dress code in a west end club ,but a market town high st pub.....come on !!!.

the sooner this pub has competition the better as they clearly have a very inflated opinion...