Ye Olde Windmill - Rugeley — Restaurant in Lichfield

Visited Ye Olde Windmill Inn on a damp Sunday 20 August 2019 early evening. We had tried to book a table by telephone on the previous day but we were advised that we did not need to. Ye Olde Windmill is listed in the Good Beer Guide and has good reviews on TripAdvisor.

PARKING

The car park , for about thirty cars, is on the opposite side of a local road is relatively flat with a good tarmacked surface and parking spaces marked with clear white lines. There appears to be a few spaces by Ye Olde Windmill for disabled parking.

LAYOUT

Ye Olde Windmill has two entrance porches by the front of the 'L shaped' building . The one on the left leads into a corridor with a drinking bar directly in front and to the right ,past the toilets , is the large dining / lounge bar on the left , the other porch area and stairs up to a restaurant . We went into the large lounge which had a variety of tables in various areas , with a lot of customers but still, as promised, space for dining. A large bar is on the left hand side where food and drink can be ordered. The area is all on one level so it should be easy for disabled access but I don't know what access is like to the upstairs restaurant.

FOOD AND DRINK

The bar has six handpulls with a variety of real ales on , sadly there were no dark ones available at the time of visiting , but I sampled a good drink of Bass ( £3.50 a pint) which is one of the beers that is always on. The food menus are available in racks at the bar and on the wall near the bar. The menu has a good range of meals for all three courses without trying to be too vast. We ordered a butternut squash soup ( £3.75 each) with warm bread for a starter to warm us up. The soup portion was huge and almost a meal in itself ! We had the following mains my son had Steak and Guinness Pie ( £8.95) , my wife had 8oz Sirloin Steak (£13.95) and I had a Meat Balls with tagatelli ( £9.25) . They were all well prepared and vast in portion size. A struggle to eat all the meal but we just about managed it. The bill for the three adults came to just over £50 including drinks so we were well impressed and would like to visit again.

SERVICE

A friendly group of staff , somewhat stretched by the number of customers , but maintaining a high standard of service throughout our time at Ye Olde Windmill.

We would recommend Ye Olde Windmill Inn as a place to visit for good real ale and a range of good value and...

We've been visiting Ye Olde Windmill Inn on and off for the past 40 years the early years just a regular stop on pub crawls of the local hostelries, for the past 30 years for dining. Dennis keeps a fine cellar and the beers and ales etc are tip top. As for the food the Windmill has always provided straight forward good sized portions of "home cooked" meals. I don't think that the menu is quite as adventurous these days as it once was? The Specials boards have seen some very interesting and unusual twists on traditional pub grub in the past and the old "supersized" mixed grill was a thing of wonder (it was a wonder if you managed to completely finish one). These days you have a selection of pretty much typical pub grub, still maintaining its quality and quantity, with locally sourced ingredients, freshly cooked and served with a smile. Mein host Mr Duckhouse, maintains a convivial atmosphere and a friendly welcome, in the lounge, if you're going for a drink hit the bar the local clientele are very friendly and like to indulge in the old craic with any new faces. There is an upstairs restaurant / function room which is opened at the busiest times should the lounge be fully booked and during bank holidays and Christmas. There are plenty of tables with umbrellas to the front of the pub for summer use To me Ye Olde Windmill is like those very comfortable well worn old shoes that you might forget about for a while but when you find them again and put them on you realise what you've...

I have been a customer here for nearly 30 years. I've staff come and go. In fact my own kids have worked here. Dennis has always been the main stay of the pub and one of the reasons we kept coming back. However since it has become part of a chain things have taken a turn for the worst. On our previous visit ordered a cheese and onion sandwich. It was very poor and the chef forgot the onion..which was brought out separately in a separate bowl.... The reason for my review is today we decided to try a Sunday lunch. We had a pate starter which was quite good. The main meal one beef one pork roast came out as two pork. Taken back, came out again as two pork, taken back. Third time the table next to us said I think they are ours. Next the correct meals came out but we're cold, not tepid but cold. We sent them back. When they came out again both were cold. The female member of staff...appeared in charge.. offered no apology and in fact seemed furious with us. We asked her to put her hand on the lunch and feel the temperature for herself. She refused. So we decided to have our money back. Which she paid back in cash again no apology. She seemed so angry with us. She was so rude. To be honest if they had rectified the temperature of the food we would of happily stayed but when faced with a rude and almost aggressive attitude we left. I'm not sure we...