The Drift Pub & Restaurant — Restaurant in New Forest

A group of us arrived at 11:40am, met by a very officious type who sternly told us that we couldn't order food until 12pm. Fair enough. We asked if we could order drinks - alas no, said the future very officious civil servant, please wait outside for 20 minutes. We did so, as it was sunny and the promise of good food awaited, while our officious friend laid tables and ensured the blackboard menu was up to date (IMPORTANT FOR A LATER PART OF THE STORY, DEAR FRIENDS).

At 12pm we ordered at the bar. A few things went wrong - barrels running out, card machines not working, the suggestion that we could not eat a roast dinner outside (but all other menu items were OK). Eventually we got there, and the chap behind the bar was very friendly throughout; our officious friend from the beginning of this story even changed the law for us, so two in our group could eat roast meat in the sun. Thank you, chap!

The food arrived some 25ish minutes later. Three of us had ordered the steak & stilton pie, for which our anticipation was stoking to record levels. When we dug into the pies, we found a lot of mushed vegetables and no steak. And no stilton.

Nay bother, we thought. Our waiter - a helpful chap - promised to return with hot steak & stilton treats. But alas, he re-emerged to ask how on earth we had ordered these. I politely pointed him towards the blackboard. He was aghast. BUT WE DON'T HAVE ANY TODAY! THE SYSTEM HATH FAILED YOU! WHAT SORCERY DID YOU FORCE AT THE BAR TO ORDER THESE?

Immediately I thought that no officious civil servant could permit such a mistake, so the simplest explanation must instead be increased entropy in the space-time continuum local to Lyndhurst.

Again, nay bother, we said. Because the rest of our group had - by now - wolfed down their respective luncheon treats, we asked for three refunds (split across two cards). No problem, our helpful chap said.

After he failed to re-emerge, we ventured to the bar. There we met Management and Management told us, in a tone that our officious civil servant would have approved, that OUR CARD MACHINES DOTH BUTTER NO REFUNDS.

Apart from this being ludicrous, as all card machines do permit refunds, we were then asked to write out our full card details on a piece of paper. Very secure, I said. No way that could lead to card fraud, I said. THERE IS NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT, PADAWAN! Management soothed. Management started referring to this wonderful institution called HEAD OFFICE as if it were the focal point of our cult.

I demurred. I didn't fancy someone in the pub or HEAD OFFICE having my full card details, or those of my friend. Hardly 2023 secure. Hungry and devoid of steak & stilton, and about 90 minutes into this farce, I asked if The Powers That Be could issue me a refund from HEAD OFFICE instead. Management promised me that HEAD OFFICE would call, as we were £60 out of pocket and about 4 months wearier than when we began.

4 days on, nothing from HEAD OFFICE. I called the pub yesterday and was rebuffed, smoothly and elegantly, by someone behind the bar. Still no follow up.

I almost admire their ability to be simultaneously completely incompetent and fully competent at...

I really hate to be a ‘Karen’ but sometimes it has to be done, hopefully for the purpose of The Drift Inn improving their situation.

My partner and I went for lunch on Saturday at around 2pm and were hoping for a lovely New Forest pub experience. As my partner is from Devon, I was trying to introduce him to how lovely the New Forest can be through a pub which appeared to be lovely from its photos and menu online. Unfortunately we were hugely disappointed.

One thing I will say is that the FOH staff were lovely and I don’t want to fault them in this because they were polite and helpful throughout. However, we arrived and decided to sit in the garden because it was sunny, but we moved inside due to the outside area feeling pretty chaotic with kids and barking dogs etc (not the pub’s fault!). We moved inside and it was pretty much empty, which is somewhat understandable for after the lunch rush period, however there was zero atmosphere. The inside restaurant was completely silent, so much so it felt incredibly awkward with people being able to hear conversations and feeling like you had to whisper because of it. A bit of music would’ve gone a long long way!

The water glasses were dirty and plastic, which didn’t match the attempted aesthetic of the pub. We shared the garlic bread prawn gratin starter, which was pretty poor. Just frozen garlic bread slices with some cheese melted and prawns on top, nothing special for the price at all.

For mains, I had the fish & chips, with the fish being completely tasteless and clearly cooked from frozen. Fish from a chippy has a lot more flavour!! The mushy peas were also very basic and flavourless. My partner had the Reuben’s sandwich, which is his favourite, but he was incredibly disappointed. The bread was like cardboard, the pastrami was like corned beef from a tin, and the cheese was tasteless. He ordered fries to come with it, which were forgotten, and he had to go up to ask for them, but by then he’d finished eating.

Having to pay a £50 bill for something that was absolutely not worth the price was super difficult, as you never want to waste money. I hate leaving bad reviews, but honestly I really think that this place could do so much better. The aesthetic put forward by the pub and its website/menu is completely unmet. Either the prices and smarter aesthetic needs to be reduced, or things need to change to make this place better. Again, not the FOH staff, but a shame about...

Came here for dinner with my family a week and a half ago, ordered four meals and a sharing plate. When the food arrived there was no sharing plate. Apparently they hadn't put it on the order, when we asked why we had still been charged approximately what we expected, they told us they had added on a service charge. It does say this on the menu but it's in text so small that you could very easily miss it in a dimly lit pub. It's worth noting that for this service charge, we had to get up and walk over to somebody to order. We had to find someone to request cutlery after the food arrived since they had forgotten and we had to get up to order drinks at the bar.

The food itself was not great, it was the sort of food I'd expect from Wetherspoons, only twice as expensive and half the size. It was way too expensive for what we actually received.

The biggest issue, however, was following the meal when we ordered some coffees. It's worth mentioning that there was only one other table in the restaurant at this point in the evening. Somehow, after 30 minutes of waiting, the coffees hadn't arrived so we asked to cancel them and have a refund instead. We were told that the only way to get a refund is to fill out a form, give them all sorts of details (Name, address, bank card details, etc) and they would put those details into some system later to give us a refund. They said there was no possible way to simply refund the payment to the card, like every other shop/restaurant can.

Anyway, this all took place a week and a half ago and there's still been no refund. When I chased it up, I was told that it takes them 5-7 days for them to initiate the refund AND THEN 5-7 days for the bank to actually send the money back.

This place used to be quite nice about 5 years ago but now it just feels like I'm being scammed. They shouldn't need me to fill out an invasive form to receive a refund for some coffees I'd paid for 30 minutes earlier.

Come here if you're somebody who doesn't care if you receive your order, if you don't care if you have any cutlery to eat it with, if you don't care about the quality if it actually does arrive, and if you're not bothered about getting a refund after your order...