The Happy Cheese — Restaurant in New Forest

Avoid - Avoid - Avoid !

You really have to read through the one star reviews here to get a real picture of what your visit would be.

All of them are quite detailed as well and I concur in every word.

The service is atrocious, we walked through the entire pub and waited at the entrance to be seated, but no one ever came to check on us.

My wife then noticed a sign at the front that said you could order online and we were happy to do so, so we just found an empty table and tried the QR code sitting on the table.

Now, they don’t have an app like MyPub or Young’s, they just have a poorly configured payment platform.

Here’s where things went from bad to worse, when I made an order on the website, filling in my address and card details, my card was charged but the website reported that the billing address was incorrect and it couldn’t proceed.

So I tried again with a different card, - same outcome.

Now, I sincerely hope these pending transactions would not go through in the end, I asked the staff to check on this, but I don’t have any confidence that they did. Otherwise, I’ll be having a long conversation with my bank trying to charge back these payments.

At this point we already we on the edge, but being in the middle of nowhere with no other open places around we wanted to get our food anyway.

So I had to go the bar and ask a waitress if they can take our order, the waitress reluctantly agreed.

Several minutes later, the waitress came over and took our order and we began our wait, which took quite a while.

First, the drinks came and with the drinks, came a card machine and we paid for the entire order. I explicitly asked for a receipt given our troubles with their website, which turned out to be very prudent.

At least 40min later our food arrived, a small creme risotto covered in dried parsley that tasted like a cheap soup cup, that you poor hot water in when no actual food can be found. And a disappointing carbonara, with no parmesan or any taste at all really. Sprinkled with the same dried parsley.

Now, we live in the capital and prices at this pub were not that far from a normal chain restaurant, but the food and service quality for this money was unbelievably poor.

I wish this was the end of our experience at this pub, but it wasn’t.

When the food was brought, I asked for another Guinness for my wife and they assured they would bring it. This they did just a minute later with a card machine and asked if we were ready to pay for everything, the number on the bill was indeed for our entire order including the food and drinks that we have just paid for already.

Now that’s where the receipt I asked for came in very handy.

After pointing out their mistake, they did adjust the bill to just include the additional Guinness and said they were sorry for inconvenience (I doubt they are).

All in all, this a badly managed place with awful service and poor quality overpriced food.

The only good thing to name is that the pub is quite pretty from the outside, which is probably how they lure...

My family and I have just returned from an unstisfacotory experience at your pub, the Happy Cheese.

I called yesterday, Saturday 25th July, to book a table for Sunday 26th, we asked if there was a carvery service and this was confirmed back that carvery was available, the lady took my name and I had to spell out my surname, I did request table 7 or the corner table the other side of the fire place, she confirmed it would be a request not guaranteed which was fine.

On arrival on Sunday, there was no one to greet us so we went to the bar to order drinks. We then noticed that there was no carvery as confirmed on the telephone the day before, this was VERY disappointing. While drinks were being poured, we saw a lady so got her attention and told her we had booked a table and told her my name, it appeared that she had no booking under my name, she then took us to table 27 the other side of the pub not the area we had requested. The table was very sticky. It was confirmed by a member of staff there was no carvery but a plated roast, it was so disappointing that we were told that there would be a carvery only to find it wasnt, our only reason for coming. Also, at no time were we asked to leave our details for test and trace, which I feel is unacceptable.

We ordered our food to be told there would be an hours wait, another disappointment. When we eventually got our food, my husband who ordered the roast asked for some mint and horseradish sauce, the member of staff brought back just horseradish when we asked if there was any mint he said, no we haven't got any., I find that hard to believe. We then had to ask for cutlery, he returned with a bucket and walked away where we found only 2 forks and 3 knives , there were 4 of us ! He obviously didn't check or care. My husbands roast came, but with no gravy, which he had to ask for and the member of staff said "oh yes, I forgot" he returned with a very small jug of gravy so my husband asked for some more, the member of staff said I'll ask if you can have some more, when he returned he said, no unless you pay for it, this is very poor considering you are charging the same price as a carvery where you can help yourself to as much vegetables and gravy as you like ! My 2 childrens chicken stack burgers were also burnt. The table near us also experienced issues with service and orders and cutlery!

Considering the bill totalled £90 , 2 starters, 6 drinks and 4 mains, for a family of 4, I feel this isn't the type of service and experience we expected, especially as...

This review is edited. Moved to top of timeline but clearly during covid pandemic restrictions

We booked a table for yesterday and when we arrived we were met by the grumpiest and unwelcoming waitress ever. More about her later. She asked straight away had we booked without so much as an hello. We then said where was our table and she said "sit anywhere you like". Good start. Not. We then sat down at table. Looking around some menus where on the floor and general rubbish. We waited and waited for someone to ask if we wanted drinks. Eventually we saw another waitress and she took our order and bought us drinks. Whilst we sat there we saw 2 groups turned away. One group of 4 men and one group of 2 men. Absolutely ridiculous as there were 23 tables shown as reserved but by the time we left 2 hours later only 3 of those tables were occupied. What a shoddy way to run a business in these times when times have been so hard. I wonder if the owner knows this is happening. My impression was it was the staff that did not want to serve any more customers. We finally ordered our food but had to go and ask a waitress to come over. Food took about 25 mins to arrive. Food was ok. My burger bun and meat were burnt to a cinder though. Then came the long wait for the dessert menu. No waitress in sight. They now had 3 on as opposed to 2 when we arrived. One was sitting with her boyfriend at a table and in all the time we were there. 2 hours. We saw her bring out 2 cups of coffee and some starters. We had tables around us still with food plates and left over food on them. Laziness and not a way to attract customers. Finally we gave up waiting and had to go to the desk to ask for and book our dessert. Some of the ingredients weren't available for one. We ate our dessert as quickly as possible to get out of there. So disappointing as we ate there indoors last year and it was a lovely welcome and great food. I don't know if the owners have changed because it's gone downhill. If you are the owner you really should not be turning away people you can easily accommodate. Won't be going back. There are much nicer,cleaner and friendlier pubs in the New...