The Sportsman — Restaurant in Reigate and Banstead

Someone is going to get ill drinking from these contaminated brew pipes. We Used to love this pub. Perfect for dog walkers. But it’s gone downhill very noticeably under the new owners. It’s a real shame as this pub is trying to build its clientele with some great food and fun nights. But oh dear. The beer quality. Maybe they don’t care about this. If so that’s very short sighted. This is sad as it used to be great with great food. I mentioned this issue about the tainted taste of the beer to a group of beer fans. They all said the same. The Sportsman is just not good enough. I guess if you don’t care about beer then it’s fine. Food pretty good and there are some decent wines but oh dear. The landlord needs a lesson in beer keeping. He’s hopeless. Several times I and colleagues have pointed out to Lisa - who seems to be in charge - and this not so bright landlord that the pipes are tainted. There is no cellar and the pipes are set almost on a lever with the taps. There is a noticeable bad taste to what cones out if all of them. The beer is frequently off tasting. Even the key keg beers do not taste right. I’ve offered to arrange for someone to inspect them. That never happened. And today. Went in again and asked for the Beavertown Neck Oil. I said it was too warm. To which I was told ‘yes the cooler is broken’. You can’t serve this IPA unless cooled. So, WHY ARE THEY SERVING IT? To which I was told. ‘Well maybe some people won’t mind’. This is pub running at its worst. The rude and not very organised landlord is just not good enough. I spoke to a lady who rents a room in the pub. She used to work there and used to run a pub in Portsmouth. She agreed there were issues. Avoid this pub at all costs. Or try it and post your...

Although the service was good and the setting is fantastic, the food was a total turn off. Roast beef dinner which was in fact not roasted but appeared to be pan fried and greasy, the potato's were fairly obviously from frozen, as were the so called fresh vegetables, and lumpy gravy which still had in places the shape of the container it had been in before being heated and poured over the food. If you like horseradish sauce fine, but if you do not, you will have it on the plate without the choice to avoid having it. As for the other plate which was advertised as an 'oven baked potato', it was very disappointing. It was in fact a 'microwave oven baked potato'. For the price paid, this was one of the most disappointing meals I have ever had and although I am sure some people rate this place highly, perhaps they are not so discerning or do not know good food as it should be. We had our dog with us and even he turned away from the Yorkshire pudding which was like biscuit, and definitely unsavoury in texture and taste. If you compare this place to some of the decent pubs around which do proper Sunday roasts, then they are far better value than this place. What also makes me suspicious is that the so called roast beef was browned on both sides and certainly tasted like seared meat. You do not find slices of roast meat like that anywhere other than at this place, so if that is what you like or what you think a roast should be like, go ahead and waste you money, because I certainly will not and feel that I have been conned out of a lot of money for what was an amateur attempt to sell a traditional...

Lunch was lovely however I have potientally been double charged by the app showing an error and the manager doesn't seem to believe or want to help.

As soon as the second payment came out I phoned and spoke to the manager. They said it would 99% automatically be refunded into my account so I'd need to wait a week. I explained that it wasn't a pending payment, I had already waited a few days for it to clear. However, I gave them the benefit of the doubt and waited.

As it had not been refunded more than a week later I phoned twice more - the manager wasn't in, so they told me to leave my number and they would call me back as only the manager could deal with this. No one ever rang....

At this point I was tempted to give up as the double charge was under £12 And simply not worth the effort.

I rang once more. They said manager was in the kitchen so may not be able to speak about it.. I said that I'd left my number before so really wanted to speak to them.

The manager attitude seemed like they didn't care or they didn't believe me. They said I'd have to come in with all the proof. That is fair enough but I explained that it was a 40m drive each way so not really practical. They didn't offer any other solution, so I asked if I could email it all in instead. They said yes and then gave me the wrong email (they said .com and the email bounced) after googling I found it was .co.uk and resent.

However no one has responded to my email in a week - and I feel it has been ignored. I won't waste anymore time visiting again or...