Hare & Hounds — Restaurant in Rochdale

Been past the place so many times over the years, but never stopped by. Today I changed that, and decided to stop for some dinner while sat in the sun at the side of the pub. We were there for opening at midday. Along with a few other customers.

Lovely, well kept stone house on Bury Road. Lovely character that is hard to come by around this neck of the woods.

Partner had a jacket, with Tuna Mayo. I had the Hare Burger with fries.

Jacket potato was actually baked, not just microwaved. Served with proper butter, and a fresh, crisp side salad and mixed leaves. Little drizzle of a nice salad dressing over, which didn't over power the quality of the salad itself. Good portion of tuna mayonnaise on top. Good quality tuna and mayonnaise used. Absolutely no complaints from my partner.

I asked if it would be possible to swap out the BBQ sauce on my burger for something spicy if possible. Waitress suggested a homemade sweet chilli sauce. This was swapped out. No questions asked. No extra charge for doing so.

Burger patties were hand made, succulent. Seasoned perfectly. Outstanding quality thick cut back bacon (I'm guessing no added water). Plenty of mature grated cheddar. Fresh lettuce, red onion and ripe tomatoes. The chilli sauce was also really, really tasty. Served on a sesame brioche. Fried were cooked to absolute perfection. I didn't leave a single crumb on the plate.

I also asked if it would be okay to have a glass of tap water. No questions asked. Served with ice and slice of lemon.

Food was brought to us outside after around a fifteen minute wait.

A meat delivery arrived from the farm shop directly across the road by hand. Great to see them supporting a local supplier.

All in all. The best pub grub we've had in a long time. At a lovely venue. With great staff, service, and prices.

Easiest 5 stars I've given in a long time.

Keep up the good work. And I'll...

This was our first visit to the Hare & Hounds - we were looking to make a local booking at short notice and our first two choices couldn't accomodate our party of eight. The pub was quite quiet on arrival, and is fairly small on the inside split into a cosy restaurant type area with an open fire, and a more open bar style area.

Our party was seated at a table in the bar area which had a large flat screen TV above it. An inauspicious start. There's no table service here, so you order your food at the bar.

The order was for two Sunday roasts (one beef, one lamb), two cheese and onion pies, a lamb baguette and a rag pudding, plus two kids meals. All came out relatively quickly, and were all very decent and good value.

The desserts were a little more hit and miss. We'd ordered a strawberry cheesecake, Belgian chocolate tart, fudge cake and sticky toffee pudding. The cheesecake and chocolate tart were quite bland - it was difficult to discern much of a taste of anything from either which is quite an accomplishment for a...

Called last might with a friend for one pint. We stood at the bar to be totally ignored by the barman. He neither made eye contact, nor acknowledged our presence. He walked from the bar into the second bar, returned, left again and went to a table. He returned and put a wine bottle into an ice bucket. He then left yet again. In all this time he did not say he would be with us in a minute. After five minutes of being ignored we left. The worst service I have ever had.

The response from the pub asks whether I have the right establishment and calls it odd, which appears to cast doubt on my review.

I have the right establishment. No mention of an apology, no mention of improving service. Why am I not surprised?

I notice the owner suggests I dish out a lot of one star reviews. A swift check of my reviews will show he is talking rubbish, which matches the service...