The Crook and Shears — Restaurant in Test Valley

AVOID. AVOID AVOID. Attended for a special family birthday, group of 20 so booked here specifically because it had a skittle alley we could be situated in so sounded all great. Preorder required which is understandable considering size. Booked for 12 o clock.. at 12:03 with all but 2 guests yet to arrive, we were being told that we needed to sit down so starters could start coming out, we explained we were waiting on a couple more and they said they needed to get the starters out now due to other tables.. 3 minutes after we were booked to sit down.. ropey start. I’d like to say that they managed to at least do a good job of the drinks order, but even then I would be lying, someone ordered a coke and a coffee, to which the response was ‘pfft that might take a bit longer’ bamboozled but accepted a longer wait.. well turns out we’re still waiting on that coffee because it never did turn up. Starters arrived and come to think of it, I don’t think this course actually did come with any problems, so top marks there. But, with this rise in form came the ultimate decline. An hour and a half after receiving our starters which we rushed to sit down for due to other tables needing serving.. we finally started seeing mains filter in. Bare in mind it’s a Sunday, and everyone was having a roast and not an array of dishes, this was quite possibly the most shambollic attempt at a main course I will ever encounter. Between the first plate coming out, and the last plate coming out, there was at least 30 minutes between, meaning everyone was eating at completely different times unless you wanted to tuck into a stone cold dinner after staring at it for 30 minutes. This is also ironic, because 5 plates out of the 20 had to go back straight away due to them being handed out cold so god knows how long they had been sat in the kitchen for before hand. Just a complete shambles, and clearly the kitchen couldn’t cope with that many meals, even if it was 20 roasts that featured the same food bar meat so you would assume it’s easier to prepare in bulk. Quality of the roast was far from good either, lamb was more fat than meat.. one long carrot and parsnip per plate and 2 roasties.. great value for £18. Onto desert.. and it doesn’t get any better. Chocolate brownie was listed on the menu, so it was rather surprising when chocolate sponge came out on 4 plates, and then (you won’t believe this) they ran out of the brownies that weren’t brownies (even though we pre ordered) and 2 people recieved chocolate melt in the middle puddings that you can buy in Tesco, that were significantly smaller then what everyone else got, couldn’t quite believe it ourselves and rightfully so they weren’t paid for when it came to paying the bill. So not only did we not have what we ordered on any plate, but we also paid £9 a ‘brownie’ for the privellege. We then had more trouble when trying to sort the bill as they were initially refusing to split the 20 PERSON bill!! They wanted someone to pay the full wack. Comical. To top off the whole experience we’ve just had, this place charges what most would consider premium prices for pub grub.. £9 for starters and deserts, £18 for roasts, for that money you expect high quality food and experience and as you can read above, that’s not what we received. This place is 100% not suitable for catering for as many as 20 people, so if you are considering it for a function then please please please save yourself the money and disappointment that we recieved. 60th birthday meal...

Yes it is a quaint pub situated in a very quaint village.....But the menu was dominated by ‘pub grub’ no kids meals, no salads or ‘lighter bites’ like sandwiches etc. Virtually everything was priced at £13.95. We were served with dry burgers a small handful of overdone chips and some ‘sad looking’ salad. The coke was clearly nearly flat cola! I booked in advance, we were allocated a table in the shade next to the outside toilets. The pub and garden was nearly empty so we moved to a more inviting table. The landlord?was clearly upset by this saying as my guests (who were stuck on the M25)were late, he might have to move us. I note that although there were a a sprinkling of new customers when we left his comments to me were in my opinion of ‘this is a locals pub and we were not welcome! £85 for 4 burgers (one divided for the children) and ham eggs and chips was totally overpriced. Avoid unless you...

Genuine, real, proper English pub. Apparently we were not the first to have searched online for 'great pubs long the A303' and clearly Uncle Google has it right. This is not a fancy gastro pub with prices to match. This is a traditional village Inn with real people drinking real beer and enjoying an evening out together. Low ceilings, fireplace, nosy dog and chatty landlord. Too feel of these places survive and it is a joy for my family and I to experience. My teenage son's immediate reaction was "can we find a pub like this near home". Menu was what you'd expect from a pub. Served piping hot with a smile. Reasonable prices. No, it's not a drive through at the side of the motorway and you will need to allow 5 minutes to get there. But it's worth every second if proper pub is what...