The Poplar Farm — Restaurant in Test Valley

Lovely pub and well laid out. Unfortunately this is the third time we've visited and it's always mildly disappointing. Some of the food is excellent but the seafood is always chewy and a little overdone.

It was disappointing to be allowed to order from the menu to be told a lot of items were unavailable. It seemed like a game of chess. This happened on all three courses. The most irritating part was when certain items were not available as part of an offer, there was not alternative offered. For example, the pizza was offered with fries for an additional £1.50 but these were not available. Chips were ordered instead but were charged at the full £2.95 rate. These small details really showed a lack of understanding and flexibility. This happened again at desert where offers were either unavailable without a substitute, or when an offer was processed, the most expensive items were moved from the offer and replaced with separate orders to ensure the maximum cost.

The whole process was frustrating, showed at best a rigidity to the ipad menu and at worst, a concerted effort to squeeze out maximum profit from our party.

Third strike. Will not be dining here again.

Downgraded to a one star review due to the lack of imagination from the responses from the management to the Google reviews. This entire process has felt like a 'computer says no' activity and screams of a lack of imagination, passion and desire to actually...

Awful service today 13.07.25, never encountered before such awful service....

We booked online a table for 13.15, arrived at 13.00. Was shown to our table. Our order for drinks was taken, we asked then if we could give our food order also, but was told by the waitress I will be back! 25 minute's later, no waitress appeared so I went up to the bar and asked if we could please order. Our original waitress was nowhere to be seen, so our order was taken by another waitress, she apologised, but our waitress was held up on another table. We sat and waited an hour, yet our food had still not appeared. More drinks ordered!! We observed that Home delivery was constantly being taken away.. people arriving after us were also being served. We asked after an hour and five minutes after our arrival, how much longer would we need to wait, only to be told approx another 10 minutes!! At this point we then said sorry but we are leaving.

We have been visiting the Poplar farm regularly over the years and have never encountered such poor service than we have today. We do feel that since taking on the home delivery service, that this seems to take presidence over the restraunt customers which is an awful shame. We left and called another restaurant, and luckily was given a table. Doubt we will be back to Poplar farm as today's experience...

We recently dined on two consecutive evenings, and overall, it was a lovely experience. On our first visit, I had the lasagne, which was hot, tasty, and just the right portion size, while my husband thoroughly enjoyed his sirloin steak. For dessert, I had the crème brûlée, which was absolutely delicious, and my husband opted for the crumble, which he also enjoyed. The cask ale was a perfect accompaniment, and we found the food and drinks to be reasonably priced. The service was another highlight—the waitress was friendly and helpful, and we appreciated that the pace of the service was relaxed and not rushed, making for a very pleasant evening.

We were so pleased that we returned the following night with our son. He tried the pie of the day, which he really enjoyed, and my husband and I both had sirloin steak. While the steak was still good, my husband felt it wasn’t quite as nice as the previous night, being a bit overcooked for his liking. Unfortunately, we also had to request condiments a few times, which never arrived. Despite this, the waitress remained just as pleasant and friendly as before.

Poplar Farm offers great food at a good price, with a warm and welcoming atmosphere. While there were a couple of minor issues on our second visit, the overall experience was still positive, and we would...