Recently me and the wife decided to go mid week for a meal and a drink.
Firstly the pub looked fantastic, clean tidy and generally in good order. I loved the oldie worldie style of the low roofs, oak beamed ceilings, open fire and cosy lighting. Everything about the place was how you would want a old traditional pub to be.
There was about three other people in the pub when we arrived at around 7pm and the car park was totally empty.
We ordered our drinks then went though into the dining area which was empty of people. I noticed that I had been slightly over charged for the two drinks but didn?t make a fuss of going back to point this out to the landlord.
The first thing that struck me about the new menu was how professional and branded it looked. There was also a good lengthy choice of hearty pub meals. I was however disappointed that the grills had vanished with the new menu, but no big deal.
I went back to the bar after we chose what we wanted to eat and placed the order. I ordered Steak and Ale pie and my wife had lasagne. This totalled a bit over 13 pounds. I handed over a ?20 note, and was handed ?1.30!!
I told him about his mistake and he apologised and handed over ?5.00.
I went back to our table. Shortly after the same large guy at the bar shuffled his way into the kitchen. We could then hear the "Beep Beep, Ping", me and the wife laughed at the thought of the microwaves being started.
He then came out to deal with the 3-4 other people in the bar. I couldn?t believe that he was combining bar duties with chefing at the same time.
He would waddle back into the kitchen and randomly shout out the kitchen door to the punters "Will be with you in a sec"!
Along came the food and I will admit it actually looked very palatable, the chips were crispy and the pie was fresh looking and smelled quite good.
The meal on a whole was acceptable but it had no fresh flavour and was a bit stodgy and heavy, not fresh, flavoursome and homemade like the old menu. My wife loved her lasagne and said it was on par if not better than the old menu one.
I ordered another pint of bitter with my meal, this time he brought the beer our table along with the change. He joked and said it?s all there this time 35pence and apologised about last time, we laughed. I looked into my hand at what he had given me............ 17 pence!!!.
For a quick bite to eat with the Mrs I would recommend it, as for taking guests or family, hmmmmmmm, maybe not! Watch out for the short changing manager though.
