Stonemasons, Ilminster

Had the good to fall upon the Stonemasons in Ilminster last night, I have to admit that if i hadent taken the wrong turning, I would never have found this lovelt pub.

My family and I had been traveling down to the South Coast and needed a reast bite, we turned toard Ilminster of the A303 after seing alocalservices signon the roundabout. We found the Stonemasons on the first roundabout as we entered Ilminster. at firs view this was a typical Estate pub, however thats where the familiarity ended. When entering the pub, the bar staff imediatly greeted us with a smile and askedif we would be eating, they took the time to explaine the method ofordering and even asked if we wouldlike to order drinks whilst we decided what we would be eating. The smile and refreshing mannor is a diferance from the majority of pubs these days. We sat down and desided on our meals, I aproched the bar and was aproched almost imediatly by a young man who i noted from the till disdplay, was named Dan. he asked if we wouldlike starters and even whent to the bother of explaining what came with the staretes, such as salad garnish and such like. I ordered our meals and some recomended side orders, Dan explained that we could open a tab and could order deserts after our mains and the waitress would take our desserts order at the table. A realy plesent start to our visit. I took a wonder around the pub whilst we waited for our meals, this was obviously arelativly new pub as it wa in excelent condition and exceptionaly clean. the waitres delivered our cutlery and condements and chated to us,asking if we had travledfar and general chit chat,lovely girl whos name i forger. Just taking the time to chat is a rear thin these days. Our starters arived. Prawn cocktail and breaded mushrooms, nicely presented and served promptly. the waitress asked if we she could do anything else for us and said " enjoy your meals " and realy ment it by the soundof things.

The Manager apeared from the kithcen and the staff didnt seem to notice, i say this as usualy when the boss apears, staff in pubs soon spee upand make it look like they ar doing somthing, not in this case, the staff seemed realy relaxed around this man. I saw the mager aproach severaltables and take the time to chat,i asumed he knew all the customers he aproched as he was frienly and chated about anything and everything, he then aproched our table and chetted to us asif he knew us too. what a suprise, he obviously valued our custom and asked how our jurny. he ended with enjoy your meals and have a safe jurny. I am harping on a bit here but i found the staff and manager so nice and frienly that i wanted everyon to know. The food was great and we even got a fee bottle of wine as we had purchased food over �15. what a deal. We had the attention we liked with the check backs and the managers conversation but didnt feel apressed atall. obveously a great team. Upon leaving the bar staff wished us a goodnight and the manager aproched us and asked us to visit again on our next passing. we definaitly will do so.

Having read some of the above apraisalsof the Stonemasons, I can only comment on our visit but if this was anything to go by, the previos visits must have been prior to the present managers incumbace.

A thouraly plesant visit and we will return again..... Marstons should be proud.

Paul Smith (Lichfield)

28 Sep 2010 11:14