The Six Bells on the Green, Warborough

We stopped in at this pub, it being in a lovely location and with great character. We was greeted by lovely soppy doggy and young barman, and ordered drinks and food, and sat at a table opposite the log fire, which was lovely as we were very cold. Only us in the bar area at that point, so plenty of room for us to sit.
We sat down opposite the lovely fire, at an empty table, and were immediately encouraged by the young barman to sit at another table, as other people might also want to sit alongside us at the table, it being a table for four. We said we didn't mind that, and were happy sitting where we were. Then 5 mins later, we again had it strongly suggested to us that we might like to sit in the restaurant, as a larger group of people might come in and want the table we were on.... This comment was very odd and a bit rude i felt, as there was only us in the bar, plus a couple standing at the bar that had just come in, and it started to feel like we were being pressured to go in the restaurant on the off chance that a group of four might come in??? He then went on to suggest that the new waitress (who also looked somewhat embarassed) show us the tables in the restaurant to see if we liked it in there. It was all getting awkward now, and i could see my husbands hackles rising, so i quickly agreed that we would go and sit in the restaurant area to save a scene. I just wanted a stress free meal....thats all. So we were ushered around to the restaurant, which was empty, had no fire, and was very cold. The unwelcoming manner ruined our meal (which was ok food wise), and made us feel as if we were not wanted in the bar area for some reason. We are just a normal middle aged couple, clean and well groomed, and totally bemused at the behaviour of this young barman! We were not allowed to sit where we wanted, and were hassled until we moved. The really annoying thing was...no one sat at the table we originally chose to sit at, the whole time we were there. When we did go to stand in front of the fire to warm ourselves while waiting for our meal, we also had frosty looks from the barman as if we were doing something wrong. We quickly ate our food and left as soon as we could. I had to restrain my husband (a retired policeman of 30 years service) from saying something to the barman, but left a tip for the young waitress (her first day!), who did her best to deal with this obviously awkward situation. The barman has put us off going in there again, which is a shame, as the pub, food and other staff were lovely!

4 Dec 2010 19:09