The Bitter End, Cockermouth

We go in here occasionally when there is something on at the theatre next door. We have probably been in about a dozen times in the last 3 years. Whenever we have been in for just a drink we have never had a problem. We have only eaten here once and it was not a pleasent experience.

We had gone in with a couple of elderly relatives and had paid for our meal and a round of drinks when we ordered. As someone else mentioned we had to shout our order to the bar maid who would not come any closer to us than the till. My girlfriend was pregnant at the time and wanted a very weak shandy with lots of ice. The barmaid insisted that she could not pour less than a half of either lemonade or beer. This was despite the fact that I had had a lemonade splash in my lager. Then she would only give us a maximum of 4 ice cubes - no explanation was given for either of these. Eventually I ordered the drinks seperately and made the drink myself!!!

As we were leaving we were shouted at in front of the whole pub demanding our bill be paid by both the landlady and the bar maid. It wasn't even our bill they wanted us to pay but the table next to us. No apology or anything. This seems to happen a lot. I wonder how many people actually pay twice?

Overall service was awful but the beer and the food are good - its a shame really as this pub could be excellent.

24 Jul 2008 13:33