please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Now doing tapas - lovely jubley.
|
The lounge and bar are combined. Thus easier for mods to crash in and tear the place up with their ahinny little motormobiles. Nothing gets between me and Mr fosters.
|
I do not understand the last post - but this pub no longer has a public bar; this has now been incorporated into the lounge and the end product looks very good. Food (Thai is gone) is served in the old public bar space where sport continues to be shown on TVs.
The new food menu, and drink quality, is very good. Probably now the best pub in Reigate with high quality fixtures and fittings - though located away from the town centre, opposite the old bus garage. One of only two pubs in the locality with Sky/BT sports.
|
Now open - after a fine refurbishment...
|
Closed - builders at work.
|
I visited this pub two weeks ago and was a little shocked to see the bar staff regularly using slops to top up fresh pints. Beside each drip tray was a pint glass which contain spillage for each beer. I witnessed this spillage being used to start off a new pint of beer. I thought this sort of practice had died out, sadly not in this pub.
Also the pub were still advertising Cask Marque despite Cask Marque saying that they had not been renewed for 2 years. All this confirms what I have suspected for a while ie why the beer here never tastes the same or as good as in other pubs. By the way the staff are often rude as has been commented before.
|
A long time since I was last in and can't work out why it has been so long.
Really like the place especially as they have Aspels cider. Not sure what the last poster was on about regarding the bar staff, found the young who served me to be very friendly.
Good selection of wine and malt whisky.
Will certainly be back soon.
|
staff do not know what the other one is doing. Rude to customers. Change's the rules every day to suit themselves. since when does an adult have a straw in a glass of coke. answer only when drinking in pubs that do not want customers. would not and will not be going back. Change the management.
|
In here on 11 June. Broadside, Doom Bar, Pride, Harvey's Sussex Best and Castle Rock Preservation. Looked fairly modern. Sat in separate public bar. OK.
|
Once a good venue for watching foot`ie on four good size T.V.screens, but food orders, obscure rugby games on one or two screens, background music have puzzled VENTURE INN football fans what to expect next?
Sometimes no foot`ie commentary because some customers are eating!-
less than four on last count!
Recently the wearing of football shirts has been banned which has taken away most of the atmosphere-no more `friendly` banter-some occasional clapping when a goal is scored-cheering not tolerated!
Beer prices up again...and a few `dodgy` pints (Sussex) has marred the Venture Inn`s reputation. Next stop maybe the local Social Club.
|
Not a bad pub - very good for watching football or rugby, nice Thai food but...
Over many visits I've seldom had a good pint - there are good ales on sale but they're never quite right - cloudy and/or dodgy tasting. Such a shame & they don't really seem that bothered either.
|
The girl behind the bar here was extremely rude and I would not go back there - ever.
|
A far better pub than its rating suggests, and in my oppinion, also a much better pub than when it was the Desert Rat. Although it did initially through a short phase of having an almost brothel-like feel following some ill-advised interior design choices!
With the colourful walls returned to a more conservative hue, the environment is now pretty good, with 2 bars of very differing character - one, quieter with carpets and comfy leather sofas and the other slightly more bar-room like with wooden floors and more traditional pub furniture + the obligatory big screen.
A pub for the real ale purist it is not. But as a lively, friendly clean and well run establishment it is perfectly suited to the slightly well heeled area it sits in.
The selection of beers is large and varied, the wine lists are imaginative and very well priced, and to top all that they serve an extensive menu of authentic Thai food which is the best of its kind for many a mile. (I paid a fiver for my Thai green curry and it was simply brilliant!)
The venture inn will not be what everybody is looking for but for the 30-40 somethings of Reigate it fulfills exactly what it sets out to be. Good fun at good prices and run by a good team with good staff.
|
I have visited this pub on several occasions, and the food is absolutely delicious. You cant fault the staff who provide the food, but anything else is to much effort it would seem.
Firstly, you have to leave your card behind the bar when eatimg, which in this day in age, when identity theft is of upmost importance, seems a liitle odd.
When making a minor complaint to the owner the other evening, he decieded that his best course of action was to ignore us.
So yes the food is great, but dont believe for one second that they value your custom.
|
Food, service and hygiene are all good - and as Biggus says, it may be 'the best run pub in Reigate.'
What it lacks is atmosphere. It 'dosen't feel like a friendly local' - a previous poster said. Atmosphere is what the Rat had, and the friendly Jimmy Dansie.
The Venture Inn is on the market.
|
I still cant understand the reviewers that preferred this pub when it was the Desert Rat. When Tom took this place over it was a run down, dirty, nasty horrible hole, full of people nursing a small coca cola while playing pool for hours on end.
It is now, without a doubt, the best run pub in Reigate, the beer is good, if not its not for sale. The food here is exceptional, & you never see a dirty table.
|
Very quiet indeed...was much better as the Desert Rat at least it had some atmosphere! Best avoided.
|
The Venture Inn has improved over the last couple of years. The beer quality is better and more consistent and the Thai food cannot be faulted. I have eaten 7 or 8 times here and the quality is always of a high standard and can be relied upon. One minor criticism, it would help if the bar staff could speak English and understood what a full pint meant.
|
We're lucky to have this place in Reigate. The range of drinks are all great brands- wine, real ale, lager and soft drinks. Not cheap but I did an 'ale sampling' crawl a while back and it was the best qaulity that day. Thai food doesn't disappoint, but only bowls you over on the heat of some of the sauces... One improvement? Doesn't feel like a friendly local. I'm a local and perhaps not friendly myself but it's up to the staff to say hello to me or the wife, (we can drink in silence at home).
|
Possibly the best food to be had in Reigate for the money. Good beer, interesting wines (for a boozer) - and not too expensive either.
|
Enjoyed the beer and atmosphere here. Can't speak about the Thai food on offer. Will be better once smoke free.
|
This isn't the most absorbing, innovative or enjoyable pub around. On the face of it it is fairly average. But relative to what else Reigate is offering just down the road in the centre, especially to the more traditional non-Knightsbridge-aspirant visitors, this is rapidly becoming one of the best places to go for a few jars. The Venture offers a range of 5 beers, most are "obvious" but it includes 1 more unusual guest, and all have been well-conditioned in my experience.
There is a fine range of good malts for the serious whisky quaffer, and half-decent wines. Don't expect to pay anything less than exorbitant prices; the Venture has always been expensive, but then again it's been caught up in recent years by many other Reigate pubs.
The really clever thing here is that they've resisted the temptation to create a single-bar barrack-room by knocking the middle wall through, which has meant that there are 2 distinctly separate bar areas, both offering a different experience to their respective clientele. The left bar is more middle-class, groups and couples, all having a jolly but civilised time, broadly favouring the ales. The right bar is perhaps a little more yoof and bloke-orientated, with a big screen for footie etc and a predominantly lager-drinking bent. The 2 sides seem to peacefully co-exist and it makes for a pub that can offer an equally good night to both camps. Friendly and efficient barmaids always help raise the standard too. Good effort, keep on improving. This definitely deserves a higher average rating than 5.0!
|
Not a bad pub unless you happen to stumble in on one of the "traditional" music sessions. Of course if you actually like bloody awful Irish folk tunes played with grim determination by middleaged men with beards, jumpers, Asperger's Syndrome, ego problems more in keeping with the members of a teenage boy band and an inability to grasp the fact that a slip jig's in 9/8 time then this pub's okay every night.
|
Scooterroy is omnipresent in pubs- see London, Bristol, West Midlands, Oxford, Cambridge, IOW etc.. Went in here the other Sunday night and had a "nice" "mellow" time just chatting and drinking with a few pals. So improving
|
Scooterroy must be a priory drinker..
this is a good pub, its suits the the local residents well and is one of the better pubs in reigate by far..
anonymous - 30 Sep 2005 12:25 |
Paul McD obviosly sampled the complete range of intoxicatng liquor before he wrote the comment OR he is a relation of an astronaught because the only place that has less atmosphere than this is the MOON
|
you will never find a pub with such a great choice of beers largers and wines. great atmosphere, sports bar is always full for football.good food.full credit to Tom and John for thier work.
|
I totally agree that when it was the Desert Rat it was a league better than how it is now. The locals were very friendly and it had a really special atmosphere (specially the games room) no chavs and a great mix of every type of decent folk. Albeit along with the bus station opposite it has sadly gone. I remember when the new landlord told me that the target customer was lunch time office workers. booooooo!
|
The Desert Rat was a far better pub in the day. 2 pool tables, dart board, pinball, juke box, table football..
Ahhh those were the days.
Souless pub now...
Ronnie - 12 Nov 2004 11:08 |
Used to quite like the Desert Rat - the games room was excellent. However this ain't a bad place either. Good for football.
Nick - 14 Oct 2004 19:31 |
Lovely looking pub inside and out, with a good selction of draft lagers and Ales.
Very well layed out with that great pub feel.
Scott - 24 May 2004 10:28 |
They serve Lowenbrau - what more could you want?
anonymous - 10 Mar 2004 22:23 |
Brilliant pub, so much better than the desert rat! Vast improvement.
Clive - 5 Mar 2004 21:34 |
discusting- my late grandfather was a desert rat in WW2,pub originally named in honour of their regiment,name changed and offended vetrans and their families, will never set foot in there again purely on that.
GaryLager - 11 Jan 2004 17:59 |
Nice Pub, but one of the increasing number of irritating ones that taunts you with a blackboard of tasty food, but when you've ordered you pints tell that its only served at lunch times. (probably only between 1pm & 1:10pm on a Good Friday.
geoff_soper - 24 Sep 2003 13:59 |
This used to be a bikers bar in the early 80's. Jammed packed with low lifes - is it any better now?
a non emous - 23 May 2003 11:43 |
Excellent pub situated next to Julians barbers. Brilliant for a sporting sabbath and the food provided is excellent.
PJ Lindley - 14 May 2003 13:20 |
They always have a good selection of ales (4 or 5) and two widescreen TVs for sport. The other bonus is the very comfy leather sofas in the smaller bar.
David Cockbain - 13 May 2003 10:10 |
