please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Late write up from 29/09/08 visit (looking back through diary).
Hidden at the back of this imposing Hotel (through the front door straight back and follow the corridor to the room labelled "Back Bar" a complete contrast to the front dining rooms and restaurants. Again the Adnams Explorer and Broadside were excellent, the brewery is in the street behind. 7 for the back bar.
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I did not believe it when I read the review below that Adnams is �4 a pint here, well it is but that was a bargain compared with the wine prices (by the glass), �11.50 for a glass of St Emillion which must have been opened a week ago? I must be the wrong market, Islington-On-Sea this truly is. Adnams need to get their act together in their home town � you get the impression that they own everything and just don�t care.
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AVOID! For a treat my wife and I stayed here recently and used the resturant and bar. Nearly �4 for a pint of Adnams?! Are you taking the pi$$? Is that transportation fees or something?!!!! Dingy tiny back bar with the feel of a doctors waiting room topped of with slow service. Resturant not much better either. For the price it was a total let down. Use the Nelson instead.
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More interested in the wine and posh nosh brigade than your serious ale drinker. Good place to go to if you want a posh meal, although you'll probably enjoy the Nelson more.
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Great location, excellent food.
Sadly, the 'Back Bar' is neglected by the staff and you can be waiting an age until one of the waiters pops their head round to see if anyone is waiting.
The staff also don't take the care or time to pour a pint properly, an overfilled pint of froth is all you'll find here. If you want to really enjoy a pint of Adnams then go to any of the tennant pubs in the town.
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The glass was hot and the pint wasn't a full one, so the Adnams bitter was slightly not the right temperature and slightly not a pint. Bit sloppy really for the brewery's back yard. The place was a reasonably well preserved and appealing, even though I suspect this is the result of a sympathetic make over recently rather than being fully original (the brass thing in the back bar is a giveaway for me) but that's ok.
The food was good as far as it went but if you like your main course to fill you up you'd better order two if you can afford it. To be fair when we pointed this out to the waiter he offered us free desserts, but I'm not a dessert man so went to bed peckish.
I have to say that with the exception of the big tea shop cafe at the harbour (lovely home made cakes) Southwold is one big rip off.
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Frankly my dear it seems Adnams no longer gives a damm.....
Sadly the Crown is not the place it once was and is clearly coasting bloatedly on its former reputation.
The beer is good - as you would expect from what is effectively the brewery's second "tap" - and the wine list first-class - again to be expected.
But locals driven out/discouraged by a previous manager have not returned.
And the staff may be enthusiastic but they are clearly not getting enough direction from the current management.
Service is sloppy and cavalier - complaints about the state of the loos were ignored.
It's not good enough - Adnams must do better because even with their monopoly in Southwold they take customers for granted at their commercial peril.
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First class Cod and chips and a cracking pint of Adnams Explorer. Staff could do with cheering up a bit though !!
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Our first pint after stepping off the bus in Southwold. Already busy at 12:40 in the main bar which seems predominantly for food and we were advised that the 'Back Bar' may be more to our liking, which it was. A nice little room to the rear but still with a view through the entrance hall to the street. Fine pint of Adnams bitter and a friendly & knowledgeable barman who told us about the new 'Spindrift'; not for me, but with which Adnams may be trying to target the keg market maybe for some radical lager drinkers who want to start tasting something in their pint. The bar had some brass nautical navigation equipment in the corner and a picture and story of a submarine hunting vessel disguised as a fishing skiff (the submarine won). Better by far than our next stop, its Adnams sister hotel The Swan, although bizarrely the same barman popped up there too. He should teach the Swan's barman some etiquette in customer relations.
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Ignore the identikit bareboard gastropub at the front and soldier on until you get to the cosy wood panelled snug at the back. Suddenly it all becomes worth while.
Top notch Adnams, of course.
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