please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Sorry, in case anyone feels like being pedantic, the Dark Matter was in fact 3.6% and not 3.8%.
|
I was drawn to this pub by its large outdoor seating area on a sunny Friday afternoon in July, and the chalk board outside advertising its cask ales. It was fairly busy though there were a few tables available.
There was a bank of hand pumps at the bar and I opted for a pint of Dark Matter from Peerless Brewery, a 3.8% mild. The name rings a bell with me and I am wondering if I have had this before somewhere else. £3.39 for the pint.
Sadly the beer was not very good at all. In fact that is probably an understatement. Whether it was just not to my taste, or whether it was badly kept, I cannot be sure, but it was very vinegary tasting to the point where I just could not persevere with it any more, and I ended up leaving half the pint. It's fair to say I don't think I have ever tasted anything quite like it, and nor do I wish to again.
Bar service itself was OK, and the pub has a nice large airy modern feel to it inside. The bar staff seem to double up as hotel receptionists, which did result in a slight delay in being served.
|
Fairly ordinary big pub in the town/village centre. Watch out for the party theme on Saturdays (lots of old blokes plus 80's music), and the quiz without questions on a Sunday.
|
Okay town centre pub with cask ales available.
alexw - 21 Jan 2014 07:48 |
This pub has a front 'garden' as its best selling point on a spring/summer's evening but it doesn't make up for it being rather uninspiring in general. The beer choice is pretty poor and the pint of best I had was creamy and bland (more like some smoothflow crap rather than a real ale) . Food-wise I went for the curry platter which was good value, though it was definitely more supermarket 'indian' curry then true indian curry. There are better places in Ambleside for food and beer.
|
Pint of cumberland now up to�3.35 a pt.Chefs special steak pie turned out to be a vegetarian dish.This hotel stinks of the give us your money and bugger off code of hotel management.Eat or drink in here you will be staggered by the ineptitude of the staff.
|
Well, this is why you just cant trust review web sites! I wouldnt choose to eat here, as it all looked a bit too delivered off a van. But the pint of Thwaites that I had was the best pint in all of the ambleside pubs (and we went to all of them). Even topped the bluebird at the Queens.
And the last bloke said the beer was terrible!
|
The beer here was absolutely terrible. The guest tasted of vinegar and the Jennings Cumberland was just stale. We left 4 half finished pints and walked out. There was no point complaining because the staff looked like they didn't care. Grumpy staff and bad expensive beer in any other country this would not be a sustainable business!
|
Ducked in here this afternoon and found it to be very welcoming indeed. Comfy chairs and efficient service and enough info on display to suggest that this pub is well liked by locals. A very cheery barmaid as well who has very good manners. The only issue I had was with the ale on offer. This area has some truly magnificent beers but it wasn't obvious that these were being either offered or promoted. The most prominent hand pull was from a long standing Scottish brewery and the beer that we finally settled on was Liberation Ale from the Channel Islands. Superb example of a summer ale/IPA line, but a bit out of place maybe.
|
never had any problems in this place. Maybe i've just been lucky.
Don't mind the place at all and the beer is usually decent.
|
Not sure why anyone would go here...always seems full so you can't get a seat, but looking at the food I don't think you'd want to. Many better places in Ambleside to go to
|
Seems to be very popular but I felt it was a bit lacking in atmosphere. Just went in the once and had a reasonable though not cheap pint. There are better places in town.
|
visiting this hotel after a walk frrom Grasmere over Loughrigg we arrived as a group of 6, (3 couples) to enjoy a lunch and a few pints and sit down, to then be verbally attacked by the landlord for moving his tables which we didn't. fundamentally a rude and offensive individual who despite his statement, I've been in this business 28 years....., does not deserve customers...take a trip to the Unicorn where we ended up a friendly environment which willingly took our money nearly �100.. good food and beer, to you mine host at the White Lion, your loss and may you learn something by your outburst, that is the old adedge the customer can be right.
|
Having ordered our drinks at the (Hawkshead bitter isn't at all bad) I was told to order food was 'table service' and if I heard that comment once I heard it hundred times - what's wrong with a simple sign. Our waitress clearly had a charisma bi-pass, but we ordered successfully. Our starters were excellent, but no sooner had we finished when the main course arrived, which is where the fun began. I had ordered the fisherman's pie with winter vegetables. I received a burnt dish of mashed potatoes with a drizzle of cheese on top and some rather shrivelled baby carrots and a handful of peas - not value for money we thought. However, having taken that in, our waitress was no where to be seen. We complained - I ordered something new and my wife's wrap was also taken away. My new meal came back, freshly cooked - my wife's wrap only re-heated, which meant the meat juices were flowing freely, completely ruining the meal as the wrap was now soggy. Much dialogue with the staff and a much reduced bill later, we left vowing never to come back. We'll stick with the Queens in future, however busy.
|
A good selection of beers. But service with a smile wouldn't have gone a miss and if I'd have entered without seeing the outside, I could have quite happily believed this to be a Wetherspoons or a similar characterless chain. Beers available were Thwaites Original, Arundel Autumn Ale, Hawkshead Bitter and Mordue Coffee Porter. But I'd have to say this was the worst of the 3 pubs we tried in Ambleside.
|
It might have a fair selection of guest ales but good luck trying to order any! Staff encourage a 'free-for-all' at the often busy bar with the loudest and pushiest generally winning. Witnessed an extraordinary incident on Sunday when one man, overlooked for some time, stood up for himself only to be set upon by the landlord.
There are far better pubs yards away (like the Queens Hotel) with better kept beer and a welcoming atmosphere so best avoid this one.
|
Was the first pub we visited when we arrived and i have to say we had the best pint here than anywhere else the whole weekend also the staff were super friendly i cant believe some of the previous posts would go back again on my next visit
|
I couldn't fault the pint of hawkshead I had in here, girl behind the bar was friendly, but the place itself is a typical PubCo hole with the usual nauseating interior and staple evil eyed tracksuit locals. You will probably get a decent pint, but you might not want to finish it...
|
The White Lion is an M&B corporate pub, which does major on food during the early evening. However the beer range, from the M&B list, but with the local Hawkshead Bitter as regular beer is very good, and the Hawkshead was in excellent condition (the best pint in Ambleside last week).
|
For a GBG pub, there is nothing pub-like about this place. The beer was OK, the food was certainly nothing special. But it is a bland, characterless hotel.
|
For your ten quid you always get a huge plateful of food here. Unfortuanately it's nearly all chips and salad. All they care about here is getting you in and out as quickly as possible and charging as much as they dare for the truly appaling menu.
Only go for a drink (which is very expensive too) just to annoy them. Then as the last poster says go to a proper pub. Or eat sandwiches.Don't eat in an Ambleside pub.
|
Visited one day last week for a lunchtime drink and snack. Used to serve an excellent pint of Bass, but no longer does. However, the food is good, the staff friendly and there was an exciting range of Christmas ales. Great!
Wrong! Whole experience ruined by noisy, out-of-control kids running around the place, playing the machines, jumping on the furniture, leaving piles of rubbish whilst glassy-eyed parents(?) stared into oblivion, surrounded by empty glasses and bottles, or left kids on their own while they went out for a fag! We learn by our mistakes. Next time, it's back to the Golden Rule!
|
