Grouse and Claret, Rowsleyback to pub details please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Most of the negative reviews on this site appear to be written by members of the same group. They appear to have been annoyed that they were told to keep the noise down. One reason I haven't camped for years. I used to run youth groups and I hated bringing the generally well-behaved young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to campsites where a bunch of over-privileged brats were effing and blinding all night. Cornwall during public school holidays anyone? Anyway the "Dragon" is no longer there and the pub has recently been re-furbished. Pity the prices have gone up too, but then so has the quality. The popularity of this place should tell its own story. I go for lunch there every other week and it's always full. Beer is Marstons and well kept. House wine is higher quality than in most pubs. The pub is still a bit lacking in character - I preferred it how it was. I should add the staff are excellent. Another reviewer said it was a sort of upmarket Wetherspoons. Well the food is cooked fresh for a start, and there is a proper chef. Wetherspoons food is designed to be all microwaved by unqualified staff. No comparison.
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Ignore all the previous reviews they're years old. I would have liked to have met the "dragon" but I think she must have met her St George. She sounds like the sort of campsite proprietor you need judging by the puerile protests of a bunch of spoilt drunken brats who had their noisy late night partying curtailed.
Went in during a hike for lunch on a weekday. It's a Marston's chain eaterie and pretends to be nothing else but this. It's not a twee country pub for tourists looking for a genuine Peak District gastronomic experience. It sells good pub grub at good prices. Service was quick and courteous with lots of attentive young staff waiting on, a bit of an upmarket Wetherspoons. I immediately warmed to the place when my pint of Hobgoblin came to £3.02 and when my (2 for £10) meal turned out to be a generously sized and tasty gammon steak with egg, pineapple and lots of chips & peas.
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The old bat is incredible. Other staff nice, just not enough of them. To pour a pint, they had to clean a glass from the dirty end of the bar! Food pretty average but it was heaving on a Saturday night. Double rooms impressive. Cracking shower. Breakfast was hearty. Just be aware that the campsite attracts some right plums. There was an imbred rally when we visited.
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The grouse and Claret is one of the most disgusting and appauling places I have ever been in my life. Its a shame actually because the staff are brilliant and the pub itself is quite lovely. The thing that brings the place down is the management who are probably the most greedy, nasty, selfish people I have ever had the misfortune of meeting and its not hard to see it the minute you walk through the door.
Firstly, our meal was rushed from beginning to end. I had not even finished taking the last bite of my entree when my plate was whisked away and my main was on the table. Same went, for the mains! When I questioned management as to why we were rushed though our meal so quickly, I was brushed off by Catherine and told that there was a line of people waiting for a table. For a manager of a place like this, its obvious she had no shame in admitting that she was a greedy, money hungry person, who didn't really care if we liked our meal or not - she had our money and thats all the wanted.
Catherine, treats her staff like absolute scum and has no shame in humilliating them in front of customers. This is not pleasant to witness & quite truthfully put me off my food which is admittedly not that hard to do as the food is pretty disgusting. Everything is quite evidently frozen, zapped in a microwave and served directly to the customer. Chicken Wendsleydale in a bag! what more could we ask for!?
Our meal was rushed from beginning to end. I had not even finished taking the last bite of my entree when my plate was whisked away and my main was on the table. Same went, for the mains! When I questioned management as to why we were rushed though our meal so quickly, I was brushed off by Catherine herself and told that there was a line of people waiting for a table. For a manager of a place like this, its obvious she had no shame in admitting that she was a greedy, money hungry person, who didn't really care if we liked our meal or not - she had our money and thats all the wanted.
If you want a place with a nice vibe, relaxed altosphere, value for money and pleasant management, the Grouse and Claret is NOT somewhere you should go.
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all i can say is, if your under the age of ten and over the age of 70...you will be fine!! we were told that this was a young and lively campsite, 22 of us turned up, all in our 20s.. we werent doing anything out of the ordinary. and we made sure that our fellow neighours were ok with us.. and we all had a laugh!! then all of a sudden a dragon came down, from nowhere!! demanding us too clean up and leave (we were over the limit so we didnt go anywhere!!) she threatened to call the police, there was no warning of this! so off we trot to bed... then 7 comes along!! thats 7 in the morning!! she rattled and bangged on all of our tents demanding us to leave else she would ring the police. so we did it ourselves and they said dont go anywhere as we were over the limit!! she wrote down our number plates to make sure we would get caught going home!! we took our own food and didnt use the pub, but i can say the rest of the pub staff were very helpful and pleasent to us... its just CATHERINE that really lets this place down, its a shame really as it is in a lovely location!! GOOD LUCK!!!!!
blick - 22 Jun 2009 19:52 |
All i can say is AWFUL!!!
DO NOT GO HERE!!! The landlady is a dragon. An old, nosey, rude and snobby dragon!!!
The location and campsite is nice and situated next to a pub, but this lady ruins it all. She woke us up at 7am in the morning by shaking all of our tents to get us up and chuck us off the campsite. She says this was due to us being noisy during our one night stay. This is when she allowed the booking of 10 tents (22 people) of 20-22 year olds to stay on the campsite!! What did she expect? We spoke to the people next to us and they were fine with the noise and we assurred them to let us know if we were too rowdy. We had no warning that we were being too noisy, except when the old dragon came out to us in her dressing gown and bed breath to tell us to get into our tents!!! A few hours later there she is shaking our tents like a crazy mad women getting us and waking the rest of the campsite up in the meantime!!
Worst women we have ever met, would NEVER go there again just due to her!!!
I would rate this a big fat zero!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
weena - 21 Jun 2009 19:53 |
didn't really use the pub as we were camping however the reviews on it made us glad we took our own food and drink! We have never encountered such a rude, obnoxious, stubborn and ignorant woman in all our camping lives and it looks like many other customers agree. The landlady of that place is a monstrosity and me and my fellow campers were disgusted with her attitude to guests (including our party). I will never go back there.
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Superficially welcoming, the Grouse & Claret has the rudest landlady we've ever had the misfortune to encounter.
Service was slow, disorganised & combative.
Never walked out of an eatery before but 9 of us did. We weren't alone.
Men of a certain age might pay money to be treated like we were, but not us.
Want to be treated like a customer? Go elsewhere.
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pub seemed okay - and there's a playground there, so thought it would be 'child friendly'. However, service was incredibly slow and landlady was the rudest we have ever encountered! We rang beforehand and were told by her that we couldn't reserve a table ahead. When we arrived, we were told to 'go & get a drink & sit somewhere whilst we get a table ready'. We found a good table to have our drinks and asked if we could stay there to eat - a member of staff said that would be fine. However, we were then later told in no uncertain terms, by the landlady that we couldn't stay there because someone else would be using it & she needed to get it ready (which was odd, considering that you aren't able to reserve tables ahead) & that we would have to move - no apologies at all. We were moved to a table that wasn't big enough and very inconveniently placed. When we first attempted to speak to her about this, she just blanked us completely, so we had to go up to speak to her - she just shrugged and pulled a face! We then left, which is something we've never done before! The rest of the staff were pleasant though.
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Awful. Untrained, youthful staff with no idea how to deal with a complaint, food horrible, beer horrible, service horrible - don't be fooled by location and great looking building - it's not worth it!
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A bit of a soleless place - more like a MacDonalds or a Little Chef than a pub. Overwhelmingly concentrates on food.
That said, if that's want you're looking for, the food is reasonably priced and quickly delivered. It's the typical fast-food-pub-type stuff, nothing fancy.
Nice clean environment, and a big car park. Next door to the retail village at Rowsley.
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The Grouse and Claret is a large and seemingly very popular Marston�s house on the A6 between Matlock and Bakewell, and is close to both Haddon Hall and Chatsworth House. Accommodation is also available and there is a caravan park at the back.
It is very much a dining rather than a drinking sort of pub with only Pedigree available on the hand pumps. Although the Pedigree is very good, it seems a rather a short-sighted policy for a pub which relies heavily on passing trade not to offer drivers a lower gravity alternative like Jenning�s Cumberland, or Marston�s own Burton Bitter.
The meals that we have had at the Grouse have all been excellent and not too expensive. They have been well cooked and well presented, and even when it has been very busy, the service has been prompt and the staff very friendly and efficient. A lady, (who I presume is the Manageress), seems to act as the Maitre D� and she keeps the ball rolling very smoothly. A nice touch is that whilst waiting for meals to arrive (which normally isn�t very long) we are usually given a plate of Nachos with a salsa dip as nibbles.
Definitely recommended. I would rate it higher if the beer selection was better �
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