Druid Inn, Birchoverback to pub details please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
What a great pub this is. I was staying at the Barn Farm campsite up the road and decided to pop down for a couple. As a few of the previous reviews had said that this place had been turned over almost entirely to food I perhaps wasn't holding out much hope for finding a place where I could just have a drink. I was wrong!! Admittedly it was a Tuesday night at the end of October when i went here and perhaps not representative of other - busier - times of the year, but I went in to find the place fairly full with diners, but also room for persons, like myself, just wanting a pint. The beers were all in very good nick. The friendly landlord is a CAMRA member and knows how to look after his wares. Acorn Barnsley Bitter and Oakham's Bishops Farewell and Citra were on the pumps and all good. Sadly, I'd just missed out on Sarah Hughes Surprise and Abbeydale Moonshine. The landlord and landlady are extremely welcoming and friendly and have a good taste in music too, with Nick Drake, Kevin Ayres, Al Green and Rare Earth amongst a wealth of other goodies played at a nice (ie listenable, but not intrusive) volume. I'm planning another trip here soon with friends, so will pop in again.
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Quite a serendipitous find this. Not the type of pub that I would normally go for, but exactly what I was looking for yesterday !
Not the most obvious of pubs, as it’s a fairly anonymous building set back a bit from the road, and the sign doesn’t spring out at you either. The pub itself is quite small, but the are plenty of places to sit outside – though it appeared to be obligatory to have a dog if you did that ! There is also a (newly built ?) overflow / dining area on a lower level to the main building, which is handy for catering for large groups which turn up unexpectedly (as a party of 26 did whilst we were there !).
The bar is directly in front of you as you enter, with 5 handpumps serving beer from (mainly) small local breweries. I chose the Abbeydale Moonshine Pale, whilst my brother went for Storm Silk Of Amnesia – both of which were excellent. The landlord was very helpful and obviously proud of his beers. I’m not sure of the prices, but CAMRA discount is given.
Whilst I’m sure there would be no objections if you just popped in for a drink, the place is obviously geared towards the dining trade – and the upper end of the market. There are a number of blackboards with dishes chalked on them, one for starters / main courses, one for light bites, and one for childrens meals (under 13s only !). Prices for main courses ranged from about £8 to £17.
Since we were celebrating our recent inheritance from our late aunt, who was a notable gourmet (amongst other thing), I went for what I thought was the most unusual dish, Toulouse Cassoulet. This was an absolutely gorgeous casserole containing huge portions of duck and pork. My brother had the seafood reuben. I think he enjoyed it, but he did give me most of his chips !
Of, and I almost forgot, it scores highly in the gorgeous barmaid stakes as well !
9/10 – foodie heaven – and great beer too !
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I liked this place much more than the Red Lion on this visit. The beer was superb and reasonably priced. The owners were very friendly and accommodating to us, but unfortunately the chef had been sent home for the evening because the place was so quiet, so we couldn't get any food after a long day of walking.
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A rogue spellchecker kept changing the word "there" to "their" in the previous review. Just wanted you know the error wasn't my fault.
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I note that the average rating is 4.7 for this establishment and suggest that this is now out of date and possibly libellous. New management has been installed only a few weeks but is already establishing a great reputation for an imaginative and well-kept range of beers, excellent food and a "come back soon" atmosphere. The chap running it - previously at the Red Lion in Litton - sets a friendly and chatty example for the staff but unlike some over-eager places not far away they are not all over you like timeshare touts.Made a flying visit this week and found beers from Abbeydale and Blue Monkey, including Moonshine and 99 Red Baboons. Opted for Ascension - perfect - and could happily have settled down for a long session.
A couple who ordered food told us that they had been there for meals three times in the last week and raved about the quality and the portions. A quick gleg at Tripadvisor revealed that everybody who posted a review their felt the same. Overall, a great comeback from an old favourite previously fallen on hard times.
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The new landlord has been there a week (he lives in Youlgreave) and was offering a very good pint of Oakwell's Barnsley Bitter as well as Oakham's Inferno and Bishops Farewell. Stowford Press was the cider. The pub itself is more or less one room with a quarry-tiled bar on the right-hand side as you enter and a carpeted dining area (with a further snug dining room off it) on the other side. Open coal fires on both sides. All but one of the dining tables were reserved for the Saturday evening. We preferred it to the nearby Red Lion.
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I am so disappointed with the outrageous experience I had at the Druid Inn. Previous to this experience we had a wonderful one. Incredible food and a lovely atmosphere with an interesting history. The experience on the 21/08/11 proved other wise. We convinced our 13 friends we should book a table here. When we got there we were sat very close to the kitchen. The chef didn't realize that we could here him and was throwing around the f*word like it was going out of style. The first thing we heard was tell them to "f*cking f*ck off! there's too many of them" After ignoring that comment and taking it with a pinch of salt our food was sent to us. Two of the risotto's were plain and dull, another plate (a burger) had a small dark HAIR in it, and one order was wrong. First the order that was wrong was brought up. When the shy but sweet and hospitable server went to tell the chef we heard him yell at her "THIS IS YOUR F*CKING FAULT! Go tell them that they're not going to get it for a long time and that it's your fault. I can't f*cking believe this!" When she came back to say that it's being handled we decided to not bring up the issues with the other food in fear of what he would do to it or that he would yell more at this poor server. We also said that we would not be accepting the new dish and to let the chef know we can hear everything he has said. After the meal the servers continued to apologize to the lady in our group whose order was wrong but the chef didn't make an appearance personally. More than the vile things this chef said about our group and despite the fact a individual typically pays atleast �15-�20 per person which between the 13 of us brought in atleast �200 which he was happy to snub, the way he talked to his staff was enough to make your stomach turn and it did!!!!! Verbal abuse within a company should be looked at seriously and this man should not take out his anger on his poor staff. Due to the recession people have become scared to stand up for themselves in fear they will lose their jobs. I am absolutely repulsed that a company would hire such a aggressive individual and let them get away with it. Gordon Ramsay has glamorized being verbally abusive towards staff but it should not be accepted. No matter how stressful a job is! If you can't do it, get out! You don't hear surgeons who have individuals lives in their hands talking like that so why should chefs! At least Gordon Ramsay respects his customers. The chef at the Druid Inn respects no one and does not deserve your money! If your thinking of going to the Druid Inn I'd like you to think twice about the kind of person you are supporting financially.
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Despite probably wanting to be, this isn't a patch on the Red lion just yards away. There is a telling sign up outside which should warn you - "Traditionally Derbyshire, stylishly contemporary" or something similar. In other words, contemporary equalling NON-traditional. They do a good range of local ales, though, but it is obviously much more geared towards attracting the upper end tourists and second-home weekenders. It was, in fact, empty when we walked in at around 3.30pm on a Sunday and the welcome was a little frosty. We sat outside and watched as another party went to go in, but were shepherede away and the door slammed and bolted behind them - arbitrary closing by the looks of it, just didn't want to open any longer. We followed that other party as they went to the welcoming Red Lion instead.
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Called in for a few pints but it is a foody pub so not very boozer friendy.Had a pint of the"Druids" beer,brewed by Leather britches,and it was good.Food very expensive.Some people must have more money than sense as we saw some people eating and their food didnt look very good for the price.They had Huntsmen pies(Chicken,Pork&Stuffing)on the bar.Small �2.50&Large�5.00.No wonder they had plenty left!
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Food okay but very expensive, service was negative, to say the least.
There were twelve of us and not one of us felt that the meal was
value for money. We all had sandwiches ranging in price from �6
to �8 per person. These sandwiches were supposed to be served
with salad and chips. In a gastro pub you would expect more than
a handful of chips, two slices of tomatoes and three bits of lettuce.
If the Druid Inn is going to serve McDonalds food they should
charge McDonalds prices
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Me and a good a group of friends were staying in one of the near-by villages last week and wanted to celebrate a friend's birthday. Having eyed a sign for The Druid, we thought it an appropriate location.
I wish I could go on to write about the promised excellent atmos and wonderful food from this "family run" gastropub as the web-site advised, but try as we might to contact them (by phone at least 5 times over 2 days at meal times and twice actually visiting them during supposed opening hours), no one ever answered or it was always shut!
I could have put this down to the web-site being out of date but when we visited the pub and found it to be closed the second time a notice on the door actually stated it was and should have been open all day that very day.
Annoyed, we went somewhere else. I'm sure it was all there loss. I won't give The Druid a rating but if their marketing and customer service is anything to go by it is not worth the trip.
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Interesting Leatherbritches beers sampled here. Good food menu, well presented, everything a tad pricey for the area but to be expected in a gastropub.
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