Woolpack Inn, Northingtonback to pub details please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Went to the Woolpack Inn for a few pints to meet some friends tonight (Saturday). Have never been before so didn't know what to expect but found the pub to be very pleasant. It wasn't particularly busy but that didn't bother me as it meant we could talk without having to shout.
We didn't eat here so I cannot comment on how, or if, the food or quality of service has changed since the last comments. However, I found the bar staff to be kind, attentive and a good chat. The ale was good too - had a Hogs Back Brewery bitter, which, contrary to the name, was very smooth. Everything was very clean and tidy as well.
All in all, a very nice pub with good drink. Food has yet to be experienced.
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Agree with 'hantsdweller'
Our first visit to the Woolpack for dinner October 2010
Advertised as 'dog friendly'
Although we are dog lovers we were not impressed when a group of 4 brought their 2 dogs into the restaurant without the courtesy of asking us or any other diners if we had any objections. One dog lay on the floor next to our table, & the other dog actually on owner's lap at the table.
The landlady told us this was a regular occurence & suggested we take our desserts & coffee into the private dining room or bar.
We did wonder why the people with dogs couldn't have been seated in the other room instead of moving us partway through our meal, which, up to this point had been enjoyable.
We understand that, surprisingly, it is not illegal to take dogs into restaurants, but Enviromental Health stated that all areas must be thoroughly cleaned & disinfected afterwards.
Imagine this would be rather difficult on the soft furnishings in the restaurant.
Initial welcome in bar was very slow, and waiters were casually dressed in scruffy jeans.
No complaints about food or wine, but .. guess what ..will not be visiting again.
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I have to agree with ILBuono regarding the attitude of the landlord.
We have eaten in the Woolpack on two occasions and have friends who used to eat there regularly.
I think the staff gave it their all to begin with and now they really don't seem that fussed.
On our first meal there we ate in the restaurant and were really enjoying it until a red cord trousered family arrived at the table next to us with a few lap dogs. As I was sat on the bench seat I had to endure these dogs running over my coat and bag etc.
Had we have been seated in the bar I would have expected a few drinkers to have dogs with them but we weren�t.
The staff were all over this family which was embarrassing to watch.
The Mother just sneered at us when we asked if they could remove their animals from our laps.
I did make a point that although I do like dogs I don't really expect to share a table with one when I go out for a meal.
All became clear when I was informed by the landlady that they were the one of the investors and that there was nothing that could be done about it. The landlady mentioned this to the landlord who just shook his head at us and tutted as if we were being unreasonable which irritated us.
We asked to move and were seated in the bar area which wasn't really a problem but I was astounded that we weren't even offered a complimentary coffee for the inconvenience at the end of our meal. I probably wouldn�t have had a coffee but at least the thought would have been there and it would have cost them about 20p!
However we had enjoyed the food so booked again a couple of weeks later.
On this occasion I was really disappointed.
My food was burnt.
I had ordered hot smoked salmon and asparagus on toast as a starter.
This arrived and looked delicious until I took a mouthful. The whole of the underside of the toast was charcoal! There is no way that the chef wouldn't have noticed this which is what annoyed me.
The food is not cheap so you expect it to be good.
They perhaps thought 'sod it, send it out they'll never notice'. Seriously how much trouble would it have been to do another piece?
I didn't say anything as we were there with friends on our recommendation and I didn't want them to be disappointed.
My main course was not much to speak of really, not horrible but nothing I couldn't have anywhere. Nothing like the food we had enjoyed on our first visit. When we left we discussed it and none of us had really enjoyed it at all so we won't return.
I have had similar reviews from friends who stayed there and appeared to be a huge inconvenience to them at breakfast time.
It seems a real shame as it could be fantastic.
If you are after good food and a nice atmosphere, drive down the road to the Purefoy Arms in Preston Candover. They serve excellent food and also have a good selection of beers and wine.
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Visited on a cracking hot day in late June, interesting choice of ales, - palmers, and 2 others, eng v germany was o n the box.
have to agree with other comments- it is a gastro restaurant, not a pub,
manager might be an ozzie he's that brusque and maybe slightly deaf. Spare staff were knocking about like it was their second home, on the plus side there were some decent looking young women...
service charge was included, prices are high, environment is very swish, casual drinking trade in the winter - likely to be zero.
Take your mum on mothers day !!
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So after going for a drink and then going back to eat I can report back on this pub which is undoubtedly better than it was before! The renovation has been done well and the gardens are nice. The owner mind seems to have gone for the slightly aloof, brusk manner of service rather than warm and friendly. First sign that this indeed is a restaurant and not a pub. The beer was well kept and some good choices. The menu is nothing new or that interesting and reasonably priced BUT did not have one vegetarian main course option!! This I think is an arrogant oversight and indicates a chef/cook with little imagination without the interest in catering for a growing and wealthy minority. The trout I had was well cooked and presented and the waitress was warmer than the owner although when I looked over at another table the owner was laughing and joking with a table like old friends as they guzzled wine, he had suddenly turned into the perfect host, fawning all over them as they brought more while other customers waited at the bar!
When I went to the bar to pay, yes went to the bar as I had done to order all drinks and food I received the bill with service, SERVICE there was no service apart from our meals being brought over - we were eating outside (no excuse). The owner was back to his brusk self, no �how was you meal� etc. He was obviously trying to get back to kiss the a*ses of the other table. I would of course been more than happy to pay service if I had received any but I paid the bill and thought I would not eat here again until the menu offers more as there are friendlier places in area. Also when in there for a drink previously there were too many members of off duty staff hanging about making it a bit like the staffroom.
All in all OK but they need to sort the service thing out i.e if charging for service make sure it is being given and the owner needs to fawn less to some people (the ones buying the pricer wine!) A much happier reception is received at The Yew Tree up the road if this is what you value in a pub � but then The Woolpack isn�t really a pub, or is it!?
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Oh dear me; this pub's arrival on BITE was always destined to spark off a difficult but nonetheless worthy debate on how far different pubs should go towards the restaurant end of the market. Sometimes it is a disastrous and misguided manoeuvre driven by a perceived lucrative trend rather than focusing on local market needs, and where the losses vastly outweigh any gain. Equally, there are cases where it is an entirely appropriate move which takes full account of what is most in demand and hence likely to keep the establishment in business, and if delivered to the standard it aspires to the gains can be immeasurably higher than any loss.
I personally believe that this is very much an issue to be judged on a case-by-case basis on relative merits. I love a traditional down-to-earth drink-based boozer. But I also appreciate a stylish upmarket food-based pub. As good old Harry Hill would have it, "which is better?" As Mr Hill doesn't have it though, the best way to find out is not "fight!", but "it depends on the case in point, and what you were after as a customer". If you have a general preference, do your homework to seek out the pubs which will suit you best.
The task of balancing a bit of both - the holy grail - is fraught with difficulty. Arguably, the Woolpack hasn't got it completely right. But it isn't a heinous example of an ill-advised, poorly-conceived needless sacking of a superb local just to play at being a restaurant. There is no question that the young chef here is talented, and has struck a sound balance between contemporary recipes and traditional local ingredients. It is also beyond doubt that the service is efficient, and the accommodation is as Clixby Jermyn Godmanstone points out below, second to none in the pub world - and unexpectedly far more competitively priced than the food. So yes, it does have aspirations to gastro-ism.
Yet, it manifestly does maintain a significant pub element, with a long bar featuring 3 very well kept local ales - strong support for Andwells is most welcome - and on a busier night will attract the drinking cognoscenti who will pull up a pew, although in a place like Northington the number of nearby residents is so minute that it's little wonder there isn't a bustling core of locals perched on stools. The refurbishments have added modern touches but not in ignorance of the historic structure without, and I felt it retained a cosy pub feel: albeit a decidedly middle-class one.
The trade-off here has been the everyday working class custom which would turn its nose up at what would surely be dubbed "poncy nonsense" by the earthier of punters. But you can't please all the people and that should be the joy of pubs - there's still something for every taste, just not always under one roof. And frankly, how many old farming types are around to patronise this remote outpost now? Drink-driving and non-smoking laws have taken their toll and I can fully understand why the owners (incidentally related to the Heineken empire - some �250K of the family fortune was deployed to restore the place and luckily far more than Heineken beer is offered!) decided to go for the upmarket dining-pub venture.
In sum then, the Woolpack has probably done what it needed to do in its particular context to stay alive, and to serve the majority of people who would now consider going out of the way to use it. And what it does do it does exceedingly well, even if it can be a little too polished at the front of house end! I should say that the staff doing brekkie (one of the best fry-ups I've had in a pub) were far less slick and much more relaxed - a young couple with much to offer the industry in future years.
PS: For those interested in reasonable deals on fine wines, check out the list of bottles for sale. There are one or two bargains to be had in the �30-60 range!
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I fully understand your point, CJG. Country pubs in hamlets can no longer survive on old boys supping halves of mild.
But when a pub is gentrified and gastrofied as this (and many others have been), it is no longer a pub. So a pub has still been lost. In its place is a restaurant posing as a pub, patronised almost exclusively by the affluent middle classes, probably selling more wine than beer.
anonymous - 2 Mar 2010 21:39 |
I stayed here in late January and found it to be an exceptional establishment. As stevehar suggests, this is not an old fashioned pub. Rather, it has successfully updated - in a sensitive and stylish way - an old rather moribund pub and taken it upmarket. In many locations this would be a loss, but in mid Hampshire it's par for the course - this is simply serving the demands of the community. The beer and food is all locally sourced - where appropriate - and served to a very high standard. Both the Andwells beers and the Palmer's Cooper were in perfect nick. The accommodation is fantastic, quite simply the best I have experienced from a pub. The breakfast was also out of this world - the chef specially making me smoked fish. The staff were unfailing polite, attentive and interesting. A blueprint to revive - and hence save - country pubs in some areas. We must not be dogmatic. Pubs always evolve and should serve a need, not some misplaced sense of nostalgia.
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We went there at midday yesterday, wanting a bar snack and a pint (or two). Immediately on entry, the barman wanted to escort us to a table (always a bad sign, in a pub). I declined, asking whether we were in a pub or a restaurant. 'Somewhere in between,' came the reply. So I bought our drinks over the bar. I was so disturbed about this that I didn't even notice what the beer I had chosen was (totally out of character): a local micro brew, new to me, 4.2%, on the malty side, and very nice, but �3.10 a pint.
The pub offers some appealing snacks on toast, and we both had a rarebit on toast, quite spicy with Worcester sauce, and nice. Served with watercress and a sliced tomato, �5.75 each.
I had a second pint brought to the table, as I was still eating, and my wife had a cup of coffee, brought to the table with a little spilled in the saucer, �2.25.
At this point, the bill (excluding our first drinks,which had already been paid for) stood at �16.85, so I was surprised when the barman asked for �18.53. The explanation? An automatic 10% service charge. I almost choked with indignation. A service charge for a snack in a pub! The barman promptly offered to waive the service charge, and there was no unpleasantness on either side.
Whatever next? All those of us who care about the traditional pub must combat this trend whenever we encounter it.
anonymous - 2 Mar 2010 17:39 |
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