please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
3 beers on, all from Sharpe's if I remember correctly - I drank the Atlantic which was nice if a little cold for my taste.
Pleasant enough pub, it seemed to me like it was still trying to find its 'niche'. The barmaid needs to learn how to pull a full pint (but this seems to be fairly common in some parts of London, in my experience).
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This is the first review I have posted anywhere so is a big deal for me! For the avoidance of doubt, I am not a friend of the owners or family.
Went to the Greyhound a couple of months ago and thought it was fantastic. We are planning to go back v soon. Took our 2 year old and we were treated extremely well. Food was tasty and atmosphere was so laid back that we stayed for hours. Chatted with owner for ages and he clearly cares a lot about this pub and his customers. Love what has been done with this pub.
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My word anybody that writes positive things about this pls e are either the owners or their family or friends! I had such an awful experience & both myself & my children insulted by the landlady I cannot tell you how strongly I feel about those people serving the paying public! Just because the gardens ok does not mean they can be rude to people. I thought landlady was going to ask us to remove our shoes as it felt like we were in their home. I have tried to resolve our nightmare via email with them directly and was told "if you don't like it stop harassing us by email"!!!! I wasn't obviously harassing anyone it's just another obvious lack of their tact & people skills. I'm not sure what step to take next regarding them as I feel so aggrieved & this is 100% honest account of my experience there. Very sad.
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Hi,
The second review is mine. I used my friend's iPad after she wrote hers and it went on under her name. Now it won't let me change it. Sorry :-/
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It is sad if the negative comments below arent genuine. However its even more sad when the same username is used to write two different positive comments, one saying they havent visit the pub before and the other one saying "last time I visited the pub was three years ago" which make on wonder who writes all these comments here. Let all the customers make up their own minds. If this pub has changed hands and all old customs still goes in then I am sure the new managers are doing a good job.
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I never went to this pub before but I saw an advertisement in Essential Esher and some of the mums I know said they had heard good things.
My husband and I had lunch in the garden with our two children. The garden has lovely picnic tables on grass and tables with seats on stone patios. There is also a children's play area with two wooden houses which were perfect for keeping them occupied.
We had the children's chicken with chips and vegetables, a burger and the seasonal salad. All the food was great. It is obvious when somewhere cooks the food themselves and some care goes into it. They even had real mayonnaise which you normally never get in a pub!
The staff were all friendly and helpful. A lovely young lady offered my children colouring in but they only wanted to play in the garden and when we paid I was asked if I had been happy with everything.
We stayed for three hours even though the sun didn't last and it was a bit chilly.
It's so good to have a place nearby where there is something to occupy the children whilst you eat. I definitely recommend the Greyhound.
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This pub has been redecorated and a brand new garden put in. The last time I went was about 3 years ago and it was really down market. The place looks much bigger, not sure how they did that :-/
You can feel the difference straightaway. It smells fresh and there are no old blokes hanging round the bar anymore. The loos were spotless, the wine was chilled and their smoked salmon and triple cooked chips are to die for! I'm a simple girl. That's enough to keep me happy :-)
I went when they had live music on. It was a jazz band which I thought would be good and they were brilliant. Anyone know their name? This is now on my list of good pubs in Thames Ditton along with the Red Lion and Marney's.
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We have always been a fan of this pub, we usually visit on the way back from a day at Hampton Court. We knew it had undergone a garden refurb so decided to visit with our two (very well behaved) boys both aged 4.
The transformation of the garden is quite simply stunning. They have retained the 2 playhouses and its lovely out there. Or it would be. I was absolutely dismayed to see the treatment of customers by the Managers/Landlord.
There was another group of children there at the same time as us, they were a little boisterous but nothing untoward, although their parents were sitting completely out of view of their kids - why do this !!! We sat watching all the children playing together. No issues. Then the Landlord and his children came out to the garden, his children were telling tales continuously on the customers children and it really did feel as though you were sitting in their personal garden. The children were being watched like a hawk and it was very uncomfortable. Service inside wasnt friendly, such a shame. This is a great pub with a fantastic offering but it needs to be more relaxed. We had already made up our mind that we wouldnt go back. And certainly after coming onto this site, I am staggered to read their intro to the pub and its off our list. Why you would say that you wont allow children to run riot and the other things they have put on there I cannot imagine. I understand that they want kids to be well behaved, 99% of parents are responsible, why make a garden thats a kids dream if you dont really want any turning up !! They are alienating a bit part of the market with the unfriendly, rule laden policies - silly people, I'd hate to see this pub close as so many others do, perhaps they will take on board the majority comments and make their pub a bit more welcoming to people, if not, I wish them both luck in their next jobs !!
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CHECK TRIP ADVISOR BEFORE VISITING:
A few weeks back we purchased two adult and two children roasts. The children had chicken, my wife had chicken and I had the lamb. Normally I would not make such a fuss over food but I have to say that this was by far the worst value for money sunday lunch I have ever had. The adult price is £12 and the child price is £7, children also get two scoops of ice cream included. The children's dinner was small as expected but the chicken was very dry and had obviously been deep fried to the point the that breast had become golden and hard around the outside. Needless to say my children did not enjoy the chicken. What little gravy they got did not help to soften then meat either. However the ice cream was nice.
The problem with the adult dinner was the size. In face it was only 3 potatoes bigger than the child portion, although my wife did receive a larger piece of chicken it too had been deep fried and was pretty much inedible. I received 20 peas, about two tea spoons full, one floret of broccoli and one floret of cauliflower (no cheese sauce), half a carrot cut up and four potatoes. To be fair my lamb was not to bad and was edible at least.
We received no check back, in other words nobody asked us how are food was shortly after placing it on the table. I took photos of my plate of food as it was laughable for £12.
So my complaint was that the food was substandard, the size of the adults portions where way too small. When the land lady came to clean the plates away I mentioned this to her, the reply I got was staggering and was said with a nervous stutter, it was as follows:
'There is nothing wrong with the chicken as I tried it on the way out of the kitchen, but I will mention it to the chef'
You tried it on the way out!! What??? A total fob off and no care about that fact we had just paid £38 for a terrible and tiny meal for a family.
In short I will never eat there again, I would highly recommend that you try another restaurant for your roast. This place has much to learn and will never learn if they do not listen to the customer.
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Decided to give this pub a try as I live fairly local and saw their advert in " Abbout Thames Ditton". Its sad when breweries spend so much money on doing a pub up, including their garden and getting managers in who don´t seem to even want to be there. Not a warm welcome and family friendly as stated in the magazine, in fact, we felt quite intimidated. You treading on egg shells, scared the children are too noisy, or to smoke in wrong place of the garden. Not a relaxing atmosphere at all
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It's changed hands and they've never been in the pub/ restaurant game before. Useless. I felt like I was going into her front room not a public house. They really need to get a grip on things, it's a pub not a Michelin star restaurant!
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I am usually one to give local businesses a fair chance and to support them with my customs what ever the business it may be. After having taken the customer service approach by this establishments management/owners (I sincerely hope it was not the owners as they would be in the wrong trade) very personal as I felt like I was in school or even worse in some sort of behavior boot camp, being told I wasnt aloud sitting by the bar and then getting the silent treatment for the rest of the visit. Having read the previous reviews and word of mouth I now know its not personal its just the way they decide to run the pub. Making customer feeling unwelcome is certainly not the way of running a pub, even if its not the module clientele the "woman" is looking for, would have thought any business need any trade they can get their hands on. Better go else where than feel like you been a naughty schoolboy. REAL SHAME! Has it changed hands or just management?
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All I can say is how shocked at our treatment at the hands of the landlady of the greyhound! After reading all the hype about their new refurb, was quite excited to give it a go so we popped along for Sunday lunch as a family of 5. Looks great inside but their was no welcome, just icy glares from behind the bar from whom I now know is the landlady. Felt very uncomfortable, every time I looked around we the new decor I was aware that she was staring at me & putting on false sarcastic like smiles when we had eye contact. I was just about to break the ice & reward her for her efforts at doing the place up but she jumped straight in & told me to get my 3 kids out of the garden as they might trample on her flower beds! I was flabbergasted that someone serving the public could be so abrupt! I then decided we weren't staying there & spending our hard earned cash at her establishment so I cancelled our 2nd drinks order, why have 2 playhouses in the garden if you don't want to attract families? She then came to sit at my table & accused me of judging her because she has a slight Irish accent, unbelievable! First she implys my children are hooligans then truest to accuse me of rascism! (By the way I'm of Scottish descent love) then the landlord needed an app to add up a pint of beer & a glass of wine! Calamity or what I wouldn't go back there if you paid me, shockingly bad service & awful staff.
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I have heard a rather lot of this pubs refurbishment and didn't know what to expect really. I don't live locally but used to pop in the pub now and then on way home from work. I drove from Guildford on a Sunday only to find the pub closed although stated open all day on their website. So I tries it again last week and was a bit disappointed in terms of the locals all seem to have disappeared and the atmosphere was next to nothing, surprisingly as I went in at 6pm on a Thursday and it was only myself and another gentleman by the bar who I got chatting to. I am sad to say that although the owners seem to know what they want and have spent a lot of money on doing the pub and garden up they won't be getting their money back with their abrupt attitude. I was gobsmacked when two gentlemen was asked to move because they were blocking the view of the beers for other customers. I popped over to another nearby pub and returned just before last orders and decided to leave as the manager did not want to serve any more customers although it was only 10.30pm. It's a great shame when landlords spend so much money but don't seem to have any pleasure in serving customers. Ale was very nice though
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The pub most certainly needed some new life breathed into it. However, It does seem a little stark and austere compared to it's old feel. I'm not sure how appealing English Tapas - that's something more appropriate for Esher and despite, it's proximity, Weston Green is very different to Esher. The owners have been friendly and unfriendly in equal measure – they perhaps need reminding that they are working in a service industry rather than a prison camp on occasions. They're of course entitled to discourage clientele that isn't their target market - but their target market is hardly going to be attracted to a pub that is largely empty and when customers can never be sure whether the chef is on or off, or even if it is going to be open, especially later in the evenings. If someone visits a pub at 10 and it is shut or shutting down, they are hardly going to visit again are they? They want to attract families, which is good, but spookily enough, the majority of the regulars who have been alienated by the standoffishness of the new owners actually have families. As a general rule, new landlords and landladies, do their utmost to encourage whatever custom the pub has (no matter how small) whilst at the same time introducing their new vision, thereby maintaining at least some kind of regular turnover. In this day and age, pubs need all the custom they can get (of course excluding yobs and underage punters) but unless they have bottomless pockets, their obvious selectiveness in who they want to encourage to use their business seems a very high risk strategy for what is essentially a community pub. And as mentioned before, punters not wanting a traditional pub and 'different' food are far better placed going to Esher where they can park (despite the description this pub has NO car park) and where they have a choice of over 30 restaurants and bars. I say this not out of any bitterness but more out of sadness… and also based on my observations of having worked in the licensed trade for over 25 years
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This is a great pub serving a good choice of beers, nice wines and excellent food in a friendly atmosphere. It’s a vast improvement from its previous incarnation. I was a little unsure of their British tapas menu, but when I tried it I found the dishes very tasty; and the format offers the flexibility of a light bite or a substantial meal. I also went there on a Sunday with a walking group of 14 and everyone really enjoyed the roasts - better than the usual pub fare, albeit from a limited menu. I’ll definitely be back there again.
tdman - 12 Jan 2014 15:22 |
The last review must be someone with a grudge because this pub is in no way a restaurant with no ales. The beer was great, there was a choice of three cask ales and I found the new owners to be really friendly and chatty. I remember this pub from a few years ago and it was completely run down. Thank God someone's come in and brought it back to the condition it should be in.
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What a shame to see the only traditional English pub in the area turned in to a white, bright and cold restaurant pub. The only good thing about the refurbishment are the toilets but even them doesnt really fit in. Unfortunately not a very warm and welcoming staff as it used to be. Traditional ales and lagers all gone and not really sure what sort of customers they are looking for as they do not approve of youngsters after 7pm. Not much of a friendly locals pub I am sad to say
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A large Tudor style pub just to the side of the green. A traditional interior with plenty of wood paneling and separate chairs and tables with a bay window pew. The lounge is L-shaped with a pool table on the extreme right. Bar had 5 handpumps but only 3 beers on when I was there which included 2 Christmas ales. Beer was rather expensive. Food was reasonably priced but a rather boring selection. Difficult to comment on ambiance since I was the only one in the pub! May be better in the evening or in the summer.
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Visited this pub this evening for dinner. Sharps Doom Bar was excellent. I had the car so could not taste the other beers but impressed they have Skinners Cornish Knocker and will be back to snaffle the other ales on pump.
Nice food as we had dinner too. The chef knows how to cook a steak.
Good relaxed atmosphere.
FF
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A proper traditional pub with a great selection of beer. 5 ales on pump. London Pride, Youngs, Sharps Doombar, Bombardier and Sharps cornish and tasted very well!
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This is far best the local pub around Thames Ditton. Always nice staff, friendly locals and great atmosphere. Been going here for the last year or so and getting a bit worried its changed management as I havent seen the landlady for a little while and its been great since she took over. Anybody knows where shes gone to?!
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Lovely warm welcoming local pub with very pleasant staff and customers. Great selection of ales,5 pumps on and tasted very well.
Free internet available so a good excuse to stop here for lunch and get some wrok done at the same time!
Doing live music on tuesdays,poker nights on wednesdays and quiz night on thursdays so it seems the management is doing a great deal to try to entertain everybody!
jidos - 18 Mar 2010 10:31 |
We visited this pub a couple of weeks ago. We often go on a Sunday with the kids for the roasts but thought we�d see what it was like during the week. It was a bit quieter than the weekend but gave the impression of a friendly locals pub. Everyone, staff and regulars, were very welcoming and recognised us from the weekend!
A great range of ales (or so my husband tells me), open fires, good menu with classic pub food. They have just started live acoustic music nights on a Tuesday so we�ll probably be checking that out soon.
I�m also being taken here for Mothers Day next week as we went last year and it was lovely. All the mums were given a glass of bubbly on arrival and a rose when they left.
The staff really look after us, especially the children who are well entertained with goody bags, as well as a pool table, a selection of board games and giant Jenga (which always keeps my husband amused!)
One of the few remaining traditional English pubs!
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Recently moved to Esher and The Greyhound soon became our new local pub. We have been in quite a few times and staff are always very friendly and now recognise us as soon as we walk in.
Sunday lunch is fantastic and our children are always given a "surprise box" with some colouring papers,crayons,a small toy and a lollipop,great place to go for families with young children.
I have also been in in the evening with some friends and Im often offered to taste a different ale to the one I usually drink,its nice to see that there are still pubs who are actually thinking of the customers rather than just the profit.
Great staff and customers who always make you feel welcome,well worth a try!
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Anyone remember the Welsh Landlord from the mid-90's? I think his name was Geoff (or Jeff). Nice guy, I wonder what happened to him.
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First time back in this pub for two years and was pleasantly surprised with the welcoming staff and the nice atmosphere! The pub looks much cleaner than I remembered and although we had to wait about 30 minutes for food it was well worth it,plus we were told there was a wait as the pub was more or less packed.
Will definitely be back in the near future...the new owners seem to have done an amazing job!
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Located close to esher station & handy for sandown racecourse.Large pub with equally large rear garden.Beer as listed below.
anonymous - 28 Apr 2009 12:13 |
Abbot, Harveys Sussex Best, Sharp's Cornish Coaster, Pride and Youngs Ordinary which are all regular beers. Had the Cornish Coaster and it was well served.
Games room to the left as you enter (darts & pool) and the pub extends back on the right to the restaurant area.
Gave the impression of a friendly locals pub.
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Really nice, old fashioned pub. Good ales and a good laugh with the staff. Had sunday lunch the other week and it was very good. Apparently does great crab, but I took my own! Recommended
zappa - 21 Aug 2007 19:27 |
Nice location, pleasant enough, but ruined when a quiz night started which appeared to be just for regulars only (we weren't even asked, maybe we looked too clever!).
Could do worse, but can do much better if you root out Marneys down the road.
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Very quiet on the Sunday evening when visited. Nice garden area at the back totally surrounded by trees and hedges - very secluded feel.
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Large local and female-friendly pub with an easy-going atmosphere, all the best to it.
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This pub is vastly improved now it's under new management. The food is really, really good, the people are friendly and it has a good atmosphere. My only gripe is that the hand dryer in the Ladies hasn't worked in all the years I've been going there.
anonymous - 25 Nov 2005 12:14 |
very nice pub with well kept beer with a nice view overlooking a green to a golf course.had a bit of trouble parking by the pub .neighbour in white cottage to left of the pub says hes sick of people using the place!! why live there then? any way i would recommend the place just ignore the grumpy old chap next door .......cheers happy drinking.
anonymous - 24 Feb 2005 14:42 |
Vast improvement following a lick of paint and new people in charge. Plenty of Real Ale and good food not forgetting a bar billiard table! A rarity these days. Good atmosphere.
quizman - 4 Sep 2004 13:53 |
Under new management (Good Luck, R&L) and has just been redecorated so should become a cracker of a pub once the drinkers & eaters arrive en masse. May it realise its potential.
DeviousDave - 18 Aug 2004 16:30 |
Quitish Pub, used to occasionally go to the quiz night. It always seems to have people in, even on a quiet night.
Mike - 26 Jan 2004 16:21 |
its a lovely local pub with friendly staff and good food. They show a wide range of sporting events and is in a beautiful setting.
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