please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Axe has fallen - soon to be seven luxury flats and two character cottages. Trebles all round for the developers -Ker-ching!
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Currently closed and boarded up with the future being uncertain.
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This pub has been closed for several years!
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Was closed and completely stripped because the owner went bankrupt. Huge shame!
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My parents planned their wedding here in 1988. They say it was absolutely fantastic, but, at some point in the mid-90s, one of the proprietors (a brother and sister, Enzo and... erm... Chier) had to sell her stake as part of a divorce settlement, Enzo pulled out and the pub changed totally. Went badly downhill, by all accounts. Enzo ended up at the Angel in Guildford, but is no longer there and no-one there remembers him.
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Wot no beer.
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They don't sell alcohol here.
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Closed and turned into church.
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boarded up and place looks bored. shame.
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Place looks so sad now.
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Change of use to a place of worship has now been granted by Guildford Borough Council.
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Sadly, the Hautboy has been closed for some time now. Numerous planning applications have been made for change of use - religious centre, offices, etc. none of which, fortunately, have so far been accepted, and the consensus locally is that such a unique building should be kept as the hostelry it's always been.
Great news recently - though still unconfirmed - is that the Hautboy has passed into new hands, with the intention of reopening as a pub. Will keep you posted.
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Definitely closed - with windows all boarded up when I drove past on Sunday 13th April. Dramatic building though.
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my friends wedding was held at this pub and it could not have been any better.
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This establishment has done a favour to the community. It has now closed down.
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Apparently the place has closed down now.
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Having stayed at this hotel regularly several evenings each week for the last two years I consider my input to be constructive. The location is superb, with ample car parking. The food is generally good, but can vary with each chef. I will omit to enlarge too much on the fact that they cannot warm up croissants, only turn them black. Neither will I enlarge on the fact that if you tell them several times you do not like lettuce, they always give you a plate full. There is a good selection of beers and lagers on hand. The staff are generally quite friendly. What then is the downside? Over the last six months they have lost two managers Matthew and David, together with numerous chefs and staff. They unfortunately have a serious lacking in the customer or punter department. Invariably I have been the only person eating or drinking and sometimes even the only person staying there. It is rumoured they have a resident ghost, but I have not seen it, as quite frankly there is hardly anyone there to haunt!
They have at present one manager (Tim) who also acts as the bar manager, plus a temporary woman manager (Denise) who has arrived it would appear, to �sort out� the place.
She is a complete waste of space and has sorted me out, instead of some of the poor quality staff. It is far worse since she arrived. Supervision appears to be totally lacking. I lost count the number of times I would arrive in the evening from the office to find that although my room had been �serviced�, either the bed was unmade and/or the towels were either not changed or left in a pile. On at least one occasion even the toilet had been used and not flushed. The last straw was in fact this week. I arrived as usual on Monday evening at around 1800 hrs. I walked into my room which appeared clean, until I walked into the bathroom. There was a soiled towel just hanging on a hook at the back of the door, but the horror was yet to unfold. I raised the toilet lid to discover the evidence of some previous persons experience with diarrhoea all over the toilet. This was after a room had been serviced. I immediately called the duty manager, (Tim) who visibly embarrassed, said they need professional cleaning staff, and not the staff they had. As this was my last week at the establishment I decided that if this was the visible state of the rooms, then I would not be taking any further meals here as I would not be able to asses the state of the kitchen or food preparation.
It was intimated to me on one occasion that certain people used the hotel in the afternoons for a little �light relief, or afternoon delight�. I did begin to wonder if my room had in fact been serviced and the result followed these actions.
The car park is quite large and for a while in 2006 was subjected to a regular series of break-ins to the vehicles. It was only a matter of time before mine was a casualty. Following this I requested the car park lights be used with some form of regularity. This sounds simple enough, but unfortunately was far too complicated for this establishment to organise. Whenever Tim was not there, nothing appeared to function, and would always be on hold until he came back. On the last occasion as he was leaving for two days off, he assured me that he had set the timer and all was ok, and all the staff knew how to operate the timer etc. Less then two hours later, the lights went out, and the staff on duty did not have a clue. I was told by the chef the following day that he had to reset the timer. Needless to say if there are break-ins, they will no doubt take place in the dark. I am already being called as a witness to one court case as I witnessed the felon actually in the process of breaking into several vehicles on the car park. Break-ins are not just limited to the vehicles. The hotel has been burgled many times since I arrived. The last time the safe was taken containing some �3,000 which had only been put in there some hours earlier. It was considered to be an inside job, and I have no reason to think otherwise, as money apparently was never normally left in that safe. They have a night porter who can make one hell of a racket at around 0200 hrs in the morning, but on my way out at 0545 hrs I can walk past him fast asleep on the bench in hotel lobby where he is making a racket snoring.
Just to show I do not complain unnecessarily, I have even repaired the toilet cistern in my room in the past, knowing that if I did not, nothing would happen until �Tim came back�
I have dubbed the place �Faulty Towers�, as nothing appears to function correctly, and I have recently realised that similar to Faulty Towers, complaining is not allowed. Owing to the fact that I have been living there for some two years suffering the above and complaining, it appears that I have upset some of the staff and have been advised by Miss Denise to seek alternative accommodation. The fact that the staff in question do not do the job correctly, and are not chastised for this by management would tend to leave the punter, (me in this instance) exposed as a pain. I have therefore found better accommodation and therefore have no hesitation in describing the Hautboy to anyone who wishes to stay in the area. My logic is you have to find out for yourself! If you have been used to five star hotels, then have a stay in the Hautboy and see how the other half live.
I could write a book on this place!
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We have been to the Hautboy a number of times over the last two years. The food was always great. There was a bespoke feel to the menu, great ingredients and generous portions. In a sea of chain pubs it really stood out and became our favourite place to take friends and family.
How times have changed. We just had the worst Sunday lunch today. To be honest it is actually hard work to produce such bad food. I ordered a vegetarian stuffed peppars with cous cous with goats cheese and a 'pesto cream'. What I got was peppars stuffed with rice, no goatscheese and a load of single cream (without so much as a whiff of pesto)chucked over it. It was really odd to get it so wrong on every level and think the customer wouldn't notice. It was truly 'orrible so I sent it back. I asked if they'd changed chefs and she said they had. I couldn't find anything to re-order so I didn't eat.
My friend ordered a brown bread sandwich as I told her that the last time I was here I had a doorstopper sandwich with beautiful home made chips. What she got was a white thinly sliced cheap bread sandwich with fatty ham in the middle and McCain chips on the side.
Husband ordered a roast which arrived without any roast potatoes and came with a burnt yorkshire pudding and a few weeny vegetables. Costing a tenner they are having a laugh.
What really riled me was that I remember how good the place used to be. They seriously need to get someone back in the kitchen who knows what they are doing and can follow menu descriptions. I just hope other people complain like I did. It was awful and I won�t be going back.
anonymous - 23 Sep 2007 15:32 |
I booked a table here for sunday lunch (yesterday) I hadn't been for 4 years and oh, how it's changed, there main restaurant wasn't happening at all, instead we had to go in the side entrance to the Minstrals Bar, which is lovely bar, but they hadn't reserved a table for me but that didn't matter because they were not busy. We all ordered traditional sunday roast, it took about an hour to arrive and when it did arrive, the meat was tough as old boots, the vegetables overcooked, nothing green, a tiny yorkshire and a few very small roast potatoes, to say I was disappointed is an understatement! I wouldn't recommend Sunday lunch here to anyone. Oh yes, and they called me as I left to cancel the table they had booked me for 'Monday lunch' - now how could they have got the day wrong when I specifically asked whether they had a sunday lunch menu? One piece of advice, don't waste your money!
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What a top pub � though it is not strictly a pub it is a bar, so I'm told. Very efficient staff, always wanting to serve the customer and will willingly go that extra mile. Very good all-round. Food is brilliant though the price is justified, the beer selection is wide with a good selection of well kept ales. Restaurant area a little cold in atmosphere but nice enough but the jewel in the crown is the Minstrels bar upstairs. Faux though it may be but oh so impressive. Grounds / garden area improving all the time. Could do with being slightly more popular to keep up the trade � but not too much or you'll ruin it!
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Beautiful pub in a beautiful spot. Only spent an hour there but the Guinness was good and the service was decent too. Food looked excellent by the way, worth a look in
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I used tro work in The Hautboy,so i cannot say enven a litlle tiny thing wrong about this place. the time i was there i enjoyed very much. i made new friends,my boss was excepcional,the cook is very competent worker and the food is great,specially on sunday roast. hope to get back there some day. see you all soon . beijos
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Met up here for a drink with a couple of friends on a Saturday evening a few weeks ago. The Hautboy seems to be geared up far more for eating rather than drinking. The upstairs bar of earlier posts appears to have been replaced by a cellar bar, which was closed when we visited. The 3 of us were the only people there who were not there to eat in the restaurant, but were able to sit in a small waiting area at one end, having got a drink from the restaurant bar. No signs of any Hog's Back TEA either, although the Ringwood Fortyniner was available and in good condition.
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Dropped in here for a few drinks a couple of weeks back. Nice place. Didn't eat so can't comment on service in that area but the bar staff were really friendly which was a pleasant surprise ! Worth a visit.
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The pub is beautiful but the service is awful. We arrived at 1:30 and were still waiting for dessert at 4:30. We feared deep vein thrombosis from sitting around for so long.
However, it has to be said that the food is very good and is worth it if you are prepared to wait for a very long time.
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This pub is undeniably very attractive, and totally unique. However, the past few times I have visited have been something of a let down. On each occasion, it was a weekend lunch time visit, during lovely weather, so that may have something to do with it, but the service was TERRIBLE!
Food took aeons to arrive (and in one case was totally forgotten!) and the serving staff seemed to speak barely any english and were quite surly when we asked for a discount on the forgotten food.
BUT - for a drinking session, this really is a great pub. Well kept selection of beers (the wonderful Hogsback TEA is something of a regular).
Maybe one day I will get to have a good meal here too!!!
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Popped in for the first time last week.
Fantastic buiding, old church style bar upstairs offering 4 real ales - TEA, Speckled Hen, Fortyniner and another I cannot quite recall.
Bar snacks upstairs and restaurant downstairs. Restaurant food very good and pleasant dining atmosphere.
Bit quiet but was a Tuesday night - would definitely return again though.
For those enquiring about the parrot I did spot a parrot in a cage on the way out - not sure if he was 'resting' (to use a Python description for his status).
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My rating for this pub is based on the same experinces as "anonymous" since I was a sort of regular (commuting in from Ashtead and Leatherhead) about 28 years ago. I don't claim to have been there since then. But just the location and fantastic building - where the pub is located on the first floor - make it a pub not to miss.
Do they still have a parrot in the bar???
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This was a brilliant real ale pub when I was at college. (25 years ago). I hope it still has a macaw
anonymous - 28 Sep 2004 18:50 |
This is a really interesting Pub doing absolutely wonderful food both at lunchtime and in the evening,it apparently also has some beautiful rooms. We had "a bit of a nose" and discovered The Chapel Bar which has a Minstrel Gallery all in all a very pleasant experience good luck to the new owners!!
Russ - 15 Sep 2004 13:06 |
