please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Village pub which is the start and finish point of a circular walk around Minstead. Not particularly characterful apart from the unusual sign, there are prettier pubs in The New Forest. it's convenient location for the walkers and cyclists meant it was moderately busy on the day we were there. Four ales on tap. Doom Bar (meh!), Tribute, Flacks Double Drop, and Ringwood 49er. Sadly the two pints we ordered were well below par with the Double Drop tasting like shandy! and the 49er having an unpleasant sour taste and at £8.10 for two pints added insult to injury. The pub had held a beer festival the week before which was a bit of an irony judging by the way they keep their beer. So just a rating of 5 from me.
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This place is very much improved since the last time I was here several years ago (and the loos are now clean and fresh painted). It's been re-fitted throughout. The emphasis now seems to be on food, with a fairly wide choice. The prices, though, seem to be fairly high. Usually New Forest pubs command a premium and this is understandable. It's always hard to tell how much of a new landlord's "improvements" will last; as it has been under the new management for only a shade over 3 weeks, I'll have to re-visit and see if it holds up.
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The Trusty has just (17 June 2011) come under new ownership and thank goodness because it was pretty dire. I'm pleased to say that the atmosphere and decor are hugely improved, the staff are professional and really friendly - and the beer's good. Haven't eaten there yet but the menu looks good and reports from others are quite positive. It's early days yet but it's fair to say there has been a sea change so, certainly worth a try.
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Minstead, such a beautiful area to visit. lovely long or short walks from the village centre, Quaint Church, beautiful village store with helpful owners. take time to ponder over the beautiful facade of the village pub the Trusty Servant, enter and have your illusions spoilt. A beautiful village pub if in the right hands. Presently the Trusty Servant has no inside Ambience, the staff are ill-mannered. Food is costly and menial . Bar stock of beers and wines sparse. rest assured I was served a pint of beer and the glass had sticky gooey substance around the rim, instead of a fresh pint, staff decanted into another glass. should you require to visit the toilets, then you will not be shocked if you can imagine the worst public convenience you have ever visited, with the smell to match. Not a good promotion for the beauty of the setting and the New Forest as a whole.
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is this the pub thats in walking distance to little bramley b&b ?? we are staying there soon and want somewhere nice to eat thats walkable
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Perfect location and good service and polite staff. There is a limited choice of food but the quality is ok. Big down point when we were there was a group of children using the place as a playground as their mum's drank wine.
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I hope this pub has improved since we visited. It was quite simply the worst pub I've ever been in. Slow service, smell from the toilets and indifferent staff.
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The pub is is in a great setting in the New Forest, a (very) small village, with ponies and Gloucester Old Spot pigs freely wandering around the lane outside. Looks like the old building has been pretty much gutted at some stage, and painted light grey inside throughout, to give it a touch of the 'bistro' look. Tried the Ringwood Best which was fine, and they also had Old Speckled Hen, Adnams Broadside, and London Pride on show. Had the beef casserole for lunch, which was decent value for just under six quid. Nice place, good beer, but didn't get the impression that it was the local drinking haunt.
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Service was slow, soup was very bland price was high
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Visited the pub for lunch during a bike ride from Burley. The pub was busy with a great atmosphere. We sat in the garden which was very pleasant and we had a salt beef sandwich and a ham sandwich. Both were excellent, great filling and very high quality home made bread. The choice of cask ales was wide and interesting. I had a couple of pints of different beers both of which were served in branded glasses. All in all the food, ale and service was of the highest order. So much so we decided to return to the pub on the following evening, the last of our holiday.
Upon return we sat inside. Once again a great atmosphere, very warm interior, well decorated, very subtle colours with lots of hurricane lamps and candles. The graden was lit extremely attractively. An all round lovely ambience.
The menu was fantastic just large enough to give you a good choice and to have confidence that everything was fresh. Clearly nothing was going to be frozen here. The starters were sublime and the main courses were nothing short of staggering value for money. My partner had a dessert which again she declared to be lovely and the coffee was of high quality. The service throughout was first class, as good as I have ever received. We had two different glasses of wine and two different cask ales. The beers were once again clear and bright, came in branded glassware and served at perfect temperature. The bill was under �60. Unbelievable value given the quality of the food, drink and service. I'm not sure where any of the negative comments on the site have come from. If we had a pub like this in striking distance of our home, we'd take up residence.
Food, drink and service of this quality at this price is very difficult to find. I can not recommend the place highly enough. If you have the chance to visit it on holiday, do so, take the time out to find it. If you live locally, you should rejoice and support the pub.
Quite brilliant.
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My wife and I went there yesterday evening for a drink and was very disappointed. The beer was ok but my wife couldn't get the drink she required. From the outside it looked attractive and the garden was nice, but I wish we had not gone inside, very dull.
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Visited this weekend, even better than last time. I think the food is really good and a lot better than other pubs in the area. I didn't think it was expensive, well compared to witherspoons maybe yes, but this is real food.
Recomended.
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The range of beers is disappointing...and the food is very expensive.
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My husband and I visited The Trusty Servant with our children on Sunday 3rd May.
What a beautiful pub this is, in a picture post card setting.
We all ate the Sunday roast which was delicious and beautifully cooked. The menu was extensive and the food coming out of the kitchen looked yummy!! Our children can be fussy eaters but even they polished off their plates!
The service was second to none and we will, with out doubt, be back in the future.
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A few weeks ago I visited with my children for lunch. I was impressed by the menu and thought it was a nice touch that the children eat off the main menu but with kid�s portions. I felt it was preferable to a kids menu and it was nice not to see turkey dinosaurs and fish fingers for a change!
We sat on the decked area outside the bar which was nice for the children as there�s plenty of space outside for them to run around whilst they�re waiting for their food.
We only had snacky food from the lunchtime menu but will happily come back for a full evening meal and I�m definitely going to recommend it to friends.
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We visited this pub over the bank holiday weekend and had a lovely time. We came here two years ago and things had changed dramatically.......for the better we thought.
For starters my wife ordered grilled goats cheese dish and I had Parma ham with figs, both starters were top quality. Good clean flavours and modern presentation.
Main courses where Butternut squash and I opted for the burger, again both very good, the burger wasn�t your bog standard frozen jobbie, it was the real deal full of meat and juicy with melted cheese covering the top with a fresh salad on the other half of the bun.
The Squash dish was a butternut squash cut in half filled with saut� potatoes and wild mushrooms, it looked fantastic even for a vegetarian dish.
Deserts where no disappointment either, I had a crumble and we ordered a peanut butter parfait as well, out of curiosity really. The Parfait was a delight, it tasted like a snickers ice cream and was topped with honey comb dipped in chocolate my only criticism is it could have been bigger, although it was quite rich. The crumble was nice, fresh vanilla gave it a touch of class, very good.
We finish our meal with coffee and sat in the garden before visiting the church near by and a beautiful forest walk after.
Will definitely go back and look forward to the next visit.
8/10
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We visited the pub for Sunday lunch yesterday and I felt compelled to write this review in light of the bad service my husband and I received.
My meal started well with some lovely whitebait whilst my husband's starter of salt beef was very average. For mains we went for Sunday roast and after waiting for an hour and a half we were served raw vegetables and overcooked beef.
Upon collecting my half eaten remains a lady who had been very nice and attentive up until that point failed to ask if the food had been ok so my husband felt compelled to mention how poor my food had been. The owner's response was to say that if we had drawn it to her attention earlier she could have done something about it. Normally I would accept this to be a fair comment, but in light of the fact that we had waited 1.5 hours for our food I was just past the point of sending it back and waiting for another meal at that stage.
In any event, when my husband went to pay and said that he really did not think we should have to pay for my main, the owner's response was that they had tasted it in the kitchen after and they thought there was nothing wrong with it, so I am not sure what she had meant when she said they could have done something about it earlier....
This is when things got really bad. To my utter disbelief the owner went on to concoct her own story as to why she thought I had not eaten my main. She advised my husband that she was "skeptical" of our story about why I had not finished my food and said she thought that I had filled up on the starter and was too full to finish my main meal (note - I am a 33 adult, not a 5 year old child)! So in other words she was accusing us of lying about my main meal to get �10 taken off our bill.
In summary, if you do decide to go to this pub (don't - go to The New Forest Inn which is much better)...don't order the Sunday roast and if your food is crap don't complain to the owners and they will just accuse you of lying and make you pay for it anyway.
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We went back this pub over the half term, really good again! Food outstanding. Kids loved playing in the garden and we could keep an eye on them over a drink in the restaurant.
Lovely place, ticks all the boxes for me.
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oh my god what has happened here?, this used to be one of the best pubs in the new forest, and knew what it was, a village pub serving good beer and food to locals and tourists alike, but not now, basically a restaurant that might be ok in the middle of a city, but not here, only one beer on, and only four other people here, so we didn't eat went elsewhere, what a dissapointment
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We ate at The Trusty Servant on Sunday and had a lovely time. We found the staff very friendly and helpfull and the food very good. I will be back in the future, not often we find pubs that are of this quality.
Thankyou.
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The pub's current rating of 5.9 is a reflection of some earlier reviews when the pub was run by another landlord. It is better than that now but not enough to entice our party of walkers back. Plus points, the beer is well kept, an excellent pint of Ringwood Best. The food was rather poor & not up to the standard mentioned by the previous reviewer. Two of our party went for soup 'and left it ' I had a taste, grainy & with little flavour. I had a passable rib eye steak. It was cooked how I like it 'rare' but there was grisle in it and frankly not too tasty. I had expected more from Dexter cattle grazing nearby, from whence the meat came. There were uncooked stalks on my broccoli though I liked the hand cut chips. Not one of our party of 9 really enjoyed their meal. Perhaps we were expecting more of this pub as it has received good reviews in the press. To sum up, too expensive for the quality of food, attentive landlord & friendly staff. Afraid we will not be going back as there are better pubs in the area. My rating 6.5
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Had an excellent meal today with my family and was greatly entertained by the barman's performance of Thriller (sadly didn't get his name). Great service and would certainly recommend this pub now under new management. The fish was delish.
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we had a family do here recently. I was not inspired by some of the reviews on the www (I suggested that we shoudl go elsewhere...) but was pleasonatly surprised by the pub, under new management now apparently. Food was good, menu OK, service OK, despit it being a busy Saturday night. the proprietor was much in evidence, attending to details.
Let's hope that they keep it up. Recommended.
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Used to be really good for food, nice traditional atmosphere. Gone downhill in last year or so. Landlord's response to a complaint about uncooked food has ensured I will never go back to this pub - good old British customer service, very shirty and we were spending almost �100 on food and drink - shocking.....their loss I suppose.
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Fabulous pub! Extremely friendly and welcoming staff. There's not a lot in this little village but it is beautifully picturesque and i'd definitely return just to go back to this charming little place. The food was lovely and a great selection, with bbq's most weekends in the summer. Huge and comfortable outdoor area, occasional bands and karaoke. Rooms upstairs are nice, and they really look after you in the mornings with their full english breakfast with all the trimmings. Didn't want to leave, just lovely, mostly down to the pure good nature of the management and all the other staff. An all round great country pub, couldn't fault it!!!
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Lovely village location but beer uninspiring basically just 2 real ales including Ringwood bitter.Food expensive mainly a tourist pub but you need a mortgage to afford to eat here.
Worth a visit to Arthur Colan Doyles grave in the Church just round the bend.
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Called on a Sunday lunchtime. Good choice of ales - chose Otter which was fine. Long wait for food though with fairly uninspiring menu. I chose mushroom and pepper strogonoff which was ok but what rice there was was swamped in the soup of the strogonoff. The roast pork came smothered in gravy (as I feared hence why I avoided it) but with good crackling, veg came separately in two small bowls presumably to justify the price.
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In the heart of the New Forest and ridiculously over priced. �8 for an omelette if my memory serves me. The lady behind the bar was more interested in chatting to the locals than to serve any outsider. Didn't get to taste the beer as I took my custom elsewhere.
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Visited on a quiet Monday afternoon. Only ale they had was Ringwood Best. The place was clean including the toilets!
Pretty location
anonymous - 4 Sep 2007 14:53 |
The loos are, err, not quite clean. And this is where the people who prepare the food (apparently) wash their hands. Drink all you want, but have a look at the Gentt' before you eat.
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Will be eating snacks from the village shop opposite next time - the worst food I have ever eaten (and I've had macDonalds a few times!).
We had deep-fried brie to start, which was undercooked in the middle and almost burnt on the outside.
I had a "carpet bag sirloin" - which was a seriously-overcooked sirloin steak with pate in the middle (which was actually just squished liver); awful. My fiancee had a barely-passable seafood risotto which was enough for 4 people. The only passable thing was the brandy snap dessert.
The waiting staff were lovely, but the guy behind the bar was not really with it at all.
They need to shrink their menu (too much stuff for the kitchen to prepare) and concentrate on quality rather than quantity.
Not sure what sort of quality the locals and other tourists are used to, but I will never visit this place again. There was another couple, staying at our B&B who were also there and thought it was diabolical.
For what it's worth, find somewhere else to eat.
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Great pub in the heart of the New Forest a coupleof miles to the south of the A31. Serves generous ploughmans's lunches, though we were surprised at the wait, given the pub was really quite empty. Menu seems innovative, to the point of elaborate, but those eating seemedto enjoy it! Not, shall we say, of the cheapest - not even the ploughman's! Given the huge floor area and the desire to make a strong impression with the food, it may well be that the new landlord will think of turning this into a gastro-pub in the near future. Beer is well kept and tasty, though some of the staff do not know enough about the beers themselves! Parking may well be a problem is summer!
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Not been here for a couple of years (they used to do great fish) so went a couple of weeks ago for sunday lunch. Heaving so went to The Oak at Bank instead.
Went back last week for lunch during the week.
Friendly staff (not enough though) quite busy, quick service. Stuck with tomato juice, so can't comment on beer.
Looks a bit tired now and parking is a nightmare.
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Visited this pub on an August weekend. Weather was rather grey and cool and it was very busy for Sunday lunch. Beer range OK but not imaginative. Food is pricy - the Sunday roast was a modest 2 slices cut cold from the joint and heated up on a griddle. The dining room was rather dirty and lacks character - tables crammed in and lots of untidied junk piled up in places. Room for improvement everywhere - range of beer, price and quality of food, and decor. Pretty average.
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Went on a fairly quite Monday lunch time. Fairly small selection of real ales, but tasted good. Separate dining room, although food can be eaten at tables in the bar area. Extensive menu available at reasonable (but not low) prices, with shorter snacks menu available from 2pm to 6pm. The young staff were efficient and friendly enough, without being overly so. Highly recommended.
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Ate there today.
Absolutely huge portions.
The salt and pepper mussels were lovely.
Beautiful location.
The village shop is currently for sale for �975,000 if anyone's interested.
Would move there tomorrow if I won the Lotto!
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Yea! Been there a couple of times recently. The service can get a little stressed out on busy days, but is generally OK. Good Food, good beer, nice garden, a lot going for it.
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Ians right.
Maybe They were having a stressful day when I first visited...on subsequent visits they have been very welcoming indeed..
Last time out I had medallions of beef. Just typing this is making me drool. yum.
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Quite agree with the entry, except that found it tobe quite welcoming. Furthermore within a short walk of the pub you will find that Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes books) is buried in the churchyard underneath an oak tree with his wife. Worth having a gander at!
anonymous - 15 Jun 2004 09:22 |
