BITE user comments - orpingtoneagle
Comments by orpingtoneagle
Boadicea, Charing Cross Station
This refurbished bar has become very much an example of form over substance.
It is branded as a craft beer bar but has no real ale and no real examples of the beers that demonstrate the vibrancy that is the UK craft beer scene.
Instead you get a selection of yes a few of the more unusual keg beers and lager and a few very expensive bottled world beers.
If you want to see what the UK brewing scene is at take a 5min stroll to the Harp, you won't be disappointed as I was here.
18 Dec 2011 23:49
Another crushing low in a series of crushing lows that is the Maxwell...........
Walked past yesterday and there was a sign in the window saying thatthey had NO draft beer! They did have bottles but even they looked like they were not many in number.
So is the number up for the Maxwell. I gather thatthe Landlady Anne has moved on so does the pub have a future.
It seemed that a while ago all of the bits of the jigsaw were falling into place, the pub was packed out (particularly when sports were on, it started to serve decent ale (and the local CAMRA crew were even starting to sniff around and support this,) and it was good value. Then something seemed to go very very wrong and we now have an empty pub with no beer.
If it is true and Anne has left the pub, I wish her and her family all of the best. I hope the Maxwell does not close for good, but fera that this might be the case and whoever takes it over has more luck, it is the only pub in the area and has a fairly large catchment area as it is near transport and houses.
I had many happy days there but those days were a while back, I and a few other would go back but may not get the chance to it seems.
29 May 2011 17:50
Often no real ale (and when there is it is out of condition. )No sky TV now for ages. Less and less choice of food and now does not accept cards so looks like even the bank is getting twitchy. A pub that limps on and as it gets ever more dilapidated and empty of stock it gets ever more empty of customers. It seems only a matter of time before it gets put out of its misery. I don't want this to happen mind and maybe something might change. This pub was so much better a few years ago and still could be but I really fear for this one as it goes downhill very very fast
20 May 2011 22:02
Oh dear! Going from bad to worse! Since my last post bemoaning a lack of lovely or indeed any draft ale,I now see that the pub no longer has Sky Sports. Thus the 2 reasons myself and a fair few others used to go there are now gone. The Maxwell used to be a decent boozer but now is clearly on it's uppers. All a bit sad really. My heart says support the place but my head says there is nothing now to make it worthwhile
27 Sep 2010 15:09
Oh dear! Going from bad to worse! Since my last post bemoaning a lack of lovely or indeed any draft ale,I now see that the pub no longer has Sky Sports. Thus the 2 reasons myself and a fair few others used to go there are now gone. The Maxwell used to be a decent boozer but now is clearly on it's uppers. All a bit sad really. My heart says support the place but my head says there is nothing now to make it worthwhile
27 Sep 2010 15:07
The Change of Horses, Farnborough
Looks to be going downhill fast.
Used to be a nice place to while away an hour as the kids played in the garden. Food good and a seperate airy room that even my mother liked.
Now the pub is full of grim parents watching their feral charges run riot whilst they glug stella.
Oh and the standard of food has gone down.
Beer still ok but not as good as the Woodman over the road, if only the Woodman did better food.......................
6 Aug 2010 19:37
The Fighting Cocks, Horton Kirby
Read the spats on this pub with interest. Any review site will be a mixture of the objective and subjective and yes the single review will always look dodgy. I have posted on these boards for years (recently changed username after last computer died and changed e mail providor,) and have no axe to grind.
But saying that anyone who artificially asks a group o 'friends,' to post favourable reviews is equally looking to distort the picture just as much as the person who posts a series of one off negative reviews.
But the pub.........................went here the other day and it is fine, nothing special but fine, a decent family pub. If it has one big, big drawback for me it is simply that it is not the nearby Bull. As a self confessed real ale beer bore this pub can not compete with the range and quality of beer at the bull, but then again to be fair again, I don't think this pub is trying to.
6 Aug 2010 19:26
Very disappointing, as stated above no real ale and when I popped in the other day they were starting to run out of other drinks as well.
Hope this will not be long term but the pub management needs to get this sorted. The pub was beginning to make a name for itself on the real ale front and this could be lost if the problem continues.
4 Aug 2010 08:54
Woodman is my local as there is no better pub in the area. A rare place to find the speciality beers brewed by Sheps micro brewery with the odd guest. The current special is called Old Faversham Gold and it is so nice it won't be around for long!
The pub is clean and bright and the garden has recently been done up (and survived Farnfest!)
Yes the pub is off the beaten track but is equally as good as the nearby 5 Bells in Chelsfield and that won a local CAMRA award.
Quite why this pub is not in the GBG defeats me, so come on SEL CAMRA get down to Farnborough Village and see what you are missing. (Let me know when you are going and I will meet you there!)
I have lived in the area for 10 years and moaned about the lack of decent unusual and well kept ale. There are pubs that do ale, do unusual and some even on the odd occasion do well kept. The Woodman does all 3! If I had one moan, it would be that the beer is on the pricey for the area side but am happy to pay abit more for quality.
26 Jun 2010 09:58
Back to orpingtoneagle's profile
The Maxwell Hotel, Orpington
I rather foolishly gave the Maxwell another go last week.........
Wish I had not. There are now bare walls where pictures used to be, an even more basic choice of drinks and a pub full of kids thinking they are local faces on one side and miserable old fellas on the other. The barmaids preferring to chat instead of serve.
A sign the pub has changed for the worse? Lots of lovely notices about the pub not tolerating drugs. Mind you I reckon ever the most discerning druggie would balk and the poor standard of the bogs.
14 Jan 2012 21:57