The Crown Inn, Puncknowle

An unfortunate visit...

We visited The Crown pub on the recommendation of a local holiday farm owner, as it was within walking distance of our holiday accommodation and we were advised that the food was of a high quality. The village is beautiful and all our friends and family enjoyed the picturesque walk and local setting. Unfortunately the greeting we received when we walked through the door of the establishment by the two apparent landlords was absolutely appalling and no one in our large party (all of whom work within professions where good communication and customer service are crucial) have ever received a response such as the one we were greeted with at The Crown; it was shockingly rude and totally unnecessary. If we hadn't have walked a number of miles to reach the pub with small children we would have most certainly refused to remain there. Palmers Brewery should be ashamed of the attitude of these publicans who are representing their brewery and urgently provide them with much needed training on how to be polite and to use basic manners to customers who are spending their hard earned income within one of their establishments. The chef and waitresses were clearly uncomfortable with the reception we received and made attempts to try and compensate for the overt rudeness demonstrated at the front of the house. On a positive note the food was delicious (it was however unfortunate that we had literally been ordered to sit and eat outside in the beer garden - in the rain- and advised that we had less than 5 minutes to order food or the kitchen would be closed. It should be noted that this was after we were initially told that the kitchen was closed, prior to the advertised end of lunch period). This was an unnecessary and very unpleasant experience and is certainly not a good advertisement for the promotion of either the brewery or the local tourist industry. Beautiful setting, quaint pub, good food, disgustingly shocking customer service and the landlords should be ashamed of their small minded, arrogant and disrespectful approach to meeting the needs of their customers.

19 Sep 2011 23:29