The Woodstock, Didsbury

I'm ashamed to admit that this pub is my local. Overall I still prefer it to the barleycorn or the metropolitan but it's just badly run and managed. There is a huge upstairs seating area with a bar that is usually closed off by a few bar stools (presumably because staff can't be bothered taking food orders up some stairs). If you do manage to visit on a day when the upstairs seating area is open you'll have to walk all the way downstairs again to get served as they only seem to open the upstairs bar on a Saturday night (if they have been nagged by enough punters!)

So having trecked downstairs to get a round in, expect to be stood waiting at the bar for a LONG time. No matter what time of day or night the staff make poor service an art form. Draught lager is regularly off, the wait for food is always 45 minutes even if you are their only customer, and you never get served in the order that you arrived at the bar.

So you have been served (eventually) and you have your seats upstairs. You're chatting away quite happily and then a crowd of people come and sit at the table 5 yeards away from you. Neither group of people feels particularly comfiortable to talk because of the uncomfortable seating, the layout of the seats, and the lack of music. So you make a dash for the one and only comfy private seat... a sofa on the landing. You settle down and order some food... a rare steak. It arrives frozen in the middle and the guy on the bar presents you with your receipt and says 'we won't refund you because you did ask for it rare'. Then you get out to your car and discover that the cctv cameras are fakes and your rear windscreeen has been smashed. I kid you not... all this in the life of a week of the woodstock. But as I'm a grumpy old man that likes beer, I think I might just carry on going there :)

18 Feb 2005 14:30