Bankes Arms Hotel and Country Inn, Studland

So there we are, sitting in the garden thinking what a magnificent location for a pub, what a fine view of the bay, and then the girl brings us our chips, without any sign or mention of salt, vinegar, ketchup or what have you, and when we ask whether we might have ketchup she mumbles that we'll have to ask at the bar because she doesn't know where it is. Hmm! Plenty of staff standing around chatting in the bar; perhaps someone could have taken a short break from their conference to provide service to us customers. Not as if it was cheap either.

24 Jul 2012 21:16

Commercial Inn, Hereford

Bloody hell.

Stopped off for a swift half one afternoon while waiting for a train. A few tipsy geezers hanging around an unmanned bar. As I approached the bar with some trepidation one of the aforementioned fell off his stool in a shower of lager, and another jumped behind the bar and offered to do me a drink in the absence of a barperson.

"Half pint for me and a G&T for the misses please."

Not being a barman in any sense, he had no end of difficulty pouring half a pint without it consisting of froth, and I was asked if Bacardi Gin was okay. Diplomatically, I asked whether I could have Bombay Sapphire instead. I was told I'd have to wait til the barguy got back to pay. And on the spectacle of capering drunk young fellers went, as we hurried our drinks and they removed indiscriminate items of clothing and so on and so forth.

In any case, when the barguy finally appeared, in his ineffectual attempts to reclaim his bar, he was occupied enough to undercharge us, and while we left feeling oddly amused by the whole experience, the sense that the joke must wear thin and the drunkeness less harmless nearer to closing time sours our memories.

Avoid. Like scabies.

22 Jun 2010 21:50

The Dragon Inn, Worcester

Excellent selection of drinks in a smug, cliquey, self-congratulatory atmosphere. Precisely the sort of place CAMRA types piss their cords over, and ordinary folk get rightly frustrated by.

23 Nov 2009 03:17