The Castle Inn, Ealing

I wrote my previous entry in anger and would like to add the following:

It is a shame that this has let down the pub as it is generally a good pub, and the manager works hard to keep everyone happy and make it a (usually) pleasant place to be. I've given the pub a ten rating here to negate the unfair zero in my previous review, as I have had pleasant experiences here before now. The two ratings average out at 5.

8 Jul 2014 17:40

The Castle Inn, Ealing

Went today, as usual, to watch the qualifying session for the Grand Prix. The only other people watching this were an elderly gentleman and his middle-aged son. Throughout much of the surprisingly exciting first qualifying session they read the Torygraph, the elder occasionally calling abusively to the TV. After the first qualifying session, the manageress called past me to ask the old guy what time he would like her to switch over to the tennis. Two o'clock came the reply, though the first ten minutes of the tennis would be just them knocking the ball about. I pointed out that I would like to leave the coverage of the qualifying on, especially for ten minutes if they were just knocking the ball about. The manageress just sniggered at me. After Lewis Hamilton screwed up his final lap I was eager to hear the ensuing interview. The manageress asked Victor Meldrew's uncle if it was OK to turn over to the tennis "Please do" he begged selfishly, in disgust at Hamilton's cock-up. "Please don't" I begged "I want to hear what Hamilton has to say for himself" (he was actually interviewed just six minutes later, for one minute). Clearly as the manageress wasn't asking me she didn't care what I wanted, and the old man's timid son didn't seem to know what he thought. As I left in disgust I called in to the nearby New Inn, a much bigger pub with more TV screens (and wheat beer which the Castle lacks), who confirmed that they will be showing the British Grand Prix the next day, and I will not be going in the Castle for a very long time.

5 Jul 2014 18:42

The Boaters Inn, Kingston Upon Thames

Made a special 20 mile round trip (2 hours by bus) to see an advertised blues band on Saturday 28/5/2011 at this chav palace, where the very charming new barman looked very confused about a band being on tonight, and had to go and check befiore claiming the band had cancelled. Adverts in the pub for music nights said nothing about this night and no performance area was set up. Considering they were claiming that a big, popular blues act was playing (Andy Cortes no less) this seemed a bit unlikely. According to AC's MySpace page he is not currently touring, so I think the pub were simply claimning to have a big star on to get punters in. The barman offered me a pint on the house for my troubles, but the landlord over-ruled him - what a ****! Hence, here I am exercising consumer power. If they have to pull stunts like this to get people in on a Saturday night they must be bad. Avoid.

31 May 2011 17:37