The Farmers Inn, Scaynes Hill

I am writing following a recent visit to the Farmers Pub in Scaynes Hill. I do not normally comment about pubs after visiting, but on this occasion I feel as if I have to. I visited with my partner, our two young children and my two other members of my extended family and I was very disappointed indeed. Firstly, we were not given a warm welcome in the slightest - the sign outside said new owners, so I am guessing the woman behind the bar was the new landlady. We ordered our drinks without any friendliness from the bar maid what so ever. I then handed my card over to pay, on being handed the terminal to enter my pin I proceeded to do so, only for a large amount of money to appear on the screen, when I enquired about the amount I was told "oh you've messed it up!" in fact the bar maid had not pressed the button she was required to before handing it to me. The women behind the bar then proceed to drop the terminal on the floor and it fell into several pieces, luckily I had just removed my card! Secondly, we requested to see the menu which we were handed, and on asking for more information on the options we were met with further hostility. In reply to the question �can you tell me more about the curry please?" the one word response came "chicken" I decided to persevere and order the muscles as a starter, the muscles themselves were really quite nice, unfortunately the bread that can with them was frozen in the middle! And when we took the bread back an apology was non existant. The bread was returned fresh from a microwave, and as such was very soggy and ruined the dish "muscles with crusty bread" as the bread was anything but crusty. Thirdly, I went back to the bar to order more drinks and the main course, again looking to pay with my card and this time the terminal printed a blank receipt, to which the woman responded "what�s happened here?" thinking this was a rhetorical question I kept stum, until I looked up to see the terminal being thrust in my direction, " I don't know how to work this" I protested, before the woman took the machine to pieces by hand and fed the paper through another slot and then handed it back to me with a grunt. I decided to take the initiative and pressed enter to then print the customer copy. The woman snatched the terminal back and tore off this receipt. After watching her mess around trying to print another copy for what felt like an hour I said �look you keep that copy� and returned to our table. When the chicken curry I had ordered finally arrived it was possibly the worst pub meal I have ever tasted, the rice was watery, the sauce was clearly from a jar and actually tasted really bad and I dread to think about the �chicken�. If the pub is indeed under new ownership to could forgive a few mistakes, and maybe even bad food, but if you are new to the licensed trade in this day and age, surely the first thing one would want to do is ensure friendliness to customers? As I said I don�t normally write to complain, but after thinking about it five people to eat with two drinks each at close to �115.00 the more and more disappointed I feel. I certainly won�t be going back, and will be advising other to stay well clear.

16 Mar 2010 10:52