The Plough Inn, Icklingham

We happened upon this pub whilst looking for somewhere to lunch with our children one very quiet Monday in October (09). The pub was virtually empty yet we were made to feel completely unwelcome by the young female bartender. The hostility was clearly geared towards our children but we persevered with our lunch order anyway. When the waitress came to set our table although there was not one single other diner in the bar area she suggested we were split across two tables (one behind the other) because she couldn't move one of the chairs. I asked instead for a larger table in the huge (empty) dining room (obvious?). A few minutes later a large man (the chef/landlord?) appeared in the bar and aggressively told my husband to switch his phone off. My husband wasn't on the phone merely checking an email. We were taken aback by the man's offensive attitude... he became extremely rude. We decided to leave without lunch and expressed how rude we'd found him and the staff especially towards our children. 'Yes' he said, 'We do not encourage children in here... and look at the mess they've made'. We'd been playing a game of chess! This man is a discredit to pub landlords everywhere.

2 Nov 2009 23:13