The Compasses, Tunbridge Wells

I was interested in the comment made about the pubs attitude. I visited with a friend who lives very close by. We ordered drinks at Friday lunchtime in a break from business and then food. They told us no food for at least an hour. Then we asked if a sandwich would take as long and they said yes a large number had arrived and they had a backlog. Well I had a look around and there was a bunch of about 8 outside and a few inside. So as they had allowed us to buy the drinks before telling us they could not serve us food in a reasonable time we sat outside. We then bought some fish and chips from same shop so we could at least have something. Behold a really nasty young woman approached us and announced fish and chip eaters were breaking their "rules" and we had to leave. Astounded we were then told we could " go and eat in the adjacent park and they would put our drinks in a container.....or the final offer a refund and please leave our pub".
Now its funny that we are in our forties, relatively affluent, and well dressed. The girl would not listen to our comment that werent congenital fish and chip merchants camping out on pub forecourts, but bona fide diners who had been shortchanged by their imposed one hour delay. She acted like a bossy traffic warden, which would have been funny if it wasnt the fact that we are both journalists and she was looking to feature local food places in the area. She The place is one step above a Harvester, and is not the kind we usually frequent, so it was even more amazing to get treated by a barely literate barperson as dodgy reprobates. Suffice it to say my opinion of their customer service is that it is sub zero with staff seemingly trained by the "fawlty towers" school of licensed trade management. If you like being publicly humiliated its the place to go. If you dont give it a very wide berth....by the way the chippy across the street is fab :-)

12 Jul 2008 18:12

The Preston Park Tavern, Brighton

Nice pub subject of makeover.

13 Dec 2006 10:04