The Plough (Harvester), Worcester Park

Well, I went back to the Plough. It's like taking a trip to the Land of Low Expectations. The salad bar had miserable droopy lettuce, and gloopy lard & vinegar dressings from the cheap kind of catering pack. The chicken was that oozing, bouncy stuff with the griddle marks scorched on in the factory. The bun was icky-sweeter than a McDonalds bap. The table service "pint" of IPA had a full inch of froth on it. They sell seven different brands of lager, but no proper beer. The front garden can only be accessed from the building, so it's very unwelcoming. The outdoor tables are screwed to the ground - ditto. I'm not sure what's going on here, it's like visiting the "Olde Englishe Pubbe" in a down-at-heel Spanish resort where ugly drunk girls snog scrawny oiks in the main square. Is this a rough and crappy pub that has somehow made a wrong turn and ended up in a reasonably nice bit of SW London, or did I accidentally buy a house in an undesirable neighbourhood and this pub is entirely appropriate for the postcode? For crying out loud the place is not even clean! I repeat my plea: Harvester, please resign your ownership of this fab old building, get out of KT4 and let someone with beer in their soul turn the Plough back into an atmospheric old boozer - or even into a poncy gastropub full of w*nkers. At least poncey gastropub food might not make me feel like cleaning my teeth. And I'd get a full pint.

3 Aug 2009 21:40

The Hand and Flower, Ham

I went to this pub with my family (1 wife 2 kids) on Sunday 2nd August to meet another family (1 husband, 1 wife, 2 kids). It's great. Big clean fenced-off bouncy castle, excellent food, friendly staff, and the garden is long enough so that noisy kids can be at one end while genteel old ladies fresh from church can be at the other and no-one gets antsy. Beer choice was good (Pride, Young's and Doom Bar) although the Doom Bar tasted a little dodgy. Never mind, Young's was good. My experience was so different to that of "freehouse1" below that I can only assume he/she runs a nearby rival pub and is trying to knock the competition.

3 Aug 2009 21:25

The Plough (Harvester), Worcester Park

This is a very disappointing pub. Lovely exterior, right on a green, old building - perfect. Inside, it's a horror story - cheap, lowest-common-denominator decor and deeply unambitious beer/food offerings. There's only lager, or nasty kegged IPA. Not even proper beer in bottles. The restaurant has taken over the nicest bit of the building. When I visited, a member of staff came over and swept food crumbs off the table onto the floor by way of "tidying up". I wish, I wish, that Harvester would walk away from this brilliant building and let a proper pub company run it.

8 Jan 2008 17:33