Mayfly, Chilboltonback to pub details please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Once experienced never to return in my case.
Regrettably, I have to agree with so many of the previous negative postings.
My abiding recollection is the charging by the spoonload and the tardy service.
It may have changed since - I hope so.
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A great pub which was great to visit on the wayback from Dorset to London. I have happy memories of going there with my father. The outside and location is great however on the inside the food is over priced and there are way too many signs. Feels like you are in the middle of a traffic roundabout ! If they reduced the number of signs and improved the provision of food then it would truely be a great pub rather than one living on its former glory.
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My whole family met here last week merely as a convenient spot on an onward journey. Unfortunately I have to agree with many of the points made by earlier posters. Conveyor belt food service - food prices - surly staff - heaped salad spoons extra , etc. But the final straw was being charged £3.15 for a pint of Summer Lightning and having to ask for it to be topped up. Everything good about this place is outside.
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Was on holiday in the area and went there for a pint every lunchtime last week, didnt eat there at all though, would have liked to have tried the other ales on offer but never got past the Hopback Summer Lightning (which looks to be a permanent feature there) - 5 days visited and 5 perfect pints of HSL, no complaints here :)
Nurke - 30 Aug 2007 13:18 |
Fantastic location but the food is overpriced in the extreme and dished out by the most sourfaced, miserable woman it has ever been my misfortune to come across in the service industry.
If this pub was anywhere other than by the River Test, it would have gone belly up years ago.
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I have to agree with most of the negatives here (if only I'd read the review before we came!) Beautiful setting, ruined by penny-pinching management. More signs telling you what you can't do than any pub I have ever been to, my favourite was "It is ILLEGAL to run a tab for alcohol alone" or words to that effect, in other words each time you buy a round with a card, it's an extra 25p!
Would not bother going back - the Plough at Sparsholt is a MUCH nicer option.
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The setting by the river is, of course, the pub's great selling point. Yes, the notices about salad servings and minimum credit card spend might seem unfriendly, but the system works and we found the food good value.
For anyone confused by the lunchtime offering, this is how it works. You take a plate, help yourself to salad (90p per spoonful), hand the plate to the bar staff who then add your choice of dish (eg. ham, quiche, trout) plus accompaniment of either bread or new potatoes. They then hand the plate back to you and you pay at the till. It might seem bureaucratic but it's an efficient way of serving people on busy lunchtimes.
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Have to agree with TimesFood. Lovely building and the best location in the world, only spoilt by the management. Won't change, there are always suckers, so no need to!! On my last visit, watched kitchen staff serve food with their hands - unwashed between servings. AVOID THE FOOD!!
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Not had any of the problems referred to here with the staff, I have been there quite a few times and they all seemed ok to me. I will agree that the food prices are pretty exorbitant, but I find the food is well presented, good sized portions and tastes good. Very good choice of ales on show, with Abbot rubbing shoulders with 49er and Hobgoblin, although I will insert my usual comment about the beer being too cold here. The setting is fantastic too, sitting alongside the Test. It gets good points from me!
Nurke - 20 Sep 2006 09:22 |
Great location, brilliant in the summer if you like a drink by the river, but i havent been for a long time and seems like the food isnt the best thing about this pub, shame because a lot of pubs would kill for where they are situated
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Superb Pub. Great Location. Everything you could ever want. Even had 'Hobgoblin' on tap.
Downside? Landlord is a chuffing idjit who has no place dealing with the public or employing staff. He's been there for years and it's all gone to hell-in-handcart as the prices have gone up.
He really needs to get out of the business while he still can...at these prices he must have saved enough for his retirement by now.
Avoid. Avoid. Avoid. (and you can quote me)
anonymous - 11 Jun 2006 15:19 |
The Mayfly pub;
What can I say? Once a beautiful pub, in an even more beautiful location. Strutting its stuff on the river test, this pub used to make the British summer evening more delightful than a day trip to Heffner's pad for a spotty 16 year old. You may notice an element of past tense in the previous few lines. Let me tell you this, even though I have never been, to Heffner's place, it undoubtedly wins hands, feet, shoulders, nose and lips down these days (did I forget knees?). Now, this of course is no great insult - what is, is the fact that so does the McDonalds in Putney. So, what does the pub offer? ...
Easier to go into the problems. Firstly, the Land lord/lady is Lazy, conceited and incompetent. Secondly, the pub is now full of the sort of people that make a football crowd seem civilized and this probably leads onto all of the further points, which are almost too absurd to contemplate.
The buffet bar! (Which is also the place you have to queue for the main menu): Staff - not bad, nice, kind but ruled by a capitalist monster. Around the menu, scrawled in chalk type graffiti are words stating that all customers must spend £3.50 or maybe even £3.95. This is no great revelation as this is the price of cheapest meal (apart from if you help yourself to just salad - I will get to this point very shortly), but it sets a tone. Once you get to the buffet bar (usually 10 minutes minimum), more pornographic graffiti meets the eye 'Salad is charged at 90 pence per spoon, heaped spoons will be charged extra'!!! This could be understandable if it wasn't for the fact that the spoons were practically flat - because of a fear of random costing I opted for no potato in my potato salad, a shame I thought, as it is a side order I am particularly partial too - oh well, I guess the mayo would be nice with my smoked haddock (potato) cakes.
After this trauma (one that I appreciate is no huge one compared to some that people across the world have to deal with), I took out my card to pay for my £10.75 meal. 'WHAT!' A 25p fine if I spend less than £20 on my plastic?! If only I had brought some cash I may have got some potato for the same price!
All in all, a terrible experience - a pub run by people who have no place in such a wonderful spot. Go there at your own peril - if you do go for the view I suggest taking a laptop in order to calculate the excess charges, a sad reflection of modern times - who knows, maybe next year this place will be replaced by a riverside McDonalds - Bring it on!
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No-one can deny that on a warm day this pub has a beautiful setting alongside the river Test.
On the down side:
• the food is fair, but verging on the over-priced for many of the more basic dishes
• the buffet queueing system needs serious and rapid revision
• the buffet staff do need customer service training
• it would be useful for the buffet staff to remind clients if new potatoes are already an option with a meal rather than offering once they have been added to a plate from the salad buffet.
I suspect the owner's defence would be along the lines of the pub being a victim of its own success, but, if true, this should be a reason to improve anyway.
Prices (June 05) for main courses £6-£10 plus £0.90 per spoonful of salad (plus apparently an additional charge if you are deemed to have "heaped" your salad spoon....!).
Its a shame that a excellently located pub is not better, simply because of a lack of thought to client care.
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I love this place, the foods nice but the setting is best, try and go when the weathers nice. It can get really busy so make sure the timings right. You can sit and watch the trout and ducks squabbling over breadcrumbs as you sip a nice cool pint.
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Apart from the tranquil setting, this pub has appallingly slow service (via a buffet queuing system), very average food and an arogant, rude landlord (who suggested McDonald's might suit us better!). Join the masses and enjoy the worst customer experience ever. Best to avoid this one!
anonymous - 30 Mar 2005 14:22 |
The Mayfly was the first pub that I visited when I moved to Andover from the Isle of Wight in 1978. I left Andover in 1989 and now live in Detroit, USA. This place is absolutely magic! Good beer, good, service and an absolutely perfect location. Nothing better that sitting next to the river test in the summer, watching the fish, with a good beer in your hands. It doesn't get much better than this.
Greetings to all my old friends
Phil Connor
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A very pretty pub situated on the River Test at Chilbolton in Hampshire.
anonymous - 25 Oct 2004 15:55 |
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