please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
I had occasion to look up this pub on the internet this evening and was disappointed to find most of the reviews and comments are out of date, as the details pointed out they might be. One comment I found, dated back to 2005, so I felt a few words to bring it more up to date were somewhat overdue to help to do some justice to the present management.
Basically, some of the adverse comment needs to be deleted. It really is out of date. The next major point seems to be the availability of food. I note one reviewer wrote about having food there in September 2009. However, to clear up another reviewer’s doubt in November 2010, there has been a change of management and to my knowledge, food has not been available since – apart from crisps and nuts etc.
The clientele is still varied, to say the least, as I found at a low point this evening, when someone in a motor-bikers outfit would not let me get in. I have hip trouble and the two steps are steep but he would not get up to let me pass. That is what prompted me to look for the pub phone number this evening. However, the present management took steps to improve the pub from what it was and the sort of image it apparently had – as reflected by some of the old comments still posted – when they took over perhaps close to two years ago now. Even the hand drier in the gent’s toilet, which had a fault for over two years, has been replaced by the brewery recently.
On the whole therefore, it is now a better place for a social chat – perhaps over a couple of pints on the way home, as I do – which is what pubs used to be for – not for TV and head-banger music, which destroy social interaction and even the art of it. Sam Smith’s have got that right, in my opinion. They have also got through a recession with that policy, so it seems enough other people think so as well. It is just a shame the taste of the beer is not a bit more encouraging after all the years they have been brewing it and that there is apparently no snack food available at this pub now. Traditional pie and peas, for example, would be nice, occasionally, even if they did not want to extend to burgers and such things in these healthy-eating-sensitive times.
|
I don't know whether there has been a change of management since these old reviews but I was in Friday evening and found the staff very friendly and whilst I appreciate Sam Smiths is not to everyone's taste they certainly serve a good pint of it!
|
The food is cheap. (You get what you pay for has never been more true.) It's better than a burger from a van.
The beer is also very cheap, and if you like Sam Smiths you will be OK. Personally I've never had a pint that made me think I'd have a second.
It's very busy (market day lunchtime anyway) and unfortunately many of the clientele apparently don't have a bath or shower. It could probably market itself as 'The Victorian Slum Pub Experience' if only they could get the punters to dress up.
To end on a positive note - probably the cheapest pub lunch and pint for 20 miles.
|
Reasonable pint. Decent price.
|
Great beer, shame about the miserable staff. My family have been going in this pub since some of them were in nappies and they still speak to people as though they don't belong there. GET SOME CUSTOMER SERVICE TRAINING.
|
Sorry to say didn't get passed the front door. Busy pub. Male dominated. Absolutely stank.
|
Situated next to the historic market building, this rambling old hotel is now part of the Sam Smiths empire and has an interior that has merited inclusiuon on the CAMRA inventory of unspoilt pub innards although it should be noted that some of the interior walls were actually reinstated during a major refurbishment in 2002 so it’s not all original. A series of rooms radiate from the main bar all quaintly dtaed in style and ambience. The prices are also rather old fashioned as long as you don’t mind the infamous Sam Smith product range. There are plenty of old pictures to transport your mind back in time including a 1900 picture of the building itself showoing how little anything has changed, apart from the new open air smokers terrace that is. Well worth popping in for the experience although it will generally appeal more to us more mature drinkers.
|
Great value Sam Smith's beers - including the new Cherry Fruit Beer. A pub where people go to meet and talk. Well worth a visit.
|
Excellent range of Smith's drinks - It is a shame that staff can be snotty for no reason whatsoever, not to mention early closing at random.
|
Excellent pint of Sam Smiths.Cheap beer,refurbed a couple of years ago.Still has a slightly older clientele.Handy for a quick refresher after arduous bargain hunting at the market next door.
|
Great lunchtime pub food, which is great value for money! Friendly barstaff.
|
a Sam Smiths pub
probably the best value ale in the area [Queens Head nearby same brewery]
very good pub meals, and a very busy pub
Bar closes at 11 p.m. on the dot whereas all the surrounding pubs stay open later
pleasant surroundings
very smokey generally, no 'non-smoking' room sadly
|
