BITE user comments - anglia1
Comments by anglia1
Frankly my dear it seems Adnams no longer gives a damm.....
Sadly the Crown is not the place it once was and is clearly coasting bloatedly on its former reputation.
The beer is good - as you would expect from what is effectively the brewery's second "tap" - and the wine list first-class - again to be expected.
But locals driven out/discouraged by a previous manager have not returned.
And the staff may be enthusiastic but they are clearly not getting enough direction from the current management.
Service is sloppy and cavalier - complaints about the state of the loos were ignored.
It's not good enough - Adnams must do better because even with their monopoly in Southwold they take customers for granted at their commercial peril.
15 Sep 2008 18:26
The Masons Arms, Bury St Edmunds
A recent menu overhaul now makes this excellent off-town centre boozer even more of an attraction. Food is good and reasonably priced - and staff are first-class.
15 Sep 2008 15:55
As critic AA Gill said some years ago, there are a lot of pubs in this country that don't know they are dead yet - and this is one of 'em.
It's only claim to fame appears to be that it was once allegedly the HQ of the local British National Party.
15 Sep 2008 15:51
The Old Cannon Brewery, Bury St Edmunds
nice enough surroundings - but do stick to the beer.
Non-ale drinkers will be disappointed - the wine list is a real shocker. Poorly-made overpriced examples - both red and white - from the dregs of someone's wholesale list.
When will licencees wake up and realise that people will willingly spend more on a decent drinkable wine by the glass?
The Cannon's choice is frankly dire.
A couple of the staff could well claim a richly-deserved rebate from the charm school too.
And why does sausage and mash cost three quid more in the evenings than at lunch-time?
15 Sep 2008 15:39
The George and Dragon, Long Melford
The George now has all the charm and charisma of a paper cup. Come back Thorogood - all is forgiven!
10 Aug 2007 00:20
Doggetts Coat and Badge, Southwark
Come on guys - what on earth is the point of allowing wholly-biased landlords to sing their own praises at the top of this piece?
His rosy view of his own pub is not exactly borne out by many of the comments...
It - and all like it - should be clearly headed and marked as "ADVERTISING" since it is not an objective independent view - which is what most us look for in beerintheevening.
5 Aug 2007 11:46
What an extraordinary pub! A little piece of Plaistow set down in the Suffolk countryside.
If it had a Pearly King and Queen behind the bar and sold jellied eels it would be complete - and most ex-pat Londoners would feel completely at home!
23 Apr 2007 17:26
Sorry it's just another Greene King food dispensing machine - little in the way of atmosphere but lots in the way of expensive food - nine quid for a basic burger?
And I trust some of the staff claimed their richly-deserved rebate from the charm school.
23 Apr 2007 17:22
Terrific village pub which retains all that is best and traditional about a proper local.
And it is still very much a local too - and judging by the four good old boys playing crib in the bar on a Sunday lunchtime it has thankfully avoided becoming a "destination gastro-pub" for Chelsea tractor driving weekenders.
At the same time The Bells is a very good example of a civilised 21st century place that does excellent food.
The Sunday lunch option - seven quid for a main course - was brilliant. The beef, locally-sourced, was first-rate and properly cooked.
Great service too - hugely refreshing after the complacent and too-often surly and unwelcoming approach of some other places locally.
Ten minutes from Bury St Edmunds but beats anything that town can offer by a country mile (or six of them to be precise!)
23 Apr 2007 13:20
IMPORTANT UPDATE - PUBLIC HEALTH WARNING
This pub is apparently still under same ownership and still trading - but unsuprisingly perhaps this information is not given on its website......
On Tuesday February 6th 2007 the licencee of The Bluebell Inn, Rodney Stokes was fined �6,000 (POUNDS) and ordered to pay �1,600 (POUNDS) costs after pleading guilty to 14 offences relating to selling food unfit for human consumption.
He was also fined �500 (POUNDS) for failure to provide a docementary food safety system and a further �500 (POUNDS) for inadequate pest control systems.
Magistrates at Epping heard how inspectors from Uttlesford District Council made an announced visit to the premises on August 21st last year and found dirty kitchen items, dirty floors, mice and rat droppings, live flies in store rooms and dead flies in food containers.
The inspectors also found a large quantity of mouldy decomposing and putrified foods in fridges.
Magistrates were told there was no food safety system or documented food management in place at the Bluebell.
The owner agreed to clean up his act - but on an un-announced visit ten days later the environmental health officers still found dirty equipment and more food unfit for human consumption.
Uttlesford Distruct Council's principal trading standards officer Geoff Smith said after the case:"The conditions found during the inspections of the Bluebell Inn at Hempstead on 21st and 31st of August 2006 were totally unacceptable in food business.
"Every opportunity has been given to improve food safety standards during previous unspections however again standards were found to have deteriorted.
"The lack of a food management system at the premises, dirty conditions and sheer quantity of food unfit for human consumption has placed public health at risk."
THIS INFORMATION HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY UTTLESFORD DISTRICT COUNCIL.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.....
12 Mar 2007 16:29
There must be two Red Lion pubs in Leavenheath..
the one I went to a couple of years ago was a timewarped 1950's, gloomy, unwelcoming dump.
Swirly carpets false beams and full of loud golf club bores.
20 Nov 2006 15:08
Just days away from being converted into a house, the White Hart was saved earlier this year by landlady Lynda Saint and a group of locals determined that the village would not lose its only pub.
It re-opened a few months ago and what a terrific success she has made of it.
But it's no suprise - Lynda has a history of this sort of thing. Some years ago she took over the moribund Red Rose in Lindsey near Hadleigh and turned it into a great village pub.
Early evidence is that she is achieveing the same success at Otley.
She manages to create a warm atmosphere that everyone finds welcoming - locals in search of a decent pint, diners, families - the lot.
The menu is straightforward but imaginitive - and the food very good.
The White Hart has a fine selection of proper beers and a decent wine list too.
All reasonably priced - and to be enjoyed in comfortable surroundings.
14 Nov 2006 08:53
The Dog and Partridge, Bury St Edmunds
"Highly recommended?" A baffling conclusion to reach since while it's undoubtably a splendid building it has become a wide-screen sport bolt hole for chain-smokers....
and by a country mile the worst b&b we have ever stayed in - grubby curtains, soiled carpet and stained bedspread, battered furniture, dismal lighting
no-one around to serve breakfast....
b&B in Bury? not here unless you are really, really desperate and the YMCA hostel round the corner is full.
9 Nov 2006 13:19
Good reputation which we found undeserved.
Our meals were disappointing - overpriced, overcooked and over-rated.
The service was indifferent - at one stage I was ignored at the bar - I even considered the ploy of dropping a glass through dehydration in order to get the barman's attention - he was busy chatting across the bar to another customer.
Friends went later and said it was ok but when most pubs in and around Bury think or pretend they are "gastro-pubs" there's too much choice to risk a second visit to the Beehive.
27 Feb 2006 15:32
The White Horse, Whepstead
Huge improvements in the building and a transformation from its previous grim existence - but sadly it's no longer a real pub and drinkers seem to be poorly catered for.
In spite of the gushing comments by Julie Millar - incidentally a PR woman who sent the very same press release out to local media - and the promise of a bar, there was nowhere at a weekend lunchtime simply to stand around and drink without getting in the way.
The much-touted "zinc" is simpy a small table-filled service area used by waiting staff.
The sadly-unstoppable surge towards gastro-pubs in this part of Suffolk has been relentless and it is terrific that some horrible time-warped places are being saved and dragged into the 21st century
But unfortunately few of these "make-over" places continue to give a nod to the traditional drinker who may not want a bowl of soup for a fiver, a bit of fish for a twelve quid or pud for another fiver.
But if you are looking for a village pub that has successfully achieved the knack of being both somewhere to eat simply but well - and a proper pub - go that extra mile or two to the Queen's Head at Hawkedon.
31 Jan 2010 11:04