The Monkey Puzzle, Southwood

This place should be on foodinthevening instead of here as it has never since being converted from a farm ever fealt like a pub.

Originally it felt like an extension of the Dukes family front room with all thier friends drinking in it, everyone else were just an inconvenience.

Once they sold it for a couple of million it became nothing but a food place.

Never had and never will have a true pub atmosphere.

on a side note, if you fancy a cheap meal after work instead of cooking this could be the place for you.

3 Jun 2009 13:37

The Hawley Arms, Farnborough

Does rather a nice kebab and burger from the van in the car park, not actually been in the pub itself since the late 80's due to fearing for my safety.

3 Jun 2009 13:15

The Prince of Wales, Farnborough

This pub would get 10/10 if they considered lager drinkers too!!!

Lager is an awful choice typical of an "ale house" only offering wife beater and Heineken both at obscene prices.

Regulars are largely OK but some some of the "Ale drinkers" can be a bit anal.

Possibly has some of the best bar maids locally ;-) which is always a bonus when out for a pint.

Have yet to try the food

3 Jun 2009 13:06

The Thatched Cottage, Farnborough

By and large this a nice friendly pub that could be so much better if they didn't find the smallest excuse to shut the kitchen or even the pub itself with frequent randomness.

"broken fryer" best part of a week
"technical problems" i.e. staff didn't turn in and i couldn't be bothered to cook

Excepting the give away price of the Fosters, other drinks are expensive by comparison to other pubs locally.

It is nice to see the pub retains a "traditional local" feel even though it is heavily food orientated (that is when the kitchen is open of course).

The food itself is exactly what it is for the price, cheap and fills a hole, hardly haute cuisine, some people overlook this and think they should be getting the home cooked food that this pub was well known for throughout the 90's.

The pub also has quite a nice sized beer garden that is heavily used in the summer, unfortunately this tends to bring some unsavoury elements of the community who seem to think that consatntly swearing at the top if their voices is acceptable to all (Why oh why did they shut the Prince Louie down? at least they and the police new where they were!!)

I have to agree with other reviewers that the current landlady and her son are the weakest link by far in what is an OK pub, that if managed correctly could once again the Thatched Cottage could be easily be one of the best locals in the area.

Spirit Group, if you ever bother reading comments about your pubs, then keep the majority of the staff but at least get someone in who wants to make you money to lead from the front.

This pub and its locals deserve more than business prevention lady and neanderthal son who are currently dragging the pub down.

6 Feb 2009 15:21

The Imperial Arms, Farnborough

Closing down anytime soon?

I�ve popped in a few times over recent weeks having lived out of the area for some years, this once brilliant pub was my local throughout the 80�s & 90�s.

What a shock I got when we walked in for the first time recently��..

The first thing I noticed entering the front bar was the lack of ANY optics on the back drop and no customers, I genuinely thought the place was closing down!

Things got a little better when I walked through the pool bar, nice to know something�s haven�t changed although the table with broken baize looks like it�s the one from all those years ago when I was a regular (fond memories indeed). We were going to have a game but the cues were in worse state than the table.

Moving in to the back (sports) bar we were relieved to actually find some customers, finding beer however was proving a little harder! Out of 5 draught lagers only one was available, also �sold out� of Cider and only one of three bitters was on. So we settled on Stella A and a pint of Guinness.

Despite the advertising for Sky & Setanta, several people came and then quickly left when they were told �sorry not working� by the miserable faced bar maid who was wishing she was elsewhere and not all sorry for the lack of the football people had come to see.

When I popped out side for a smoke I bumped into a familiar face from the past and asked where all the locals were? It appears most if not all the front bar customers and half the sports bar regulars now drink in the Prince or elsewhere. Apparently the new owners appear to have spent a little on patching the place up but have since lost all interest and prefer the local night clubs to their own venue. On a plus note, it was good to see the car park finally got resurfaced.

Back inside I couldn�t believe the state of the toilets, although I was told they had be re-done back in the spring. It was obvious that a cleaner had not attended them for days if not weeks judging by amount of grime around the sink and floor. No toilet rolls or hand towels, hardly hygienic at all.

If I have ever drank in a pub that is clearly waiting for its final curtain this is it! IMO this should not be allowed to happen, this pub was once the very corner stone of the North Farnborough community. I can not believe the brewery allow this to happen, I know they can�t tear it down and put flats on it because the building is listed so why can�t they invest in the place by putting someone in who gives a damn and breath some life back into the place??

7 Jan 2009 13:24