BITE user comments - ptg
Comments by ptg
Afraid not mate. We've got a hog roast planned for the royal wedding, and a couple of special Wells & Youngs products for St George's day and the royal wedding... should still be a good summer for beer, bbqs and a bit of outdoor music, but with everything kept in a chilled cellar rather than above ground - so quality should be much better than last year.
Hope this helps. If you need any further info, check the website out, it's fairly up to date..
2 Mar 2011 21:40
Adam, you're level pegging with us for your score now dude :p
Ain't it a nice feeling when your locals take 5 minutes to defend you from the keyboard warriors. One thing I will say - if you ever need urgent stock, call telesales, before 10am and you can pop over to the croydon depot and collect it in the afternoon. I've had to do it a couple of times.
25 Feb 2011 13:35
The cynic in me says the cronies are out in force, and Adam seems to be the meat of the week!
You always get change when a new landlord takes over and getting a slating on an online review site seems to be par for the course nowadays; but I do wonder if the same criticisms would be coming out if a third party had taken over rather than someone who was in the fold. I had a pint in the Robin a few weeks ago and didn't see a problem with it (admittedly, I drink it rather than sniff it). I've not tried the food since Adam took over, but seeing as Adam and Harriet did the majority of the cooking, I fail to see how it could have deteriorated. Cut the guy some slack, and give him six months to give the pub his stamp.. You may not like what's going on, but the harsh reality of the pub trade today is that change is necessary - COMMUNICATE WITH THE LANDLORD - Tell him your concerns, and hopefully, the Robin Hood won't become yet another closed down pub.
19 Feb 2011 02:01
The cynic in me says the cronies are out in force, and Adam seems to be the meat of the week!
You always get change when a new landlord takes over and getting a slating on an online review site seems to be par for the course nowadays; but I do wonder if the same criticisms would be coming out if a third party had taken over rather than someone who was in the fold. I had a pint in the Robin a few weeks ago and didn't see a problem with it (admittedly, I drink it rather than sniff it). I've not tried the food since Adam took over, but seeing as Adam and Harriet did the majority of the cooking, I fail to see how it could have deteriorated. Cut the guy some slack, and give him six months to give the pub his stamp.. You may not like what's going on, but the harsh reality of the pub trade today is that change is necessary - COMMUNICATE WITH THE LANDLORD - Tell him your concerns, and hopefully, the Robin Hood won't become yet another closed down pub.
19 Feb 2011 02:01
I only wish the people who tell me on a daily basis how they like the pub nowadays had the time to invest in writing reviews - if they had part of the energy that the "haters" seem to, BitE would be a far more balanced reviewing platform.
When we took over the Prince of Wales, we decided on an animal friendly atmosphere, we allow customers to bring their pets in the pub (something that was never allowed before due to the aggressive boxer who couldn't handle other animals being allowed in), and our dog and pig are also allowed down at the end of a night - when there's no food service going on; unfortunately, when your place of work is combined with your living room, customers have to make the decision whether they are prepared to be part of this, and honour us with their patronage or not; to be frank, when nothing is said to me or my staff at the time, it cannot be resolved; for example, if there was a concern with Zack being in the pub, we would happily oblige in giving him his daily evening exercise in the garden; but there is little I can do to remedy a situation when it takes over a week for me to be alerted to your concern; incidentally, the pig is something that most customers have bought in to, and many customers leave disappointed when they come on the occasions he's not invited down.
Without trying to be pedantic, the "best" is not a hound, he's a Rottweiler, so falls in to the mastiff category rather than hound - don't think he cares, but it's a bit like me calling an Englishman French; and for every one person that raises a concern, ten become part of his pack.
I apologise if this seems like it's directed at you; it's not, it's directed at the keyboard warriorship that seems to be over-apparent on Beer in the Evening; When takings are consistently going up, and people are telling me they like what we're trying to achieve, it's disappointing to see such a negative review; it reminds me that we can't please everyone.. and the ones we can't please usually have a fast internet connection (!)
7 Feb 2011 14:30
Hi Allen, Interesting that you detected the same rubbery taste in two Youngs pubs that you've reviewed - I've had a word with a couple of regular WW drinkers today and they've assured me that it's the best brew they've had in years; so possibly just not reacting well with your palate?
Abteilung, thanks for the feedback - it's the Prince of Wales, that was originally the Prince of Wales, then had its nuts cut off to become the Princess of Wales for a few years, then turned back to the Prince last summer... Beer In The Evening are dragging their heels to update the record on their database. Apologies for not having a good selection of beers on for your visit - we do try to keep three on, but for the lull we've traditionally had between boxing day and new years eve, it'd be wasteful to do any more than the essentials.
29 Dec 2010 14:21
OK.. the new photos I posted are up, the SEO Friendly url now works as Prince, yet the master photo and the pub name still say Princess - The cynic in me hopes this isn't a ploy by BiTE to get me to subscribe to make changes :(
7 Jul 2010 11:59
Beer Festival kicks off in about 18 hours - get down if you can, it should be a good craic.
1 Jul 2010 23:26
Great food, really good hospitality and extremely chilled out surroundings.
8 Jun 2010 15:20
Mr Babble, thanks for the feedback - I've got a hog already ordered for the beer festival - We need to find a way to stop the pet pig seeing next time though- I think he sussed what Horace was.
6 Jun 2010 15:40
Woo hoo! The refurbishment is complete - we're just waiting on BITE to change our listing now.
3 Jun 2010 23:58
This used to be a great little pub - of all the places I used to drink in Aylesbury, it's the only one I'd go back to. I remember fondly doing the quiz on a Monday night and losing every time!
13 May 2010 13:50
Worked here - couldn't wait to get away. I can relate to most of the comments.
13 May 2010 13:48
The Kennedy was the second pub I ever worked in, and it always had a good atmosphere and kept us going - it's sad to hear it's gone down hill, but then again, Raz & Lyn WERE the John Kennedy. When Lyn passed away, the pub started going to shit, but I always thought it'd be cured. It was a true community pub, and sadly it's a dying breed.
13 May 2010 13:44
The Pride of Paddington, Paddington
Good food, busy pub - too many tourists for my liking, but still had a handful of locals to chat to.
6 May 2010 11:07
Overpriced beer, overpriced kid's party, sub-standard food and staff with severe attitude problems - very rare I'll slag off a fellow trader, but this place stinks of prefab chain pub. - if you can avoid it, I would.
29 Apr 2010 18:47
We've got a refurbishment coming up soon - I'd be interested to hear what you'd like to keep/junk.. Email me via the pub's website :)
27 Apr 2010 14:59
The William Morris, Merton Abbey Mills
Will further that - went to the Morris for the first time in a year last week - the used condom that put me off re-visiting has now gone, and the beer was cool...
26 Apr 2010 09:10
The William Morris, Merton Abbey Mills
How about "build them a covered lean-to" as a suggestion? or increase collection frequency and decrease the overall number of bins?
26 Apr 2010 09:07
The Princess Royal, South Wimbledon
Sad news about this pub closing ... I never got the chance to visit, but our customers all talk fondly of the place.
24 Apr 2010 13:38
New daytime menu kicks in at lunch time Wednesday :)
Hope people are enjoying the tapas.
29 Mar 2010 23:36
Hi to all, the new evening menu kicks in from 6pm Friday night - we'll see you soon :)
16 Mar 2010 23:12
As I understand it, this place was taken over by a new tenant very recently, and he may well be stuck with dead-wood staff. However, I honestly don't believe the lass would dare to be that overtly racist, and don't think you'd get away with it in Tooting for long; I personally think the last poster is making a bit too much of her friends colour, as it's easier to be presumptuous than to look in to real reasons.
For fifteen minutes? Again, not meaning to be disrespectful, but if you were stood at bars I used to run at events, you wouldn't wait 15 minutes for a drink... Again, I suspect it's exaggerated, because "we had to wait three minutes to be served, and two regulars managed to jump in front of it" doesn't sound as dramatic.
I don't know the circumstances, but can't believe any Youngs pub would tolerate the redneck attitude you're claiming.
27 Feb 2010 10:17
Dined in here tonight upon recommendation of several of my customers - First impressions weren't positive, reminded me of yet another Indo-Gastro-Pub that is run more by the locals than the management - then I tasted the food and it changed my opinion, if you could do a split review, food would get 9.5/10.. despite my missus embarassing herself with a feeble attempt at the mixed grill. If I saw this place as a restaurant, I'd start to moan about the footy being on all the screens, but the Blue Junction seems to be a pub that does food rather than an indian restaurant, so I've got no complaints there - it's fitting with the majority of their clientele.
25 Feb 2010 23:15
Hi to all, just a reminder that the Caribbean theme night will be on this weekend - Tickets will only be on sale until Wednesday evening due to purchase and marination of meats and so forth..
23 Feb 2010 11:19
The William Morris, Merton Abbey Mills
James, PM sent regarding a good pub gardener - not cheap, but until the horrid winter weather, our boxes looked great over here.
18 Feb 2010 00:40
�2.20 a pint actually ;) Glad the madrass was appreciated pal :)
15 Feb 2010 14:38
Check out our website - I've been experimenting with a forum and mini-social network.... it's in the fledgling stages, but I'd appreciate a few of you registering and giving me your thoughts :)
3 Feb 2010 21:24
Just had the satellite tv engineer leave, we now have all premier league, and most mainland Europe games, along with Guinness premiership Rugby :)
Brains SA will be in and ready for Friday evening, along with Deuchars.
What would people prefer for the Six Nations meal, Sausage and Mash or Chilli? There's a poll on our website :)
1 Feb 2010 18:24
Just had some good news - My BDM at Youngs has authorised me to stock Brains SA for the duration of the six nations, meaning that we'll be running a beer for each team for at least a couple of weeks each of the tournament:
Scotland - Deuchars
Wales - Brains
England - Bombardier
Ireland - Guinness
Italy - Peroni (Bottled, sorry :( )
France - Kronenbourg 1664
There will also be complimentary half time food for the six nations games.
21 Jan 2010 20:35
Just remembered why I logged in to BITE.
Just to keep our not-so regular regulars up to date on a few things that are going on.
We have a series of ticketed theme nights which for the most part include food and drink, along with the theme nights, I've had Youngs agree to fit us (space permitting) with an anonymous nitro-keg line, meaning I can run special kegs for the associated evenings; so expect to see Red Stripe for the Caribbean night, Peroni for the Italian one, and so on - it's not a great gesture, but one I hope will be OK for those of you who drink lagers and fancy a change.
On the subject of Lager, we're adding Amstel as a permanent fixture on the bar, this smoother and slightly stronger lager for those of you that hasn't tried it sits nicely in between the standard end of the scale and premium... be warned though, it's a lager that actually has a flavor. The lines should be fitted in the next few weeks, and we'll be stocking it as soon as the infrastructure is there.
Everything's rolling tonight.. in the wake of the departure of winter warmer from the POW, we'll be back up to three ales from Thursday, with the addition of St Austell Tribute - something I hope will be OK for customers.
You may have noticed the lack of food lately; which is due soley to the lack of a chef - something that should be rectified by the end of the week - I've got a stack of CV's for myself and Amanda to work through, and will be interviewing soon. The bar snack menu has taken off extremely well, and will be staying as an option on evenings and Saturday day times also.
Finally, to quash the rumour that's working it's way around SW19 - myself and Amanda are here for a good while and are tied in to the place, both financially and personally, we're not selling up, moving out, burning down or going bust. Not dragging the kids out of school, emigrating or trying to swap the pub for a city wine bar :)
Hope to see you soon.
PG
19 Jan 2010 00:27
Codge, sorry you feel that way; unfortunately the situation with the car park when we took over was something that had spiraled out of control; on two occasions prior to take over, I couldn't physically park in the car park, and came in the pub only to find ten people (two of them on pushbikes, and two of them parking in other local parking areas), so pay and display seemed the fairest way to go - sorry you feel it's an aggressive way of going about things. Not quite sure how my background comes in to that, but I can assure you I'm not quite up to the SAS standard (too fat for a start!) - Will have to have a chat with Amanda - normally she's got a smile for everyone, so I hope it's nothing personal.
Thanks for highlighting the fact that children are now welcome in the pub - a message that's not been easy for us to get across after 23 years of draconian refusal; again, I can't see how this retards the atmosphere in the pub, and atmosphere is actually an area where we've received more positive comments in recent months :s
I couldn't agree more about the traf being an excellent little local, it's actually one of my haunts on my evening off, sorry we've lost your custom, but at least it's gone to a great replacement.
18 Jan 2010 23:28
The Grove Tavern, South Wimbledon
I like this pub - It's a nice place to escape my venue to and listen to some bands that (realistically) we're too small to host.... It could do with a second pool table so people have a chance in hell of getting a game, and it's a bit spit and sawdust, but then that's where I feel comfortable on a night off!
As for the last comment, as both a publican and a "bouncer" for the last xyz years, it's just given people something to gossip about... From what I understand, it was a one off incident focused on a specific group of individuals that have since been rounded up - certainly not something that should put people off going to gigs at this venue.
16 Jan 2010 00:07
Really nice pub; My group of friends enjoyed a drink in here last night and found the beer quality to be really good, the locals and publican to be friendly - I'd make this my local if I lived in the area.
12 Jan 2010 19:50
Cheers MrBabble - good to see a happy customer (although we do have a couple of pet Kiwis that we keep for occasional duties)
Munt81 - thanks for letting that secret out... at least we don't stock Stella ;) (at the moment)
24 Nov 2009 16:16
Forgot to mention, we've now got Titanic Iceberg on. If you fancy something a bit different; 4.1% proof, and same price as Youngs Ordinary, then pop in!
14 Oct 2009 15:36
Hi to all, we've just had the coal fire cleaned, serviced, and tested it - so if you're looking for a traditional pub where you enjoy a pint of Youngs, still hear yourself think, and sit around a warm fire, then come on over and I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised.
19 Sep 2009 11:01
Oops.. meant Wells not Courage... had Courage Best on the brain the other day..
21 Aug 2009 01:09
Guest Ale.... now there's a nightmare - Youngs don't have a guest ale policy at the moment, and as we're tenanted, that proves a bit of a problem... BUT... Courage pubs DO have a guest ale programme, so maybe now the breweries have merged the pubco's might start learning some ideas from eachother..
The current lineup is :
Youngs Ordinairy
Youngs Special
Youngs Kew Brew
and Bombardier, along with the entire bottled range from Wells & Youngs.
17 Aug 2009 08:26
Bombardier's back... should be tapped and ready to serve Thursday afternoon.
12 Aug 2009 21:11
Under new management - New menu, new managers, and some new products... hope you all like it ;)
29 Jul 2009 23:48
The Prince of Wales, Merton
Aggh!! Celing in the public bar is slightly flooded out - don't worry, the insurance company are on the case.
10 Jun 2011 05:15