The Yew Tree, Lower Wield

"ilovecountrypubs77"'s impassioned defence of this over-rated pub, which does not accommodate (please check spelling) the basics of good customer service, smacks of the paid-for nature of full entries in the "Good Pub Guide".

A more recent visit was just as slapdash, dilatory and frankly disappointing. I hope that the pub does survive - and if it captures the undiscerning and the ovine then all the better for other, more worthy establishments.

21 Oct 2013 19:16

The Trooper Inn, Froxfield

The Trooper remains reliable for good food, expensive but on the better end of the value-price trade-off. The beer range is three decent cask ales - last visit was Bowman Swift One and Wallops Wood alongside Ringwood Best (no Doom Bar or Pride - so worth a couple of points just for that).

Service is good - and there is sufficient rotation in the menu to make each visit interesting.

25 Aug 2013 15:47

The Yew Tree, Lower Wield

Any pub that has a wooden sign on the door advertising "Tim's Pub" might raise suspicions. Previous visits have veered from the good to the barely-acceptable. Littlecon's comment below would be fair if it was actually true - it is not good enough to stand on its own as a restaurant and the pub functions are clearly hit-and-miss.

What can't be forgiven is poor customer service - no indication of the length of wait for food and then no apology or attempt to make the customer feel that they are important. The best part of 45 minutes waiting in a very noisy dining area, with no effort made to keep people up-to-date, or, given the length of time elapsed, to placate by offering drinks or nibbles - and then made to feel that greasy meat, dry "dauphinoise" potatoes are somehow superb, rather than the epithet awarded of "adequate", is extracting the proverbial.

The Triple fff house beer is fine - the Bowman Swift One was not at its best. Clearly the accolades handed out by the "Good Pub Guide" have gone to this place's head - delusions of adequacy are far too generous an assessment. Reading the reviews this is rapidly becoming the nightmarish country cousin of the Wykeham Arms in one of its snootier pre-Fullers incarnations.

25 Aug 2013 15:41