Kings Arms, Tipton

Very sad to see how this pub has developed with the management in place.

They seem to forget that the customer is king and pays their wages. It has now become an extension of their front room with their dogs running loose in the pub and in the kitchen. The bratt of a child often tells customers to F off and has also been overheard calling a customer a C##T. Nice from an 11 year old! I always thought there were rules that prevented kids from being behind the bar! Perhaps spending more time with your child would benefit you all.

Don�t bother making any comment to them as they will just give you a torrent of abuse and tell you to drink somewhere else. That is unless you are in the domino club and then they will pander to your every whim. They have little or no customer service skills and even the smallest comment simply enlarges the chip on their shoulders.

Why do we also put up with pathetic discos that are held in the lounge and closed off to the public, just so that Andy can play his illegally downloaded music. Yes, you do need a digital music license and must own the original material Andy. If you haven�t paid for the media you can be fined up to �5000. Good luck when the relevant agencies catch up with you as I am sure they will.

The food is usually overcooked (fried or microwaved) and again don�t dare complain as you will be offered the use of other pubs in the area. Well when I say the food is overcooked, that�s of course if you can get served when they close the kitchen to take the dogs to the vets. No surprise the breakfast venture didn�t work.

It makes you wonder why the management haven�t taken a holiday in 2 years. Is it because they want to add value to the service offering or attend to your every need? Its more likely they don�t want a relief manager to work out all the scams they are running.

When will managers like them realise they are serving the public and not just stroking their egos with badly managed businesses.

I popped in the other week and it was like an advert for a school leavers convention rather than a locals pub. Sadly most of the old regulars have decided to vote with their feet and the ones that remain are simply helping stroke their pathetic egos. Probably because they don�t know any different.

1 Feb 2012 13:29

The Port n' Ale, Tipton

It�s unusual for me to write a review like this but sadly feel the need to. As a regular at this pub for quite a few years now, I have seen the standards drop dramatically over the last 2 years. Maybe this is by default or by design, either way it is now at a pretty unacceptable level.

Although far from being a clone of Kim & Aggie, I still rate good basic hygiene as being high on the list of musts for any pub or eatery. Numerous things have now resulted in me taking the time to write this review and highlight just a couple.

It started back last summer where I still recall with disgust, the manager of this pub sat in the beer garden. He was in full view of a number of patrons, smoking with one hand and scratching his arse with the other. Disgusting some of you may agree. It gets worse.

He was clothed in his chefs� whites. Too disgusting some of you may now think if you are openly advertising the fact that you handle and prepare food. Yep, it gets worse. He then proceeds through the back door to the kitchen area and continues to prepare and serve food. Did he wash his hands on the way through you ask? Well no. Straight to the food prep area with stale nicotine on one hand and god knows what else on the other.

Over the course of this summer I have witnessed dozens of meals being sent back to the kitchen with remarks ranging from awful to inedible. As I very rarely mix drinking and eating, this only serves to remind me to eat somewhere else.

As a big fan of drinking beer I felt that the food side of the pub could be left well alone and continue to enjoy a pint in the blissful knowledge/hope that his version of �added value� would never pass by my lips.

Well that�s what I thought anyway. Over 6 months ago the glass wash machine started to malfunction and as a result, yup, dirty glasses. Have they repaired it? Well no. It�s now held together with beer mats keeping the door wedged shut and prayers. The state of the glasses has now escalated to a point where a member of staff had to search through a whole shelf before a glass was found to be useable. This continued throughout the whole bar. Comments have been made to �the mismanagement� and to date have fallen on deaf ears.

We recently did a quick test of how clean the glasses are when inspected immediately they are taken from the glass wash. A simple test. When still warm and steamy we took a clean kitchen roll and simply wiped the rim. The result? Well all I can say is that the colour of the, once white kitchen roll, had been changed to something that resembled the managers fingers when he prepared those meals all that time ago.

With people�s spare money getting even tighter and the consumers cash being more �king� than ever, it is no surprise those pubs are closing at the rate they are. Why do we as the consumer continue to be subjected to lowered standards at increased prices? Surely if a business wants to survive today, they should treasure what they have and build on it. To continue to lower standards to a point that is unhealthy is business suicide, especially when this is just an example of a poorly trained and ill disciplined manager.

So now most of the readers are thinking �well shut up and vote with your feet�. Good point, well made. A lot of the regulars have been frequenting other local pubs and I had seen numbers reducing every week. It�s worth noting that the �Horse & Jockey� close to Sandwell Hospital is well worth a visit. A couple of visits on Sundays have proved where the regulars now dine and enjoy their afternoon. It�s a nice pub, great atmosphere, superb food and it�s clean. Top marks to you and long may you continue.

So what�s the future for the Port & Ale? Well, the manager and manageress have been applying for other pubs for some 18 months now. Have they been successful? Well, no. They are still there and so is the brown film that now protects the glasses.

1 Jan 2010 19:01