please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
I used to be a regular at this pub for many years, but not any more. It's a lovely cosy-looking little building with an awful lot of character and charm. That hasn't changed. The problem is that since it went under new management this year, things have just gone from bad to worse.
The food has always been of a reasonable standard. Great for a Sunday roast, great for a burger if you're more in need of a snack. However, the waiting time for food just seems to be getting worse and worse by the week, and when you ask for the manager, he doesn't seem to know what's happening. My wife and I ordered Emmental and Bacon Beef Burgers on my last visit a fortnight ago, and were kept waiting over half an hour. When the food did arrive, it was fairly obvious that it had been put to one side and left to go cold before it had been brought out. My wife and I complained to the manager, who to be fair did replace both meals after some discussion and argument on our part (not what you'd expect), but his attitude was about as cold as the burger they served up, and we both left feeling "we won't bother next time, we'll just go somewhere where our custom is a bit more appreciated."
The atmosphere of this pub used to be warm and friendly, but I just get the feeling more and more that staff are stressed, no-one seems to know what's going on, and the quality of the service and food have deteriorated massively in the past few months. A pity, because we used to really love this place, but from now on, I'll be driving a bit further to try out other locals.
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A fair sized pub dived into two bars and with a large outside drinking area, they sold three real ales from, I think, Greene king which were well kept and the service from the bar staff was good.
Unfortunately being the only pub in this part of Ash it does attract a lot of "Ash billies" who are a bit like hillbillies in America but with a worse dress sense... white vests and tracksuit bottoms are their standard dress and being highly drunk their pastime, also a fair few of them buy pints in the pub and then wander off somewhere else to drink them, all a bit strange.
Allright for a drink if you in the area but would not make big effort to go there.
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A quaint thriving little pub with friendly staff and customers, pretty much all the staff are new since the comments below.
Youngs (Ordinary bitter) is always well kept and they have 2 regularly rotated guest beers, some over �1 cheaper than other pubs nearby.
Just been sold to Stonegate Pub Company but they won't change it too much, why change a winning formula?
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Visited this pub for the first time tonight with my husband for a meal, we only live about half mile away and lived here for nearly five years. I was very pleased to find a place with nice food at decent prices almost on my doorstep. No idea why we have left it so long ! The food was great, the staff polite and we were served food and drink quickly without any problems. A great night out for around �25. There are alot of complaints on here from others but we found The Greyhound to be miles ahead of some other places we have been to and alot cheaper too. 10/10
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>and this is the only pub i've found in the south-east that serves mild!
You may be interested to know that you were only 10 mins walk from a pub which has a mild permanently on tap (as well as at least four other ales).
White Lion, Aldershot - the brewery tap of the FFF Brewery.
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I visited this pub for a meal, the food came out OK but they did get one of our orders wrong. The mild was good though. After the meal i decided to stay back for a couple pints of mildbut was ordered to leave the pub as i was drunk! After 5 pints of mild (3.4%) I felt I was OK but the barman thought differently and believed i was drunk and I was ordered to leave. Due to the fact that he would be fined �80 if he served anyone slightly inebriated and unable to drive a car (I walked home) I will not be back to this pub and any other Ember Inns due to their intolorence of locals! The biggest problem is that they continue to serve people on a pub crawl after many pints who come in just for Fosters! (Urgh) and this is the only pub i've found in the south-east that serves mild!
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I don't usually post on review boards as I offered think people can be far too quick to give there exaggerated opinions. But I felt other people should know...
I recently visited the Greyhound for a friends party. The party was great but the staff at the greyhound were extremely rude & impolite.
One particular member of staff who served my wife was aggressive and condescending. I won't go into the details of the discussion (argument) she had with him as it is not really the point. The point was she was treated like and made to feel an idiot in front of other people.
Maybe the member of staff was having a bad day but his manner was too much for me & my wife to considered go back anytime soon.
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since xmas this pub has now become my local. ok it's not perfect, they sometimes run out of lager (fosters 75p a pint cheaper than it's local competition so no wonder) but then thats the time to hit the backshelf. can be busy on a friday night but always welcoming
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I happen to really like the Greyhound athink it is a really quaint oldy worldy pub with fantastic food, real ales a MASSIVE selection of Lagers and the nicest staff with the friendliest of personalities. So come on guys dont be so hard, if you go here on a regular basis you will quickly realise what a top pub the Greyhound is.
anonymous - 16 Aug 2007 12:12 |
"Site" and "Running the food out" indicate that Anonymous knows how this place works, could it be the former manager (relieved of her post) having a pop?
anonymous - 11 Aug 2007 16:27 |
this pub is the biggest dive now...
staff loose the plot, the fat bar maid swore in frount of myself and my family when we went into the pub for dinner, she was moaning about the chef ringing the bell.
Colin the manager wondered in and out of site and didnt help the woman to clean or running the food out.
when the food came out it was cold and the mixed grills were still driping with oil as if they wernt drained properly.
and my last dig is that the chef came out in his whites and used the dirty public toilet to change... hello wont go ther again...
anonymous - 4 Aug 2007 17:20 |
Seems like a bit of a personal swipe at the (New) Chef - maybe by the old one!
I went in the other day and this place is getting back to the old ways when Bex and then Pete ran it with a rod of iron, give the new boss a chance to exorcise the previous regime (it needed it).
Same old Ember stuff at the end of the day though.
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Really disapointed with this pub. Went there for lunch for the first and last time last week. Pub wasnt very busy at all, waited about 10 mins to get served as there was only one lady who was serving.. she was trying her best but they needed two in my opinion.
Before we ordered we asked how long the food would be and we were told 20 mins. However after waiting nearly 30 mins i went and asked the girl where the food was and she turned round and had the cheek to say... i told u it would be 45 mins! I quickly reminded her that she told us twenty mins and that we now only had 10 mins to get our food and get back to work.
She went off to the kitchen and our food did come out 5 mins later, but by this time we had waited about 40 mins and had to wrap up our food in kitchen roll and go back to work.
In all fairness, she did apologise as we were leaving, which was nice of her and said the waiting time had been 20mins before a group of 8 people came in which made it 45mins, but i must be blind because i didnt see a table of anymore then 4 people at this time and to sum it all up, the food was very average and we still got back to work late.
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To avoid the dives in Aldershot town, come out here. Food all afternoon (everywhere else ends at 2). Standard Ember Inns menu, i.e. varied, high quality and inexpensive. Couldn't see much real ale; London Pride described as the 'guest' but no others listed on the 'draught beers' board which showed all lagers and Guinness. Manager working extremely hard when I was there because his staff hadn't turned up, but he was coping well, getting the orders right and not flapping. I see there are quizzes on Wednesday and Sunday nights so these are probably best avoided if you want a quiet meal or drink.
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Oh dear and this is progress????
My grandfather used get double top by rebounding off of the low ceiling. Sold proper scrupy, and the landlord would throw you out just to brighten his day ....Ahhhhh
jk
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I wouldn�t say it was a that bad of a pub, but still not the best in the area and not very clean,
Very quiet on Saturday night, not much happening there really.
anonymous - 13 Dec 2006 01:25 |
I never seem to relax here. There's nobody visibly in charge, so when something goes wrong - as it inevitably does - who's going to sort it out? The staff are young and green, and seemingly unsupervised so that doesn't fill me with calm either. Some of the customers look like they need keeping an eye on as well.
So I don't come here much, and every time I do I wish I hadn't. It's just not any fun waiting for it all to go pear shaped.
Sorry.
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Nice relaxing pub to visit after work, not to ramped but not dead or boring, Looks likes its had a bit of a refurbishment; which makes it very clean and comfortable to sit in. Food menu looked good, would recommend. Very nice indeed.
anonymous - 16 Nov 2006 16:39 |
Every Wednesday for the past two weeks I travel down from Swindon to Aldershot for a conference meeting.
For the first time last night I visited this pub expecting it to be a shambles like the Bricklayers up the road, thankfully this was not the case.
One hundred times better;
nice staff, good food, good ale choices, much cleaner and friendlier.
Would recommend this pub to anyone.
Look forward to my next visit.
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For once they didn't run out of food on the (August) bank holiday weekend - just run out of beer instead!
anonymous - 28 Aug 2006 18:55 |
cheap beer but runs out often ,have not eaten here but looks expensive and not that well presented . big turn over of staff because of over worked . no kids takes away the family side.more for the 18s-22s than every day drinkers, no entertainment, dreary in the evenings.needs someone to buck it up
anonymous - 6 Aug 2006 11:12 |
Birrova characterless plastic chain pub. I've been here a few times with mixed results.
The staff levels seem at odds with the busyness of the pub and the Pizza Hut stylee cheesy pop on a repetitive loop is irritating after a while to a real music fan such as myself.
Zero atmosphere IMO possibly due to the staff not being as friendly as they could be, or maybe cos the other clientele don't look my sort.
The food is expensive for what it is and they have the exact same boring identikit menu as places like Vintage Inns / Harvester / Brewsters.
Last time I cleared my own table, both before we could use it and after our main course cos we were bored of looking at dirty plates. I don't expect to have to do that.
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To the person thinking I am the manageress of the greyhound..umm why?? I have only written about the greyhound as the only time I go to pubs in the main is to have a meal out so I have dined at the Swan plenty of times in the past and only more recently at the Greyhound but I haven't left a review for the swan as it wouldn't be a good one. I was specifically commenting on food and no other facilities when reviewing the Greyhound. Most of my old watering holes in Ash Vale have now gone including the Anglers Rest and the Ash Vale Hotel, not food places but we all had a good laugh there.. anyway at the end of the day each to their own and I would rather have a very tasty club sarnie at The Greyhound than A Black Puding Tower thing at The Swan that cost twice the price and probably half the price to make..
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When we arrived here on the May Day Bank Holiday Monday for a late lunch we were astonished to be told that they had apparently "run out of food".
Even more shocking was the frosty attitude of the staff member we encountered. My husband made a little jokey quip about "the supermarkets are not open around here today then?" which received an extremely unfriendly reception.
Our friends had brought us here because it is the only place within easy walking distance of their home, and they were completely mortified so I don't imagine they will return in a hurry.
We were not at all impressed with the bad management inherent in the whole running out of food on a bank holiday situation, and the extraordinarily poor handling of our enquiry.
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Most of the previous reviewers either have never been here or they're the management!
No kids allowed so NOT a family pub. I thought it looked like one too but I tried to take my nieces in for lunch & was kicked out. I'd never actually made it here before cos they only take food orders 'til 8pm & cos of work I never get anywhere 'til 8pm so I've always driven right past.
"Much better quality than The Swan in Ash Vale"? Yeah. Right. ;-)
I checked Michelle38s other reviews...& there aren't any. She's only reviewed this place so I'm guessing she's the manageress!
& another thing. The outside seating is a patch of concrete looking out onto the picturesque roundabout!
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Excellent pub for food and really good value for money.. had a lovely meal in here recently with friends and the menu is varied with something to suit all..much better quality than the Swan in Ash Vale and far more reasonably priced..so this will be my favourite pub locally for food now. I believe children aren't allowed although you might want to check that.
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Nice family pub with good reasonabley priced food as well. Does get busy on Sunday lunchtimes so it's best to get there quite early.
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Pretty decent pub, very old with low timbered ceilings. Refurbished & became an Ember Inn a while ago. Good beer. Ember Inn's current double Sloe G n' T offer recommended.
Dan - 1 Sep 2004 14:20 |
Great big family looking pub by the round-a-bout. Nice beer and food to boot!
Matt Le Ross - 23 Jul 2004 14:05 |
