please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
We have been visiting the Bell on a fairly regular basis since 2010 and I can honestly say I cannot fault it. They have seasonal ales, and although some of the wines are on the pricey side, they also have lower end wines to suit a smaller budget. We find the food consistently good and the Antipodean staff are always friendly and attentive. We have booked for New Years Eve - it's a low-key evening with the focus on quality food. Can't wait!
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Truly awful pint (bordering on the undrinkable). Clearly a focus on dining but recent comments are less than complementary re that issue anyway.
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Large pub with loads of parking and a patio and garden area outside; we only had soft drinks there, after we'd been walking. A coke and a pint of soda and lime (most pubs charge about a quid) came to a breathtaking �5.60. So we went somewhere else for a beer.
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My husband and I went for a meal last week. Its a beautiful pub and tastefully done out with polished copper tables in the bar. The food was good but not brilliant. I had calamari which was pale and undercooked but still okayish and for the main had a slightly overdone monkfish on a bit of a boring ratatouille style sauce. Service was awesome though so still think its okay in terms of eating in a pub.
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Oh legs2x11 - come along now. Get with Modern Culture. The refit is great! Nice and open, glass, wood, chrome, more glass, more wood...! And a lovely bar. Personally, I like it.
I'm sad to hear that the food has deteriorated, as I always rather rated it both for food and for the great selection of beers and wines. (Perhaps he skipped off to the other one they've got over near Crawley?)
Great to sit out the back in the summer, back from the road.
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My friend recommended this pub to me and advised there was a new menu. We were spoilt for choice! And when we received our food, we were not disappointed. The chap who served us was very good, and he mentioned that the Bell will be under new management soon, so would be interested to see what happens. Watch this space!
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Perhaps they were having a bad day! Been in the bell a few times and been happy with the food but on Thursday 22.07 had two plates of very average food. There is a new head chef but the menu is the same which is odd as I would have thought he would have wanted to freshen up the menu. We ordered the Tuna steak which was on the specials menu which was so over cooked it was tough and the spit chicken had been cooked until dry with a sauce which would have been better on a toffee menu, we did mention it to the manager so here's hoping that things will improve before the decline is terminal.
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I hadn't visited this restaurant in nearly a year, and unfortunately myself and my guests were really disappointed in the quality of the food served compared to what a great restaurant it used to be. Service, young lady that waited on our table was great, however your waiter had no idea of the what the cheeses where that were being served and had to ask the kitchen then forgot by the time he reached our table! Overall our meal was a real disappointment. Shame as we used to be regulars.
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It is correct to say that the Bell has a protracted history, and also that much of that has been buried, mostly by unnecessary and ill-conceived modernisation of its interior since the 1990s. That said, some of the residual warmth has been retained under the current ownership, with some period features still peeping through. Although evidently run as a corporate eaterie first and boozer third, this is not the worst example of its type.
There are only 2 cask beers on - Pride and Landlord. The latter was found to be in good shape. I didn't have need of food (which probably rendered my presence there somewhat anachronistic), but the menu looked appealing enough. I would've felt somewhat ill at ease filling my face on my own though. Similarly to the Red Barn down in Blindley Heath, the Bell seems to be pitched towards upper-middle class groups and families, both of whom were strongly represented on my last visit, taking up most of the not inconsiderable floorspace. Still, it suits some, and I'd rather see a pub bustling with customers than bereft of them.
Not a boozer then; more of a family restaurant in an old pub shell. I don't hate the concept, but I am bound to say there are already more than enough establishments of this ilk in the general area. What we need is more pubs catering to the drinker first, and the eater second. To my mind, the Bell offers nothing new and is not a superlative example when set against some of its peers.
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An overall insensitive refit, but the food range left lots of choices for our group. Most folk were well satisifed. As others have said, now more of a restaurant than a pub : but we, too, were appalled by the piped music when we sat outside on a sunny lunchtime. Now that IS a BAD idea. Doubt we will return.
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Been in the Bell a few times, as its a nice place to eat within a nice setting the pub is just a few yards from Godstone pond. The food has always ben very good, the bar area is small so its more a restaurant than a traditional pub but well worth a visit.
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More restaurant than pub. Pleasant but lacking in character. Four of us were there on a Friday night and the staff were under pressure but coping well and remaining cheerful. When ordering the food they warned us that they're may be a wait. We order a selection of starters. These arrived quickly and were good and kept us going until the mains courses came. these were good too. we had no comlpaints. All in all the food and service were good and we had a pleasant evening. I was on driving duty so didn't sample the beer and my companions were on wine so cannot comment on the beer but didn't see any hand pumps in the area of the bar we were in.
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We visited this pub last month for a bite to eat on a Saturday afternoon. The place was quite quiet which you would probably expect at this time. The first thing that struck us was how very clean the place was. Our food was good and service was friendly. The restaurant area where we ate was pleasant. Prices were pretty standard I think.
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Whoever "did this place up" managed to dispense with any residual character, despite the 'pub' obviously having a very long history (dating back to the 14th-century if the signs are to be believed). An OK pint of Timothy Taylor Landlord, but piped music in the beer garden - come off it!
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Is now a real gastro pub, food was rather good and service was good as well, nice for a meal if you want a resturant type affair, but for a pint NO
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SOunds about right. It's Landmark Leisure, ie Vintage Inns/Harvester/Ember Inns ready meals without the big sign to warn you off.
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My husband and I had eaten at the Bell during Sunday lunch a few months ago and at that time we found the food and service pretty good. So we thought we'd book a table for the evening and expected the same standard as we'd previously experienced.....How disappointing. The place was buzzing, but it would have been nice if the food and service was as interesting!
We ordered a bottle of Champagne and were asked if we wanted to drink it straight away - as we already had drinks we said we would wait...our waitress seemed rather perturbed that an ice bucket was required (shouldn't Champagne or white wine for that matter always come with an ice bucket?? Call me old fashioned!!). My husband had the scallops - they looked edible and by all accounts were ok. Unfortunately I'd drawn the short straw and had ordered the Chicken parfait - it was a slab which appeared almost a foot in dimension - rather vulgar and for only one person, far too much for any ones appetite.
Needless to say most of my first course was left to provide space for the main - I had high hopes that my grilled salmon and my husbands steak would be worth waiting for. (I should add here that although the place was heaving, we didn't have to wait very long between courses at all....perhaps this was one of the faults of the food - I'm sure I've waited longer in a fast food chain).
Our main courses arrived. Where my chicken parfait took up most of the plate, I can't say the same for my Salmon, dry and anaemic chips and shrivelled watercress. The Salmon was well and truly singed - the best thing about it was the 'crispy' skin. My green salad was substituted for a caesar...and the request for the green salad took three requests with three separate waitresses. My husband endured similar confusion over his onion relish, brandy and pepper corn sauce and a red and yellow salsa. When asked after the missing onion relish, he was informed that the salsa was it.
Thank goodness for the ice bucket - at least the Champagne stayed chilled and it certainly helped with our mood...the faults were stacking up.
We decided to give the desserts a go....surely our luck would improve at this stage. My husband ordered the sticky toffee pudding which was pretty good. Credit where credit's due I always say. My Tirimasu which was part of the specials was certainly special, but for all the wrong reasons. It balanced in vulgarity with the chicken parfait I had been presented with earlier - A huge plop of slop (it's taste resembling something like the well known Italian dessert) - but the appearance was sickening, virtually sickening and then covered with chocolate sauce??
Needless to say we won't be going back in a hurry and we won't be singing it's praises to friends and family. Perhaps the Bell has started to sit on it's laurels - but it might be time to take stock and realise that getting customers in and out of the door as quickly as possible should be left to the professionals, i.e. Burger King and McDonalds.
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Now a standard Gastro Pub with most of its character taken away. More of a Bar/Resturant I suppose, with more restaurant than bar! The standard (Gastro Pub) beige walls, light oak beams and stainless steel light fittings are in order. Can't comment on the food, I didn't have any.
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Not a pub anymore, just a bar/restaurant. Used to be a great place with great atmosphere... not that long ago. One of the regulars was Sir Geoffrey Howe from Thatchers Cabinet !
anonymous - 7 Aug 2007 08:15 |
wanting to find a lunchtime venue for a work meeting (party of four) we came across this one, it looks superb, the menu looks great and the selection of beers etc is very good and not the normal fare. however the service although good was so very slow, it took a wait of 15 mins to order two draft pints and a bottled beer - there was only one person ordering a soft drink in front of us. The food was really good although small portions but again this took about 40mins to arrive and the second round of drinks took another 20mins. The staff were very friendly and the food very good but let down by the speed and the fact that they dont do/wont do any sort of sandwich offering.
anonymous - 7 Aug 2007 07:48 |
went there on sunday following a severe hangover and flight home from biarritz via stansted.
turned out to be exactly what the doctor ordered - i had wild boar and apple sausages and mash, and a pint of edelweiss - last time i saw that (apart from Biarritz airport earlier in the day) was in the French Alps
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Clearly, a lot of money has been spent bringing this pub up to very high standards of comfort and service. It is definitely placed in the 'gastro' sector, reflected in the prices of bothe the food and beverages.
However, our group of three enjoyed our lunch. Not a very good way to test a chef's skill but two of us had cheese burgers, served with an excellent mustard dressing, side sald and impressive freshly prepared salad and chips which lived up to their �9 price tag.
The third member of our party had goats cheese salad which was clearly not prepared by an enthusiatic amateur but a really experienced culinary practitioner.
The Timothy Taylor bitter was perfect. The bar and waiting staff were excellent. No friendly landlord in sight but it is not really that kind of place, more a restaurant with a large bar.
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Food was ok(ish), but the fish platter was cold and overpriced. Desert portions have halved since last visit Landlord beer tasted funny, and after a couple of hours so did I. Overall very dissapointed.
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I would say most definitely not a microwave menu. Full of middle clarses in their chelsea tractors with their dominics and stephanies.
Not a bad pub actually despite my inverse snobbery. Staff were friendly, service very good, food paltry in portion but tasty.
TheGP - 27 Aug 2006 20:44 |
Very much a microwave menu, some still not cooked properly. staff very off hand. nice decor
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Good range of well kept and dispensed beere. Excellent menu of beautifully cooked dishes. Friendly attentive staff.
Ample carpark and, for summer, super patio.
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