The Sandrock Hotel, Shirley

Until yesterday, I w ould have agreed with the glowing comments below. Having wined and dined at Sandrock on at least half a dozen occasions, we were very impressed by the food, service and selection of Real Ales. Unfortunately, that came to an end yesterday. We visitied the Sandrock for dinner, and when my friend's wife complained that her wine did not taste quite right, the manageress did not agree and refused to change the wine. When we asked her to ask the landlord, she came back with the bill for our drinks and said "we don't think we're going to be able to please you tonight, so we think you'll have a better time elsewhere"!!! We were politely kicked out over a �5 glass of wine, even though the situation did not warrant it. We were absolutely disgusted by this as the manageress and landlord did not event try to rectify the situation. It bemuses me that they would forfeit a �70 dinner bill over a �5 glass of wine. Interestingly, one of the comments below mentions the landlord listens into the restaurant area by microphones. We had spoken between ourselves that the pub had a funny smell yesterday, which for some reason, the landlord took great offence to and used it as a reason for throwing us out. Hmm, I wonder how he heard our conversation. Having been there a few times, I must be fair and say it has never smelt before, but it did yesterday. Finally, a previous comment mentions the manageress/landlady having no customer service skills, and I must agree, she was, rude and about as useful as a fork in soup. Bottomline, good for a pint, waste of time for food or service. They're quite happy to send you elsewhere, so you may as well take your money where it's valued. I'll give it 1 point because it had Old Hooky on tap. Nice beer.

1 Sep 2009 10:28

The Sandrock Hotel, Shirley

Discovered this pub by chance after failing to get a table elsewhere. Bit quiet as it was a Tuesday night, but decent folk in there, IPA was fresh and dinner and service were excellent. Looks like it has been recently renovated/decorated. Worth a visit.

11 Jun 2008 10:17