First thing to write is that all the serving staff were very good. Friendly, competent, attentive, with at times a sense of humour. However this cannot conceal that this is... read more an establishment over reaching it’s abilities. The food menu was smaller than the wine and...More

  We opted to to make a reservation based on the fantastic reviews on Trip Advisor but unfortunately we ended up badly regretting our decision.

After calling ahead to make... read more a reservation we were told that they were fully booked in the restaurant but that they would be happy to reserve a table in the beer garden. Given the expectations of an excellent meal, we were happy to accept this - it was a lovely evening and we also had our big lump of a dog with us so it was a wise decision - or so we thought.

We arrived at the pub and my wife went into the bar to let staff know that we were here - she was advised that they were a little busy and that someone would be out with menus shortly. And that was the last we saw of anyone for some time. I had to go into the restaurant to get hold of some menus - it was clear that the staff were extremely harrassed as they didn't appear to have a clue who was serving what, who was working the food, who was working the bar etc.

When we got the menu, it bore absolutely no representation to what was showing on the pub's website. I know that many restaurants put "sample menus" on their websites as they quite rightly change them on a regular basis but the menu on the Bear & Blacksmith website is pretty varied - the menu in the bar (plus specials) is not. After deciding that we would stay for something to eat, we asked to order - again it took some time for the waitress to appear, all in all it must have taken over an hour for us to get our order taken - it was as if the door between us and the bar was some magical blocker to the staff inside - or that we were the poor relations sitting in the garden?

The kids ordered burgers, I ordered the scallops and my wife ordered the lemon sole. My scallops arrived first - at something in the region of £18 for a main course I would expect something a little more generous than 6 small scallops on a plate with a few buttered new potatoes. When my wife's sole arrived, it was a whole fish - not filleted with the head still on! Given that my wife was suffering with a severe throat/chest infection at the time, if the menu had stated that it was basically a whole fish, she would never have ordered it.

When we told the waitress that the fish wasn't what we expected, she took it back into the kitchen - and then the appalling service really began. The owner chef came out of the kitchen, quite aggressively accusing us (and in particular my wife) of wasting his time and wasting his food. He offered to cut the head off the fish - as if that would have made any difference! When we advised him that we weren't impressed with his customer service skills nor those of his staff his excuse was that they were short staffed and were really struggling. At no point did he apologise for the lack of service and the impression we got was that we should be grateful for the opportunity to eat in his restaurant! He slammed the kitchen door after wishing us a spectacularly surly good evening and left us to our own devices - quite naturally we left the pub - at least they had the decency to write off the round of drinks that we'd bought nearly an hour earlier - but again, there was little in the way of an apology.

The owner/chef would be well advised to remember that he's not some celebrity chef - that indeed, according to a little research he's very much self taught - and perhaps he should exhibit a little more humility and perhaps read up on customer service! He should also remember that he's cooking in a kitchen which backs onto the beer garden and that with the windows to the kitchen wide open, we could hear everything he was saying - safe to say he was pretty uncomplimentary about a number of the guests in his pub that night - and I'm not sure Trip Advisor's rules would allow me to repeat what he was calling some of them (no doubt we received the same treatment when we left!).

Such a shame that I've had to leave this review - I'm sure that it is a decent place but based on our experience there's absolutely no way I'd ever return. But then I'm sure that the owner couldn't be bothered if I did or not!!

  What a superb Sunday lunch at the Bear and Blacksmith...! We were made very welcome by all members of the team. Service was excellent, staff polite and helpful. Every... read more dish was perfect! 👌 A fabulous afternoon for our family Easter Sunday and my Mums birthday......More