Thebargeandbottle Avis 

This was my first visit after the ownership and refurb had been done, from the outside it still looks good now with extra seating outside, staff were friendly as always but not sure if they are the same people, the first thing we were told when shown to our reserved table that it wasn't table service, food had to be ordered at the bar, another time if table service is required the booking has to be requested for the restaurant area, this was not shown or mentioned when the booking was made and it never used to be like that. We were there to celebrate my grandson's 18th birthday. The next thing I noticed was the makeover, although the bar area itself looked nice the paintwork around was dark, dull, dingy like they wanted it to look old and run down, if that is what they wanted they got it right, but to me it was awful even the colours used didn't go together. There were 7 of us in the group and on looking at the new menu there was a massive change to how it was, my youngest granddaughter wanted a Mac n Cheese, something she usually has when out, but there wasn't any on the menu, my son went for the mixed grill which was huge but even he wasn't keen on it, very limited choice of steaks, basic 'Pub Grub' meals, there were only 2 items on the menu that suited me, a lot of other meals were not to my liking either due to the dressings used or ingredients in the meal, I ended up with the Steak & Ale pie, it came with mushy peas of all things, not something you would normally have with gravy, but swapped with my son who had normal pease, the amount of mash potato given nearly filled half the plate, far too much for just one person, as for the pie, quite obviously not home made, a Pukka Pie would have been better, the meat inside was fine but the pastry was soggy and chewy. Out of all 7 of us only 2 actually finished their meal the rest left at least half of it. We used to love going there for a meal and was a regular place for birthdays, but as it is now I doubt we'd be back, not for food at least.