Classic Inns Reviews 9

Earl of Strafford Hooten Roberts
We went for a special anniversary and birthday and booked here for a change as alot of places are closed on Mondays.. Went 14th August 2023.
Lovely evening. Staff great... Especially Nicole... Youve got an excellent member of staff there! Food came promptly.
Was just a lovely evening.
Thankyou

My friend and I had a booking at The Command House, Chatham, last night. Sarah, our waitress, was excellent and very friendly. The food was of a very high standard and beautifully presented. It was the best we’d had in a while of all the restaurants we’d been to including nearby Rochester.

Earl of Strafford Hooton Roberts Rotherham
Been for afternoon tea, absolutely gorgeous, beautiful food, served by lovely staff. Excellent value for money.
Will definitely be back.

I have recently been using 'The Woodman' in woodmansterne. The service there is very good. Polite waiters, who accommodate anything you ask for. The Sunday lunch is excellent, and the lunch menu is very good food, and good value.
The only problem I had was, on the lunch menu it states 'add a dessert for £3'. When I went to do this, I was charged £4.75 and told you could only have the cheaper price if you order them both together. This is not mentioned on the menu anywhere at all.
Otherwise, definitely 5 stars.

Disappointing that I have to leave a bad review as I come to this pub regularly on a weekday - my office is down the road. Went to the pub at 21:00 on 29/07 during work pub golf and got turned down a drink by the "manager" of the night. Incredibly pretentious guy, poor attempt at ruining our vibe for the night

The George in Bilton, Rugby used to serve good food and we frequently sung its praises to friends and family. How things can change... Friday lunchtime, restaurant nearly empty. Two in our party ordered the fish and chips, which came looking cremated (not what you could reasonably call crispy batter). The batter on mine was very greasy and the fish was chewy. The batter on the other fish was also inedible but the fish was better cooked.

My fish was returned to the kitchen and I was offered a Hunters Chicken as a replacement. This was also different to those previously eaten at The George. There had been the addition of a strong herb (sage?) which overpowered the other flavours in the dish.

I cannot understand why the cremated greasy chewy fish was allowed out of the kitchen - its place was in the bin. I have had lots of fish over the years as my grandfather was a fishmonger so I do know how it should look and taste.

Score out of 5 - nil.

We went in at 8.55 pm and was told the general manager had closed the kitchen, we said ”the website says food until 22.00” the barman said “sometimes we close the kitchen early” frankly this is insane on a Friday night. We were with three clients and this was a serious nuisance we had to walk to The Powder Monkey a Wetherspoon pub where there were no issues so we have decided to stick with them from here on. After this disruption (one client was disabled so we parked close to The Merchant) I phoned my colleague from the office to explain we had a fiasco with getting food and he said: “where?” I explained and he then took it upon himself to Email the pub next day after finding the establishment only had a three-star hygiene rating, he said “it’s odd but if the kitchen is closing early in a chain I check the food hygiene rating and find it’s usually bad” he mentioned the 3 rating to the establishment because all the other Stonegate pubs we use are 5 star rated. The manager Martin Nile replied in response to his remarks about the early closing and three rating and said “to mention about there must be something amiss here at the Merchant is just wrong and very rude.” what is rude about referring to a low hygiene rating which is available for all to see on the food standards agency website and an issue of early closing of the kitchen? I should add that my colleague also emailed Stonegate customer services who own classic inns but no reply was ever received. If they don’t reply to a security and investigation company who would they reply to?

Not a good experience.

Fox and Grapes Leeds

Arrived at 17.30 on Sunday 2nd June.

Looked at drinks menu, my wife ordered a glass of sparkling rose and I ordered a Punk IPA. Server came back and said they had no sparkling rose so a different wine was selected. The beer was in a bottle, the menu could have been clearer as I thought I had ordered a pint.

We both requested a pork roast dinner, the server came back and said there was no roast available. So we had to change our order, fish and chips and steak and ale pie. The fish meal was cold and was replaced. The second meal the fish had not been fully cooked and a third meal was ordered. This one was ok.

No one asked if we wanted any more drinks or a sweet.

We asked another server for our bill and left feeling disappointed.

Fox and Grapes, york Road, Leeds 30th Dec 2017. Approx 17.30
My wife and I ordered a small glass of Merlot and non alcoholic beer from A young lady at the bar and requested a table for 2

The bar was quiet, no other customers there at that point. While we were choosing a table, there were a number of empty ones, The young blond girl who had taken our order of two drinks, Merlot and Becks Blue, had followed us to check that she had the correct wine order, a small glass of Merlot. After a 10 minute wait in a quiet restaurant I returned to the bar to place our order. I hated to interrupt the 3 ladies who were having a nice chat but we were both quite hungry. The young blond lady took our order, my wife’s was straightforward but I requested the vegetarian burger without cheese, no mayonnaise and no coleslaw. The waitress returned just before the order was delivered and advised that the cheese was integral to the burger. She was followed by her colleague with aforementioned burger and integral cheese. My wife’s plate was delivered, mine rejected. I had neglected to state clearly to The young blonde lady who had not been able to accurately retain a wine order of a small glass of wine in her little blonde head for a period of 50 seconds, that I did not want any cheese inside the burger either. No apology offered.

I have always regarded it as good manners to eat simultaneously with a dinner companion. But needs must, she had her quite warm if not very hot dinner, which she subsequently informed me, was otherwise delicious and I had.....to wait. I requested a salad sandwich, reminding the blonde lady of the previous non cheese etc conditions. When it arrived the salad was excellent, the two dry slices of cheap white bread between which it was delivered, not so much.

They did not charge me for the sandwich. They did not apologise either. I can afford to pay for a third rate sandwich served by a most callow young woman but would have appreciated the apology.

In the event that Classic Inns are inclined to proffer some concession for a future visit, please don’t. Wild horses etc

Jim O’Shea