Red Lion

Friends of ours visited this pub a week last Sunday following recommendations from neighbours. They raved about it. The food, the beers, the cakes, the service. We had to go!

We went on Sunday 7th August, arriving just after 2pm.
Upon arrival the pub was heaving, no empty tables. We asked at the bar for a table and were told it would be 5 minutes, we were happy to wait, (rather amusingly, another group of 4 arrived just after us, and simply sat down at the table that we had been told was being cleaned for us, they were politely, calmly informed that we were waiting! - however, as another, nicer table had become free, we were happy to wait for this one) This completely goes against some of the reviews that mention stroppy management!

Anyhow, the food, 3 serving stations of food. Number 1 had meat (not my cup of tea, but apparently amazing) There was rare beef, medium beef, lamb, stuffed lamb and turkey. The next station had 3 veggie options, (yes I did say 3) savoury pancakes, goats cheese tartlets and home made veggie sausages - extremely tasty and most unusual to go to a carvery and have veggie options, Also on here was roast and new potatoes, enormous yorkshire puddings and stuffing balls. The third station had vegetables - carrots, peas, mash, cheesy leeks, broccoli and a few others. There was also a whole table of every condiment you could ever dream of and meat based gravy and veggie gravy.

The food tasted amazing, you could tell that most of the veg were homegrown, that the food had been cooked that day and was fresh. We were asked during our meal if everything was OK, as well as being asked if we would like anymore drinks from the bar.

The pudding list was double sided, however - due to the lovely food there was no room for this in my tummy. Husband and friend both had desserts, Rocky road from the selection from the bar, and a lemon posset. Both presented beautifully. The earl grey tea came in a lovely teapot complete with a delightful macaroon.

It saddens me to read the bad reviews of this place, perhaps there is truth in the fact that people do not leave good reveiws, only bad reviews. In my opinion this place is a goldmine and should be recommended to all friends and relatives.

Enjoy

Was worried Visiting this pub for the first time reading the previous review but was pleasantly surprised, as soon as we got through the door we received a warm welcome from bar lady. The food is all cooked in their own kitchen with local ingredients which is a great change from most pubs.
All together we had a very enjoyable dinner and cant fault the service at all.

A truely disasterous lunch for my family. We were anticipating a friendly, professional pub. However, this is further from the truth than I can express. We were asked to leave the pub after being publicly accused by the aggressive manageress of grabbing the waitress.

I would like to put the record straight. On entering the busy pub, my mother touched the waitresses arm to get her attention as we were requesting a table for 12 that we had phoned earlier in the week to request. We then helped the staff to move the tables as we could see they were busy and that there were alot of us. We were seated quickly and proceeded to get our lunch. At this time the bar manager came over and accused my mother of being aggressive to his staff. After a short discussion we thought this mis understanding had been resolved.

The manageress then came out of kitchen and in my opinion esculated the situation out of control. She would not allow any of our party to explain or defend ourselves against the accusations. This was all done publicly and highly unprofessionally. Her attitude was that she could say whatever she wanted as she is the 'owner'. I have never experienced such a lack of customer service from management in the service industry. We will not be visiting the establishment again and will be passing on our experience to our friends, family and other food guides.

The Red Lion is an outstanding traditional pub with excellent food and a great range of beers and ciders. It's what a Pub should be!!