January 2024 by BingoBrian
Bought a bottle of '13.5% Wolf Blass Shiraz' from the wine list. Took one sip and it tasted awful as we normally love an Aussie Shiraz. Checked label and it was actually 10.5%. They flat refused to change it despite bottle being 95% full. That is absolutely terrible service and hospitality. I paid £18 for that £6 cost price wine and I did nothing wrong but they couldn't give a damn. No recourse - even after saying they should 'learn' from my financial loss in a Google review feedback. I'll never ever be back - such short sighted business practice with zero customer care - just grab and keep the £18 for wine they poured down the drain. ?
December 2023 by Tracy K
Not a drinkers pub. Ale not particularly well kept. Staff friendly except manager who is widely known locally as ?a grumpy @@@@?. Taken a battering over not supporting charitable events such as tractor run and Santa sleigh parking but the worst part is being unable to get a seat for a drink due to masses of reserve signs. Went in for a spot of birthday drinking in the afternoon, mid December. Half empty pub but no seats due to reservations. This is 1 pm. Finally got a seat. By 5pm no one had sat in the majority of those seats so was it just staff reserving for the evening? Who knows but locally it?s getting a bad reputation and only survives as it?s the only one in the area. Needs sorting out.
December 2023 by Old-Expat
We had a lovely Sunday lunch with our family, and we had booked in advance, mentioning a few dietary requirements. The restaurant staff handled our requests very well, and there were no issues. The food was fantastic and very delicious, and there was plenty of it. The staff were amazing, going above and beyond to make our experience enjoyable.
December 2023 by Alexia D
I recently visited this pub and was thoroughly impressed. The atmosphere is cozy and the staff friendly.
December 2023 by Lia F
Good food, good service, attentive, professional and friendly. Good experience.
December 2023 by adamr442
Really poor meal and despite complaining management didn?t seem to care. My Daughters medium steak came barely cooked with blood all over plate. They took steak off plate and brought it back burnt to a crisp and dry 10 minutes later when everyone else had nearly finished their food. Portions seem to have drastically reduced too. My burger and chips had same amount of chips as my sons junior kids fish finger meal! Disappointing
December 2023 by Loraine B
Shocking food served today, very disappointing, yes did complain!! it was awful and just burned.. didn't seem to bother them though? So most definitely won't be returning or recommending, had some good meals in the past and some not so good, but this time just plain horrible,??chef sort yourself out!!!!!
December 2023 by Clarke S
This business is awful, the food they serve is not what is described on the menu. They require booking just to sit and have a drink. They refuse to participate let alone support local charity events such as the Santa float or tractor run. Banbury is known for its community spirit and rallying for each other. The current manager and his choices go against that and he instead appears to be a money grubbing Scrooge serving disgusting food with shoddy service. I will not be a customer here again!!!
December 2023 by A n O
Poor don't bother no atmosphere told us at our Xmas party to keep noise down ( we were the only ones in there)lol
December 2023 by Simon M
This pub used to a great local and well supported by the local community but since the new manager took over it has changed to the point of being boycotted by myself and my friends. The food is terrible where my cottage pie was awful and the vegetables looked like they were scooped out of the bin and inedible. The atmosphere is gone - feels soulless now ? The final straw is refusing the Round Table Santa float access to their car park. For the last 20 years it?s been a meeting point for the float. Also for as far back as I can remember a part of the car park was allocated to a Xmas tree seller - not this year ??? Whoever the miserable manager is - they are in the wrong job as they have destroyed a great pub
December 2023 by Patsybigballs
My friends suggested meeting for Christmas lunch, I telephoned back in November to ask if I needed to request the roast dinner or pay a deposit and was informed no, just to make sure I stated on the booking form that we wanted to eat from the festive menu. I went ahead and booked online as instructed by a staff member. We turned up on 12th December at 2.30pm sat at our table and browsed through the festive menu to choose Christmas celebration meal of roast turkey. We proceeded to order at the bar to be informed there was no turkey left...that is only for pre orders. I stated we had requested this on our booking form that we were ordering from the festive menu as instructed over the telephone. Apparently I had been informed wrong and that was that. We ended up with turkey pie as one guest had travelled over 10 miles and had taken time off work for this "Christmas " meal and was hungry. I then asked the waitress if we could have some Christmas crackers that were placed around on tables as we were having the "festive" menu. I was informed "No, they're for pre booked meals?? Please note, I had booked, Overall the food resemble a frozen budget meal that I couldn't even finish, the sprouts were mush and tasted like poison. I appreciate any food as long as its edible, this was well below standard for the price they were charging. I emailed Ember Inns that evening informing of there terrible communication regarding the booking on the telephone and there dis interest in the effort we had gone to to put business there way. I can only say, never again, totally disappointed with such sub standard service and food.
December 2023 by TheFloppyShoe
If, from the outside, this place gives off an air of anywhere above adequacy, allow me to dismantle that idea. On my visit, some of the staff seemed rushed, hastily running between the sparse set of seated tables. Others were just outright rude, like the figure behind the bar with the cheer factor of a disciplinary hearing who will sharply urge you to hastily make your mind up on your order after you've been told what you've picked isn't available. Despite the to-and-fro of the wat staff, they were generally inattentive with the tables. Much of the chef's on-shift time must have been spent impatiently waiting for the microwave to ping, or for the old frozen food to cook through, or the Sunday roasts to lose any bit of moisture they ever had the slightest potential to carry. In this mysterious kitchen, food crimes are made ready to be inflicted on innocent bystanders? or at least that's how it could be easily be imagined be the customers in a desperate attempt to rationalise the management's commitment to aiming their standards somewhere firmly below mediocrity. Starters? the nachos were clearly just pre-made from a supplier and then microwaved, and not evenly heated throughout. Is it that hard to make something as simple as nachos yourself with decent ingredients? Couldn't be bothered to make a basic cheese sauce for them or put in the effort to whip up a decent salsa from fresh ingredients? This small pathetic bowl of tortilla chips with various goops that came in a packet before being "warmed" will set you back ~£5, which is an incredible deal at well over ten times what they're worth. The starters menu also includes something named "Crispy Chipotle Chicken" but then goes on to describe it as "Japanese-style"? how do they figure that? What part of chipotle (a smoke-dried pepper more typically found in Mexican and related cuisines) is at all "Japanese-style"? What part of any of it was "Japanese" style? Coating some deep fried meat in a sauce with a smattering of various *definitely* authentic garnishes doesn't automatically make something "Japanese". For mains, despite it being very early in the Sunday lunch service with 2 or 3 tables seated total, there was no roast beef. The roast chicken was dead dry and unseasoned and came with sad vegetables, including potatoes incredibly overcooked to the point of being inedible- these also featured obvious large black spots, likely from having been frozen far too long. The vegan "wellingtons" aren't really anything like a traditional wellington at all, they were closer to an open spinach tart and missing a few of the main ingredients of a wellington (obviously ignoring the beef), let alone the structure. No paté, no duxelles, and not even wrapped in puff pastry. You can't call whatever the hell that was supposed to be a wellington. The southern-fried chicken burger came wonderfully soggy thanks to a sad single piece of pale iceberg lettuce and a floppy slice of tomato thrown onto the bottom claggy brioche bun. The batter on the chicken lacked seasoning to the point you could consider it somewhere close to false advertising to be called "southern-fried". The chicken itself had a poor texture, again likely having been frozen. I've had better "southern fried chicken" from the freezer section of most supermarkets. The menu claims it comes with salsa on the menus online, but it didn't. However, there was a miniscule dip of what I think was supposed to be chipotle mayo, though this seemed more like a 50/50 blend of mayonnaise and ketchup. It was the most flavourful thing on the plate by some margin. The chips it came with were about the closest thing on the table to half-decent food, probably by virtue of them being nearly impossible to mess up, though part of me wonders if the chefs here would see that as a challenge. The food made one of our table feel quite ill for a few hours. Then there's the pub itself- and aside from the
December 2023 by adrianhX3874FC
A lovely pud and lovely decor but as for the food ( very very poor ) Called in for two roast Chicken was so dry , seasonal vegetables not even cooked. Vegetable wellington was ok but again the vegetables were shocking
December 2023 by U2626MFpauln
Service was great, food was poor. Chicken in the hunter?s chicken was dry/overcooked. Burgers were too dry and lacked quality, possibly over cooked. Boiled potatoes were under cooked. Chips in my opinion had been cooked and re heated, chips should be easy to get right. Eaten there as a family many times but probably not for over a year. Normally it?s really good, today was really poor. Everything is great normally, so we were all really disappointed. The puddings were good though.
November 2023 by Vaughan J
A birthday celebration Enjoyable catch up with friends Excellent service Thankyou Amber Great mixed Grill Fish & Chips and cottage pie also eaten
