Not that I’m one to complain….. But this is entirely sub-optimal, the recent Government changes on sugary soft drinks have also impacted the hot chocolate at JD Wetherspoon. That means no more unlimited mochas or hot chocolates, which seems to me a ridiculous infringement on my coffee drinking rights. And, next to these machines will be unlimited sachets of sugar, those are absolutely fine on their own….
I’m not entirely sure whether JD Wetherspoon will actually monitor this or just end up removing hot chocolate entirely and having it by sachets only or something. I’m not entirely sure that this will help the health of the next generation, but what would I know…..
Here’s the exterior of the Moon in the Square pub from when I visited last November. I’m currently back here again, so I felt the need to write something about it. I’m always keen to surprise and delight my two loyal blog readers….
As I usually do for pubs in the JD Wetherspoon chain, I’ve taken the history of the venue from their own website:
“This is one of several Wetherspoon pubs with ‘moon’ in their name, linking them with the ideal pub described by George Orwell. He called his fictitious pub ‘Moon Under Water’. This one stands on the site of Victoria Villa and Library – the home and business premises of TJ Hankinson, who was Bournemouth’s first mayor, elected in 1890. Around that time, the buildings were replaced by King’s drapery store which traded here for several decades.”
And, courtesy of the JD Wetherspoon website, here’s the link to the area to Tony Hancock.
The interior of the pub, which was all clean, tidy and organised. It’s about half full on a Friday afternoon and it’s the tail end of the JD Wetherspoon beer festival. I still haven’t found the cucumber beer from Adnams…… They did though have seven real ales available, all reasonably priced.
I went for half a pint of the Dark from Exmoor Ales which cost just £1.08. It was a malty and rich beer, even slightly decadent.
Also, as usual, I felt the need to have a look at the reviews for the pub, which is rated highly for the chain.
“Fully booked up. Streams people. Often over crowded. 3 nights out of 4 couldn’t eat here on our stay”
It feels unfair to rate the venue 1 out of 5 for that.
“Beer is tasteless, I had thatchers gold cider and it was tasting flat.”
They sell over 50 beers across keg, cask and can so it’s hard to understand how it’s tasteless. Unless they ordered Bud Light, but it’s meant to taste like that.
“***** is an absolute jobsworth. Because he’s got an ear piece in thinks he’s something important, runs away and hides in the kitchen, sends his bar staff out to deal with issues and hides 🤣. Nice pub, cheap and cheerful but jobsworth management”
This sounds like a former staff member who is annoyed at the manager in question…. And, as I know from Norwich Beer Festival, anyone with an ear piece is important.
“Refused to serve us at outside table, they seem to think dogs are unacceptable but smokers are OK! No dog sitting quietly ever caused lung cancer 😡”
An angry dog owner is never far away….
“We were kicked out by bar staff me wife dog out side drinking said drink up dogs not allowed”
There’s a Brewdog opposite which loves dogs to be fair….
“Terrible service, the person at the bar didnt even know how to use the till!”
God forbid they have a member of staff being trained…
“absolutely dreadful wasn’t allowed to drink my pint for some reason which i had every right to drink and paid for with my hard earnt money”
I suspect that there was a reason.
“Was locked in mens cubicle as door locks malfunctioned and used my mobile phone to call bar for help. Staff arrived with screw driver to hand to me as lock wouldn’t undo from outside of door so removed screws on lock and door fell open. All door locks on public toilets should have opening device”
This feels like a proper, valid complaint. At least it added some exciting drama to this customer’s day.
Anyway, I’ve digressed and got distracted once again. I’ve been to this pub a few times and it does get busy in the evenings, but the service always seems friendly and sort of efficient. And there’s a decent amount of real ale available, although unfortunately neither this pub nor the other nearby JD Wetherspoon have made the Good Beer Guide….
Unlike the nearby Earl of Mercia, this JD Wetherspoon pub isn’t listed in the Good Beer Guide. It’s in what appears to be a grand old building (although that exterior is all mock Tudor and it’s a twentieth century construction) which is visually appealing and there’s a small external seating area as well. As usual, I’ll quote from JD Wetherspoon, who have operated the venue since 2000, about the origins of the pub name:
“This is named after the fondly remembered motor car, part of a range of models made in Coventry from 1903 until the 1960s. Standard’s first car, the Motor Victoria, was built in 1903 by Reginald Maudslay, in Much Park Street. The Standard Nine was launched in 1927. Inexpensive, at £198, its success saw Standard through the ‘slump’ and it was still going strong when, in 1936, the Flying Standard models made their début.”
I visited when the beer festival was taking place and there was quite a choice, with all of the beers in the festival being £1.95 a pint. There are a couple, namely from Titanic and Adnams, that I’m hoping to try although I haven’t seen them anywhere yet.
The first half I ordered was the Free Rein from Purity Brewing and this was really rather good with a tropical edge and it was smooth and fluffy. Quite punchy for 4.5% and a bargain for under £1 for a half.
The second half was the Blackberry Porter from Mauldons and it tasted as if there was as much hedgerow as blackberry in it, the beer was quite rustic. But, I like robust flavours and I like Mauldons, with the lingering taste being pleasant and it was under £1 for a half…..
The new light bites menu has been launched nationally this week, alongside another round of price increases on food and drink.
As this is a JD Wetherspoon venue, I always like to have a little look at the reviews so see how they’ve annoyed customers over the years. It is though really quite positively reviewed, so they’ve delighted a lot more customers than they’ve seemingly annoyed.
“So earlier this afternoon I visited this spoons with a friend as we fancied some drinks. We got our drinks and were sipping on them when I realized there was a fly that had entered my drink. I was absolutely shocked and took this to the bartender, they were shocked too and called for the manager. I had about half of my drink left when I brought this issue up and there was no I was going to drink it. I spoke to the manager and expressed my concern and she didn’t seem to care one bit. I asked if I could get another one and she said that no I couldn’t as I only had a sip left. I was sickened by this service and treatment as I’ve never had such a horrible experience before. Usually if there’s something wrong or an issue with a drink or a dish (say hair was found in it), it always get taken off the bill oror you’re given another one. But in this case I was given such sickening treatment and the manager didn’t bother to even solve the issue. I’ve worked previously in restaurants and hospitality and we’re trained and taught the opposite of this behavior. We’re instructed to treat the customer with respect and prioritize their thoughts, something that was far from what I had experienced today.”
I think I’d notice a fly in my drink before I had nearly finished it…. Or I’d just take the bloody thing out and carry on.
“Went there really wanting to have a good English breakfast. Didnt work out very well. The food is good.. many options on the menu to choose from, but i have visited weatherspoons before and this was not an experience i liked. I went to get a cup of coffee left half my breakfast on my plate to come back to it. Wen i came back, the table was cleared. As i checked with the servers i received an answer as they thought i was done, but i had half my breakfast still left. Didnt feel like sitting there any more after this. Wont visit the place again.”
Sit near the coffee machine and watch the table like a hawk when not at it. It’s the only way…
“One of the management team (Andrew), was quite rude when we had our food stolen, lack of management skills and communication”
There are a fair number of these reviews, either they have efficient waiting staff or there’s a hungry customer permanently waiting to pounce.
“On visiting Coventry my husband and I went into Witherspoons for our lunch I wish we hadn’t bothered it was really awful, we went in by one door but was blocked by tables and chairs so close together you would not get a person through so we tried another door and found ourselves on the upper floor but to get a table to sit and have a meal to go up into the lift, we got out of lift but once again found we could not get to a table I forget to mention I have to use a walker to get around I could not get through any ethereal at all so husband started moving tables and chairs to get me through. We got a table but the meal was really awful we ordered gammon,chips they do not serve pineapple only fried eggs with the gammon my egg was buried underneath the chips and peas we eat very little I just wanted to be out of there. Before we left needed to go to the ladies it was disgusting no flush the handled broke but no maintenance so we just moved a lot tables and chairs for me to get through to get out we will never visit a witherspoons ever again”
What a lovely lunch they had, I always love stories about how people battle through even through adversity.
“As with all Witherspoon’s it lacks any sort of atmosphere, people sat in small groups quietly eating and sipping there order,tv,s dotted around showing only sport channels with the volume turned down. the smokers area is a total joke a few large brollys on a very busy pavement, with only a extendable webbing barrier between not smoking area and people who may or mat not smoke if they wish just millimetre away,not the cheapest beer in town ,disinterested staff,turning into a rest home”
If we’re defining atmosphere as lots of music, then I like pubs with no atmosphere.
“Tried to order six pints of Greene king and was turned away. Outrageous”
They should be listed in the Good Beer Guide for doing this.
“Food was stone cold but staff was fantastic in there”
I like the bluntness of this one. Anyway, I digress once again.
I rather like this pub and I’ve visited a few times over the years. The service was friendly on this visit and I liked the manager was pro-actively engaging about the beer festival, they seemed quite excited by the whole arrangement.
I think that this is my favourite name of any JD Wetherspoon pub, I’ll use their history of the pub to explain its origins:
“The eye-catching building next door but one to these premises is Oxford University’s history faculty. It was originally the city’s High School for Boys, which opened in 1881. The comic actor Ronnie Barker was a former pupil and later one of the Two Ronnies. Probably their best-known sketch was ‘Four Candles’. Barker walks into a hardware store and asks for and gets ‘four candles’. However, he really wanted fork handles – ‘andles for forks’.”
The building was used as a Yates Wine Lodge until JD Wetherspoon took it over in 2008. There’s a different carpet in every one of the chain’s pubs and this one is styled in the form of four candles.
It’s located across two floors and is a reasonably large venue. The tables are a little near to each other which makes navigating around just a little more difficult.
And my breakfast arrangement of a small breakfast, alongside toast with marmalade and unlimited hot drinks. This was £5.48 for everything, which doesn’t feel unreasonable for Oxford city centre. Everything was hot and tasted as I’d want, especially after I’d added my required amount of black pepper.
This wasn’t early morning drinking, I bumped into Simon from the LDWA later on and we had time for a quick drink before my coach to Luton Airport. It’s the Firefly from Windsor & Eton Brewery which was light, hoppy and unexciting. They usually have three real ales alongside their Greene King offerings, not the largest selection by any means.
As it’s a JD Wetherspoon venue, I of course had to go and look at the online reviews, which are broadly positive for the chain.
“Tattoo barestaff asked me to leave after my food due to me taking some of my ecig.. understand couple of warning but after I order food. Blocking tab straight away. Obvious intentions. Disgusting and want be returning.”
So a customer breaks the pub’s smoking ban and is allowed to leave after finishing their food, but they still think that’s “disgusting” as they felt they needed at least a couple of warnings?
“Went for a few drinks here, was asked to leave the pub for being too loud?”
Good. There are other pubs to be raucous in.
“Standard Wetherspoons but T**** the Deputy Manager……..Well done T****!!!”
I’ve removed the complaint itself, but I’ve never understood the need for people to name individual staff (and I’ve starred the name out so I don’t look hypocritical) in negative reviews. I’m also not entirely sure that Google should allow it, but there we go….
“where to start the table was filthy luckily I have a baby so baby wipes was on hand. we ordered 2 traditional breakfasts, 1 with an extra sausage and preserves on toast. the breakfasts came with no bacon or tomato, and missing the extra sausage. and the toast had no jam. disaster.”
Disaster? Maybe sub-optimal or even not ideal…..
“I came there, waited for 15 for a waiter to come, and then I left. And I will never come back.”
I think I know what’s happened here…. Anyway, I digress.
It’s a cheap, friendly and cheerful option in the city centre, one I’ve visited before, but it felt right to excite and delight my two loyal blog readers by writing about it.
As I hadn’t eaten at the Burger King at the services, as the prices were far too decadent, I decided to get food and drink at the Lynd Cross pub in Horsham whilst waiting for the others (Nathan takes hours to do his hair). It’s a JD Wetherspoon venue and it was relatively busy when I entered, although it felt like a safe enough pub.
Before I go further, I’d add that I was going back for breakfast the next day so thought I’d get some riveting photos for this blog. Unfortunately, the damn thing was shut as they had a water leak, so the imagery on this blog is rather limited.
The chain, who at least make an effort to explain their history, notes:
“The Lynd Cross was the 14th-century name of the junction between the Bishopric and Springfield Road, now the site of this Wetherspoon pub. The first record of a building at this address is in the 1930s, when it was the Old Horsham Bakery.”
To my slight surprise, the venue is on the lowest price band for the chain, so this meal cost just over £6 and included a pint of beer. The group of lads on the table next to me were quite excited about that I had ordered a breakfast on a Friday night, although I pointed out that the chips quite rightly made this an evening meal. They also helpfully gave me some suggestions for other pubs in the town, one of which the others were about to go to. The food tasted fine, particularly at that price point, and was sufficiently filling and all at the appropriate hot temperature.
The drink never arrived at the table but the time I had finished my late night breakfast and so I just went to the bar to collect it. The Elvis Juice from Brewdog was its reliably grapefruity quality. There were six real ales available, but I wasn’t tempted on this occasion. Unfortunately, this pub isn’t in the Good Beer Guide, so I couldn’t tick another one off.
The service generally was a bit all over the place with the staff just standing talking rather than doing any table orders. I mention this as the venue has rather poor reviews for a Wetherspoon venue, which nearly all fit into the 3.8 to 4.1 stars on Google Maps (yes, I’ve analysed it that much). This one sits at 3.7, which indicates there’s likely a local issue going on so I’ve decided that it’s a great use of my time to read the reviews.
“So My Husband and myself are sitting outside Weather spoons in Horsham as I write this , with our 5 months old puppy on our laps , We know dogs are not allowed inside . Hence we are outside , We have been asked to leave because dogs are not allowed anywhere on the premises , I’ve never experienced anything so ridiculous. She’s as quiet as a mouse not disturbing anyone . So we can sit in any pub garden , but we not allowed to sit outside scruffy old weather spoons sitting on a rented public thoroughfare”
I’m not entirely sure that a lot of customers realise that the ban is on dogs generally, it’s not “no dogs, but we allow quiet dogs” as that is, unsurprisingly, difficult to enforce. And if you don’t allow dogs, then you can’t really have them in beer gardens or outside, as how do you get them through the pub or how do you go to the toilet or whatever unless you have someone else to look after them?
“Warning no dogs accepted outside. Even the staff member had trouble locating the sign. Even well behaved dogs. There loss of a £45 order. Other pubs in area dog friendly and excellent service”
I’ve seen pubs with “well behaved dogs welcome” signs but how are we defining a well behaved dog? One that doesn’t bark? One that doesn’t jump on tables or chairs? One that doesn’t bite other customers? And, in the same way as people think their child is an angel, I’ve met lots of dog owners who think that their dog is well behaved and IMO self-evidently isn’t.
“Terrible experience here. Ordered food while the app said there was a waiting time of 12 minutes. 25 minutes later asked at bar, very unhelpful. In the end we had food 39 minutes from ordering, had to rush to eat then go to an appointment. Also had to go to bar to get coffee cups as they didn’t arrive. Staff couldn’t care less.”
and
“Absolutely horrendous service 45mins it took for 2 small food meals & 10+ minutes for 2 pints of apple juice to arrive the atmosphere is dull”
There are a lot of these reviews from the last few weeks, something seems to be sub-optimal with this particular JD Wetherspoon.
“Dump and the lowest of low customers, even had one guy called Peter come up and Insult us, quite funny but would not set foot in here again”
This rather says more about the reviewer, but there we go.
“Surely one of the worst managed pubs in the Wetherspoons franchise. Service at the bar is nearly always slow; tables are rarely cleared; app orders take forever. They are seemingly always understaffed, and consequentially even on quiet afternoons they struggle.
In addition, whilst staff are friendly, there is quite a cliquey atmosphere amongst them collectively. Off duty staff can often be found performing ad-hoc duties, and there is a general atmosphere which can make customers feel like they are imposing upon the staff.
The pub just needs a reset, with a better manager in place who can help it realise its potential.”
This is one of the recent reviews, it feels quite balanced. But that’s enough of my commentary on this matter….
Anyway, as the pub was shut the following morning I couldn’t work out whether things were better when it was quiet and nor could I take a photo of the carpet (I didn’t say I was interesting). It’s quite a small venue for the chain, but it opened in March 1998 before they started opening much larger outlets as almost a standard. But, I have to note that the food and drink represented excellent value for money, so I left happy although maybe I’m just easily pleased….
It’s fair to say that my digital archive from 2012 really does contain some random rubbish….. But, having written that, I do miss that chicken pie as I’d forgotten about it.
At the weekend, slimline Richard and I thought that we’d pop to the Spread Eagle in Acocks Green near Birmingham. As usual, I’ll take the history of the pub name from the JD Wetherspoon web-site:
“Named after one of the oldest pubs in Warwickshire, which stood close by, until it was demolished in 1929, through road-widening, The Spread Eagle (the first pub) was pulled down in 1929. The green, far from being an age-old local landmark, was created in the early 1930s.”
The pub is located at the ‘413’ in the above map from the 1870s. It’s certainly all got a lot more developed in the area in the last 150 years.
One of the display boards in the pub mentioned Hancock’s Half Hour and this intrigued me. There’s no direct link between Tony Hancock (1924-1968) and the pub, but he did live in nearby Hall Green.
But, back to the food planning. Richard decided that he would treat himself to some toast which was the most that his diet would allow, and even that was pushing it. He ordered his toast and waited excitedly. I was pleased to discover that the pub was in the lowest JD Wetherspoon price band and so I went for a traditional breakfast and unlimited coffee.
My traditional breakfast was served promptly and just as a team member came over and said to Richard that they didn’t have any toast and they wondered if he would like anything else, as they assumed he wouldn’t want raw bread. The team member obviously didn’t really expect to have a customer come in that wasn’t really meant to be eating anything as decadent as toast, so there was little else that could be offered. Meanwhile, I had lost interest in his problems at this point as I had food to eat and although I would have rather had toast than raw bread myself, this food and unlimited coffee came in at under £5 so I didn’t feel the need to be overly disappointed. Full marks for the eggs still be runny and the bacon not being fatty. Richard was contemplating his entire day as his hopes to just have a little toast were shattered and I did wonder whether it might have been easier for them to buy a small-scale toaster until their commercial arrangement was fixed.
As it’s a JD Wetherspoon venue, I felt the need to have a little look through the on-line reviews and see if anything there surprised or delighted me.
“We were having fun as a family for a Birthday and the old blonde dragon came over and told us to be quiet in a very rude way”
I bet “having fun” meant being loud and disturbing other customers as why otherwise would a team member even be engaged in worrying about matters?
“The manager a move her station threatened to bar customers spending money for singing and having the craic for no reason obviously feels insecure in her job and cannot control the clientel on her establishment.”
It sounds very much like she was in full control of the customers.
“To noisy stink of smoking as you enter”
There are a few of these and they’re right, the smokers are dominating the entry doors….
“Staff very rude and got barred for no reason”
I’m not convinced.
“I am getting sick of people deciding what we can and cannot do in pubs. Now this pub, on an empty Thursday evening, is telling me I cannot stand at the end of the bar and have a beer.”
Probably as the team members know that customers blocking the bar is sub-optimal.
“Dreadful typical weatherspoons pub to be avoided if possible if you have any taste in pubs you visit.”
I like it 🙂 Anyway, lack of toast aside, this seemed a well run venue although the coffee machine was struggling to cope with the number of customers seeking to use it. I liked it here, although I tend to like nearly anywhere, and although it was too early for beer there were a number of keenly priced real ales. All really rather lovely.
With an hour to kill in Bletchley, I thought I’d visit this JD Wetherspoon pub located on Queensway for the first time. I’ll use the history of the pub from their web-site to explain the name:
“Bletchley is best known as the World War II headquarters of Britain’s famous codebreakers – Bletchley Park. Sir Herbert Leon, a wealthy stockbroker, had bought the estate in 1882 and was key in its development. In 1937, the estate passed into government hands. Then, an undercover MI6 group arrived using the name ‘Captain Ridley’s Shooting Party’, with ‘an air of friends enjoying a weekend at a country house’. Their real purpose was to see whether Bletchley Park would work as a wartime location.”
The first building here was Halfway House which was constructed in 1870 when the area was effectively all fields. This became the New Inn later in the Victorian period and the pub was entirely rebuilt in the 1930s and that style is distinctive. During the 1980s, the pub was run by the wrestler Johnny Kincaid for a few years, back when it was named the Bletchley Arms. JD Wetherspoon took over the pub and renamed it in 2017, spent £2.4 million on the building and the refurbishment, but the heritage of the 1930s building remains.
The history sign outside of the pub which explains the heritage of the building.
The pub has this on display, noting it’s an Enigma Machine, although I don’t know of any more heritage than that.
The interior is clean and comfortable, with numerous power points dotted around which proved handy.
This JD Wetherspoon is on a lower price band so the 660ml of beer and steak & kidney pudding was just over £6, which is certainly good value. I set the bar quite low on this stuff, but the cutlery was dirty so required me to clean it before use. The drink is the ever reliable Elvis Juice from Brewdog, although the glass served was too dirty to use. The gravy isn’t defective incidentally, that’s just my obsession with black pepper everywhere.
The dessert of chocolate cookie crunch was under £2 and the half pint of White Dwarf from Oakham Ales was £1. The beer was OK, it was well kept and it had a citrus kick from the hops with pleasant end notes.
It’s a relatively very well reviewed JD Wetherspoon venue, one of the highest Google Review scores I’ve seen so things must normally be rather happy and content here. I thought I’d have a little read through though….
“Absolutely disgusting, sat at our table looking at food under a light on the counter, that we’d ordered for over 25 minutes before it was served to us. I complained that it had sat there way too long before being served to us & was asked to leave”
I wonder how strongly they complained to actually be asked to leave….
“Awful customer service, unfriendly atmosphere, untrained staff. We were delivered drinks to our table which we did not order and left untouched, then half an hour later a very unpleasant manager accused us of theft if we did not pay for the drinks. Your operations are completely inadequate and your approach to customers is aggressive and unjustified. Avoid if you don’t want to be scammed by rude servers and an even more ill-mannered and unreasonable manager”
If a team member served me drinks at a table and I just tacitly accepted them without saying anything I’d be expected to be asked to leave when they realised….
“No stirrers for tea/coffee (wood stick things) very very disappointed.”
Customers are sometimes very brave to deal with such inconveniences…
“Geeky looking guy”
I didn’t bother copying the rest of the review, but this one is easy to identify who is at fault and it’s not the team member…
“Me and me mate where going to go in there got id now we are both are in are 50s don’t go out much were not impressed as we don’t carry id on us so they didn’t let us in apparently door staff said they have to do this now since when”
There’s a heap of reviews like this stating that they are IDing absolutely everyone. This feels rather sub-optimal for the pub to do this at the door, although secretly I’m always pleased to be asked about my ID since I never am any more :/ But, looking at this news article, I can understand the issue.
“We will never go back again we were only allowed 3 drinks each”
Hmmmm, I think I can guess what’s happened here.
“Asked for a pint of cider from who I believe was the shift manager, she gave me a large head on it and was very rude when I mentioned that I had asked for”minus the head please” and commented that it was the best she could do”
How on earth have they served a customer a cider with head? I’m with the customer….
“Questioned about a cider with a meal for my boy, maybe I’m mistaken but looking at government legislation says: However, if you’re 16 or 17 and accompanied by an adult, you can drink (but not buy) beer, wine or cider with a meal???”
Definitely mistaken, it’s up to the pub and isn’t some sort of human right. If there were human rights about beers, they should be about not serving Madri.
Anyway, I’ve digressed again. I rather liked the pub, although the glass and cutlery could have been cleaner, the service was friendly, there was value for money and the real ale was well kept. I like the effort made with the heritage of the pub and changing the name to honour those who worked at nearby Bletchley Park.
