Skimmington Castle - (Near Surrey, South East)

1 /5 Sara Bouktab: Second Awful Experience ! This used to be my favourite place and my go-to for pub food, but my recent visit was utterly disappointing — and sadly, this isn’t the first time. About 6 weeks ago, I had another bad experience at the same restaurant, which I decided to overlook, hoping it was just an off day. Unfortunately, this visit was even worse. Service was chaotic and unprofessional. After ordering drinks and starters, we were only then told that several mains were unavailable. The table wasn’t cleared after starters, and our cutlery wasn’t refreshed. We even had to go up to the counter ourselves to order because of how long it was taking for anyone to attend to us. When we finally managed to order, more items were unavailable. We settled for burgers and fish & chips, which took around 40 minutes to arrive. The chips tasted old and over-fried, my chicken burger was burnt and dry, and the beef burger was overcooked, dry inside, and served in a stale bun. When I mentioned this, the staff offered to make a new burger, but the service was already so slow that it didn’t seem worth the wait. The man at the till was defensive and dismissive, insisting that someone had checked on us instead of actually listening to our concerns. This was by far the worst dining experience I’ve had — poor service, terrible food, and no sense of care from the staff. I would like to be contacted by management regarding this visit, especially since this is the second bad experience in just four weeks. I hope this feedback is taken seriously, as it’s very disappointing to see such a decline in a place that used to be one of my favourites.

5 /5 P P: We visited a few months ago and had such a wonderful time! The atmosphere, the hospitality, and the food were all fantastic! The bottomless roast potatoes were definitely a highlight! We were also so glad we chose to book this pub over the others we’d seen listed! It honestly couldn’t have been a better choice. We really appreciated how welcomed we felt, as we sadly don’t always get that experience in pubs as Indians. The server was incredibly thoughtful: she initially seated us close to the fireplace after noticing how cold I was from our hike, and then kindly moved us even closer once the table became free. It was genuinely the best pub experience we’ve had (and we’ve been to many!). Thank you for being so warm and accommodating, and for serving such great food. We’ll definitely be coming back (for the bottomless roast potatoes alone HA)!

5 /5 Vincent ODonoghue: I havent been to this pub for years, but it was lovely going there for lunch. Its a tricky place to find, but as long as you use a sat nav youll be fine. The people serving were very friendly and helpful and the food was delicious! Its good pricing and definitely worth the money!

5 /5 Mark Lawrence: Called in without a booking for lunch and whilst it was busy the staff were amazing. Atmosphere is a 12/10; food was great and I would highly recommend this establishment to all. A lovely time and experience in a great historical establishment ❤️❤️❤️

2 /5 R J: Had a nice little warm cosy room for 7 of us as we were celebrating two peoples birthdays. Ordered 3 lamb and 2 lamb and beef roasts but was only told 15 minutes after ordering that they ran out of lamb and only had 3 beef left so half the guests had to compromise and have chicken because there was no other alternatives. Did manage to get one of the starters knocked off the bill which was pretty tasty tbh. Once the food came the chicken was pretty dry but the beef was quite good. Theres was no cauliflower cheese in the roasts which everyone was looking quite forward to and wasnt mentioned on arrival of food. We had to question where it was before being told they had ran out, Once again no compensation for it. Desserts were pretty nice so have no complaints about that. They had a miscommunication behind the bar about our order for drinks and had to come down and ask again what we wanted, to then find out when the bill came they had added 4 drinks too many and still hadnt changed our food bill from our first orders. That incurred an extra £50 total ontop of our actual orders. Its was busy evening for the pub but thats not an excuse to run a professional establishment especially on a Sunday which theyve probably had many trial and errors to sort these teething problems out. They need to be more prepared when ordering theyre stock for dinners and running out of cauliflower is not an exception especially when its probably one of the cheapest things. Making customers aware of food availability, getting drinks orders incorrect and charging full price for meals that are missing things are unacceptable. Shouldve had a discount or at least knocked the service charge of the meal but the owner looked like someone that wouldnt see eye to eye