3rd August 2007
Good looking pub ruined by incompetent bar staff
Apologies in advance - I'm not sure whether this counts as a review or a rant!
I visited the Horse for after-work drinks on a Friday. I thought it looked alright - high ceilings, nice wallpaper, neutral tones, mixed seating.
I was told by two of my friends that they'd got down there when it was pretty much empty and had had a pint of Guinness. They finished that and approached the bar for another. The girl was already pouring a pint of the black stuff. Great service, they thought. She then stood to one side and started drinking it. She looked at them, standing at an empty bar with their empty glasses, but said nothing. Strike one.
By the time I arrived it was a bit busier but not rammed by any means. We waited a while to get served, and I asked this same girl for small white wine spritzer using soda in a long glass. I got it in a large wine glass, but couldn't be bothered splitting hairs. It didn't taste too wine-heavy as it turned out, I figured it was a very tame house white number! The next time I clearly said "in a long glass" and watched what she was doing. She took a half pint tumbler, filled it half with ice, took a pre-filled 250ml glass of wine and slopped what looked to me like about a quarter of it into this tumbler, which then needed to be topped up with soda from the middle.
My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw this. When she put it in front of me I asked her whether it had a full 175ml measure in it, to which she replied with a torrent of absolute twaddle! The highlight was: "In the clubs you get cocktails and they do free-pour, a spritzer is like a cocktail so we do free-pour, see?" I told her that this was not a club it was a pub and she was legally obliged to give me the 175ml measure which I had paid for. Spritzers are not sold as cocktails. (If they'd thought about that they would've charged me a hell of a lot more than 2.60 for it!)
She saw I wasn't budging from the bar and got the manager. She asked me what the problem was with my drink and started up with similar excuses to the barmaid but with the added extra of prodding my hand which was on the bar. Twice I told her to stop touching me, and explained that I knew the legality of the situation but she just wouldn't listen. Eventually my friend boomed out "Look, she wasn't given the full measure!". She tipped away the drink and poured me a new one right in front of me. Not other word, and certainly not an apology.
I'm sure this place is fine if you want after-work beers (I would be evil if I didn't admit that their potato wedges were divine!) but for christ's sake keep a stern eye on their measures.
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