Brewers Fayre family pubs
11-March-2010
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Brewers Fayre family pubs

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It’s nice to go out for an evening meal and a nice pint occasionally.  The local Hungry Horse or sometimes the JD Weatherspoon pub in the town centre would normally be the venue of choice, mainly because they are a known quantity.  With a decent range of beers and pretty good food at a reasonable price you can’t really go wrong; by the way, this is not an advert for either of the above chains!

We were out visiting family one afternoon when the pang for pub grub and a decent pint kicked in, but alas the Hungry Horse was full to capacity and not being capable of waiting for a whole hour we decided to try the Brewers Fayre place up the road.  I have vague memories of having been in one of these before and the food was okay.

Whilst it wasn’t a meal to write home about last time, it was acceptable.  I really can’t say the same about this visit to a Brewers Fayre pub though and the only reason I cleaned my plate was because I was absolutely famished!

The Charter, Brewers Fayre pub - Ayelsbury

There were six of us on this occasion, four adults and two children.  It has to be said that the Brewers Fayre is good for kids, because they sometimes have quite cool play areas for them; keeps them amused whilst the adults get on with ordering food etc. Also, I don’t think I can fault how quick the service was as our meal was brought to us in around 20 minutes.

Brewers Fayre are just a little bit more expensive than the other places we go to, so naturally we expected the quality of the meal to be a little bit better as well.  How wrong was that assumption?

I ordered a 10oz Rump Steak with chips, peas and mushrooms.  All was well except for the steak which looked like at least 5oz had gone missing between the kitchens and our table; maybe the waiter was a bit hungry that day – who knows?

Also, I had ordered it cooked medium-rare, so I would have expected a fair amount of pink on the meat.  However, there was very little pink anywhere and if I had been asked, I would have said it was definitely a medium, possibly medium to well done.

One of the kids had a combo platter thing which had a bit of everything on it including some carrots.  Oh, by the way – they forgot to put the tomatoes on which should have come with the dish and had to be reminded.  Anyway, the little girl in question is a bit of a rarity, because she normally eats all her vegetables without being prompted.

She is a slow eater and can be picky sometimes, but vegetables aren’t a problem so we were surprised when she refused to eat the carrots.  Her mum tried a couple of them to see what the problem was and pulled a face of disgust.  Apparently they tasted as though they had been boiled in the dishwasher or something.  They definitely didn’t taste like lovely healthy carrots.

Out of six meals costing somewhere around fifty pounds, I think only two of our party actually found their meals acceptable.  This isn’t exactly an overwhelming vote of confidence in my opinion, so I seriously doubt that we will ever go back to another Brewers Fayre and definitely not this particular one!

Oh, and one last thing.  How can this chain of pubs get away with being called “Brewers Fayre”?  Surely that implies that there may be some connection with brewing and maybe a few real ales?  I’ve been to two Brewers Fayre pubs now and haven’t found anything other than the usual piped garbage and certainly no proper beer.  Sorry, we don’t really count John Smiths and Boddingtons as proper beer!


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PS-Sorry for the previous spelling mistake.This is typical of the could'nt care less attitude of these establishments.
*Clarnicomintcream  27-Jan-2010 17:21

 
Mad Max-Well done for standing up for your rights.Send the food back and complain.Unfortunately,this is typical of rip-off Britain.This is the typical of the could'nt care less attitude of these establishments.They take advantage of the British complacency in the fact that we as a nation just tend to put up with it and not complain.Bland food,lousy service,and overpriced measly portions.If more people complained in this country then these greasy spoons and rip off restaurants will soon lose buisness.Don't put up with it!
*Clarnicomintcream  27-Jan-2010 17:16

 
The Brewers Fayre restaurants are the crappest I have ever been in. The sooner they implement the replacement of these places with the Taybarns All-You-Can-Eat Restaurants the better!!!

Taybarns offers vastly better quality food and you can see it being prepared in front of you by the chefs so you know it is fresh. Also it is much better value- £8.99 getting you unlimited helpings of whatever food you wish for.

Unfortunately there are only 7 restaurants currently in the UK.
*kodkod.84  26-Jan-2010 11:46

 
My family and I made the terrible mistake to eat at the Brewers Fayre- (papermill high wycombe)Our starter although nothing special, was nothing to complain about, however the main was disgusting! Roast Beef dinner for 4. Meal served late, on hot plates ranged from either luke warm or cold. They gave us another dinner in replacement, but replaced it with the medium meal (we paid for extra large) my daughter had one peice of meat on her plate. The second time around the food was luke warm! As for the meat it was full of veins and grissle, and tasted foul like 'off fish' It looked like it had tumours attached to it. My daughter and my father were retching! Everything else was frozed food of what was in my opinion poor quality. We complained and got 3 of the roast dinners refunded. However, we still had an 'after taste' of the foul meat (that we were told was prime meat) in our mouths the very next day. Absoloutly- disgusting!
*Mad Max  26-Jan-2010 10:44

 
Brewers Fayre.Not very fair.Lukewarm chips,half cooked carrots,& coke filled full of ice.Welcome to rip-off Britain.
*Solomon Clarke  05-Sep-2009 23:15

 
We went to the Brewers Fayre at the Portway Inn Andover on Sun 16 Aug. We have been a number of times before and been quite pleased. Today,however, was dreadful. We had the Sunday roast beef. The beef was tough and quite inedible, The 3 pieces of carrot were uncooked, there was just one third of a cabbage leaf and 4 small pieces of bean. The spuds and yorkshire pudding were OK.
We will not go again.
*JR Calder  16-Aug-2009 21:15

 
Brewers Fayre restaurants, no matter how cheap they are stay away if you value your sanity.

No doubt they receive many complaints from what I am reading on the review sites and probably don't care about another one. The service and staff at this rest should all be sacked. We waited over 1 hour for food, even the friends we met who ordered 15 minutes after us got served before us and I had to repeatedly go to the bar to request our initial drinks be served to us, I even offered to carry them myself (as is usual) to save time. The manager was indifferent and could not care less. The coffee when it arrived was cold and like mud, very nasty.

This is the second time we visited these inns the other one was Bankhead Gate Glenrothes Scotland where the food was disgusting to say the least. AT least the manager there did try to rectify the situation though. In future we will NOT be using these establishments and will recommend to all our friends and on the review sites that people stay away. Once they lose trade like little chef did perhaps they might want to serve customers properly and train the staff better.

Drinks are overpriced at £1.40 for a small bottle of coke, food is disgusting, staff have a could not care less attitude and really do not care. Not even worth going for the £9 menu, cheap food but very low quality! In fact one wonders what is in the food if it is that cheap.
*Spike  05-Aug-2009 14:26

 
We also called into a Brewers "not very" Fayre,
The landlord pulled a face when ordering the drinks as we wanted to change a soft drink for a child which was a little off putting.
We orderd the food which was chicken wings for starters and a chicken burger for the main, when the wrong starter came out we explained the problem olny to be told that we ordered the wrong food and no refund or exchange would be given, when we challenged the lanlords behavour we got barred before recieving our mains!!!
*Paul  13-Apr-2009 02:08

 
I have had the good fortune to stay at the Darrington Pontefract a few times and cannot fault the food or service, if you want 5 star then go to a 5 star restaurant, if you want an enjoyable but cheap night out then go to Brewers Fayre...
*tony morris  26-Jan-2009 17:57

 
On 21 feb I took visiting family out for meal at the Orbital, Brewers Fayre, Eastern Way at Cannock. After an hour of waiting for meals ,they eventually arrived ... one was cold, another was dried up and the other was tough as old boots. We did complain and the meals were replaced, as well as a refund offered. The replacement meals were not much better. The staff were apologetic, but as a regular customer I was very disappointed, I had chosen to treat my sister and her husband to a meal after their long journey up from Bracknell. Unfortunately they now have a very poor opinion of Brewers Fayre.
*Olive Rees  15-Jan-2009 12:26

 
chefcraig get a life so you had a job in one of these places . give you a tip get a job at
mcdonalds proper chicken mmmmmmmm lovely
*mr mcdonald  03-Nov-2008 19:17

 
BREWERS FAYRE meals are a rip off our pub serves meals fresh and big not frozen veg
and two for £6.00 never eat in a brewers fayre or a hungry horse load of crap
i'd rather go to mc donalds proper chicken mmmmmmmm lovely
*mr mcdonald  03-Nov-2008 19:14


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