BackThe Bell Inn, Winterbourne Stoke, Salisbury, Wiltshire
Reviews Page
The Bell Inn, Winterbourne Stoke, Salisbury, Wiltshire has been reviewed 14 times and has an overall rating of -4 points out of a possible 70, or -5.72% negative feedback.
| The Bell Inn, Winterbourne Stoke, Salisbury, Wiltshire has Below Average Rating |  |
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| Review Date | Reviewer's Name | Review |
| 10/09/2011 18:28:02 | sally harris |  |
| Review hidden, pending approval.[Report for Removal] | sally harris salisbury wiltshire |
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| 29/12/2010 12:17:10 | Tracy Jones |  |
| THIS PUB IS CHILD FRIENDLY; I have just written a review and wanted to add that my 7year old Son, spent the whole journey home saying how much he loved his visit to this pub. Some previous reviewers said there is not a child menu, however if they had asked or looked more closely at the menu they would have seen; S/P next to numerous meals, this is for Smaller Portion available not just for children, but for all people wanting smaller portions who may not want to just choose from a childs menu, it is a very simple system, but clearly too complicated for some![Report for Removal] | Tracy Jones Glastonbury Somerest |
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| 29/12/2010 11:22:50 | Tracy Jones | |
| I have never written a review before, but felt I really must, having visited this Pub yesterday and many times in the past three years, I was surprised and sad to see some of the previous reviews. I have only ever recieved wonderful service and food from The Bell Inn, so much so my Family in Berkshire area and myself in Somerest have just had our third Christmas family meal there. Our party consisted of 12 people; two children and three disabled family members and I really don't think the staff could have been any more helpful or nice - if they tried. Our food was plentiful, quick and delicious, we had no problems adding orders as we arrived at different times, but recieved it all together despite the Pub being full of other HAPPY CUSTOMERS, who were also eating. Not one meal was wrong or dissapointing for any of our party and we had a really wonderful time there. I have never seen this pub empty other than when it first opens and I have never had ANY reason to complain or heard another customer complain whist visiting this pub. The atmospher is always comfortable and friendly. I would even go as far as to say; the service I have always experienced here is honestly exceptional, they go out of their way to be helpful and accomodating and I cannot thank them all enough! I would imagine people often only write these reviews when they have had a bad experience and the convenient position of this pub on the A303 whould mean there would be many different types of customers visiting; you can't please all of the people all of the time! But every visit I have made was excellent, I will be happy to continue to use this Pub every time I want to meet family and friends halfway and I am certain I will continue to recieve an excellent service, as is the norm. Thank you to all the staff for making our Christmas get together another wonderful experience.x[Report for Removal] | Tracy Jones Glastonbury Somerset |
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| 02/11/2010 11:09:10 | Kim Mitchell |  |
| This has to be the most unfriendly and unwelcoming pub so to say it is child friendly is a complete joke! We stopped at this pub last Sunday as it is about half way between Devon and Kent with my daughter, her partner and my two grandchildren who are 2 1/2 years and 5 months old. The staff were the most miserable, dense and unhelpful people I have ever come across, the seating had more personality than any of them. We ordered our food (two roasts and one lasagne - there are no child friendly options so we had to share our meals with my grandaughter) and when the roast beef dinner arrived it was clearly processed beef (from the supermarket), the roast potatoes tasted like they were yesterday's leftovers, the yorkshire was clearly Aunt Bessie's and the lasagne also looked like a ready meal. That was bad enough but when we asked for some hot water to warm the baby's bottle they flatly refused quoting some environmental health law (surely if there were any rule this would be health and safety and not food safety??). Even chains like Morrison's and Asda's will give you hot water so I think this is utter tosh! When I remonstrated with the chubby chap behind the bar that we had been travelling for quite a while and how were we to feed the baby he said "it's not my problem"!! In the end we had to buy a pot of tea for £1.75 which we then poured into a beer glass in order to heat the milk. Utterly ridiculous. Also the toilets were smelly (both ladies and gents). Needless to say we will never stop here again and would warn anyone else not to use this pub.[Report for Removal] | Kim Mitchell Gravesend Kent |
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| 09/02/2010 21:39:11 | p. chamberlain | |
| WE visited the Bell for Sunday lunch on 07/02/10 with our friends from Somerset, having read the previous reviews we were more than a little concerned as to what we were letting ourselves in for, but we were travelling from Hampshire and it was a good half-way meeting point.We all chose a 3 course meal, the main course being roast beef'or pork and I have to say that both the beef and the pork, as was the rest of our meal nothing less than very good,the waitress was extremely pleasant and efficient.We will not hesitate to use the Bell again. [Report for Removal] | p. chamberlain southampton hampshire |
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| 20/04/2009 16:02:18 | Graham Jones |  |
| As one of the researchers for Pubsulike, I have decided to remove the Family Friendly categorisation for The Bell Inn as the continued bad reviews lead us to believe the pub no longer deserves this accreditation. [Report for Removal] | Graham Jones Cardigan Ceredigion |
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| 20/04/2009 07:30:36 | Kaine Dixon |  |
| Making a stop at what I could recall as being one of the few options for a meal on the return journey from Thruxton to Frome, my wife and I were annoyed by and very disappointed with our visit to the Bell Inn at Winterbourne Stoke.I don't wish simply to replicate earlier reviews, but the almost all of the details of poor service listed so far also occurred to us. I asked the thoroughly miserable young barmaid for two higchairs for our two children (2y 3m & 8m) to be told in a grunt that they didn't have any. I was astonished by her manner and by the reply. We decided that we'd manage as we were all hungry, despite the fact that there was a very limited menu with few options offering any kind of fresh vegetables. Whilst waiting for what turned out to be a below average frozen fish and chip dinner, we discovered that we couldn't get our baby food heated. I also had to change my eldest boy's nappy with him led on the Gent's toilet floor due to no drop-down changing board. Could it be possible to be less family friendly? Upon leaving I glanced around the entrance area for signs of a suggestion box or customer comment book. No sign, though there are lots of certificates, proudly displayed, telling all of their customers how the landlord and landlady are suitably qualified in catering and hospitality. Seriously?! They may have completed the tests and read the odd textbook, but they couldn't miss the point in a more spectacular fashion. I would advise anybody considering this establishment for a break in their journey, to find absolutely anywhere else to eat, as this is a terrible pub.[Report for Removal] | Kaine Dixon Frome Somerset |
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| 29/11/2008 11:02:47 | Billie walker | |
| As a fellow villager i too agree with the comments made and feel the current landlord and his staff have no wish to offer customer service or standards to anyone using their establishment and they are denying the village of what could be a great village and destination pub for all to use.He needs to take the comments given into consideration and learn from them.[Report for Removal] | Billie walker salisbury wiltshire |
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| 16/11/2008 13:58:22 | No Name |  |
| I live in the village and totley agree with how bad the pub is and has been for 6 years or more. I drink there but never eat there.[Report for Removal] | No Name Winterbourne stoke wilts |
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| 08/09/2008 20:55:58 | Neil | |
| I'm surprised that this pub is listed as a family-friendly one. We arrived as a family of five with three children ranging from 5 to 15. I think that it is a shame that I did not find this site to check the pub out before we spent our money. We too were not greeted by a smile by any of the staff or the manager. I can not believe that he can get much if any repeat business, Once eaten never will return. We had three different meals. The first type was two portions of sausage and chips and I can not remember a worse sausage anywhere. The next one was a chicken curry which looked nice but the spices had been added so late in the cooking that all you could taste was the powder. My wife and I had the lamb shanks. The lamb shanks were very nice, so nice that they must have brought in. The rest of the meal was very poor. The chef must have forgotten that mash potatoes should be smooth. These mash potatoes looked more like bashed potatoes. The vegetables were so crudely cut that even the sliced carrots needed to be chopped quite a few times before it could be eaten. I could not recommend this pub to anyone. Now that we have eaten there we think that we would be better off eating anywhere else. Next time I think that we will research or somewhere to eat before we spend our had earned money.[Report for Removal] | Neil Horley Surrey |
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| 12/08/2008 21:35:51 | Emma England | |
| May I first start off by expressing my astonishment at finding this pub on the 'pubulike' section titled 'Pubs, Bars and Inns that welcome Children in Salisbury Wiltshire', this is very far from the truth as I found out today! I must admit we had visited this pub a couple of times before as it was a good half way point for us travelling from Kent to Exeter and as there are no other alternatives for miles and miles, on both occasions the food was only just average and my husband and I had both commented on how miserable the landlord and staff were! Today we decided to stop there again with my 3 year old son and 9 month old baby girl who were both very hungary, there were two young girls working there who I never saw smile once at anyone and both looked extremely unhappy. Firstly I attracted one of the girls attention and asked for a highchair, not a strange request you would think for a pub who advertises ' children welcome', she didn't even stop to talk, just snapped 'we don't have highchairs' as she waltzed past, I then made the cardinal sin of asking for my baby's food to be warmed, I couldn't beleive the reaction of the girls, there was no smile, no apology, no politness in turning down my request, just a firm moody no not allowed and suggested a 9 month old baby have something from the childrens menu, I pointed out she might struggle with chicken and chips!! I then asked to speak to the manager, who for someone who has a business in the hospitality industry seemed to be lacking any customer service skills whatsoever, he went on some mad rant about scolding babies, I asked him politely whether I could heat it myself he said I didn't have the correct training in using a microwave - how odd I didn't realise it was rocket science!! And when I asked him why he had no highchairs, aparently it was becuase it would cost him £200 a year in insurance!! I don't see how a pub who doesn't even have highchairs can be advertised as child friendly. Overall it was the worst customer service I've seen in a long time!![Report for Removal] | Emma England Ashford Kent |
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| 01/07/2008 12:38:05 | Anthony Oliver | |
| Review hidden, pending approval.[Report for Removal] | Anthony Oliver Willesden Green London |
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| 01/07/2008 12:38:05 | Anthony Oliver | |
| I'm surprised that this pub is listed as a family-friendly one. We arrived early evening, with our teenage daughter and a friend of hers to have a meal. It wasn't particularly bsy, but I knew they'd had an incredibly tough day, as it was the day after the Glastonbury festival, and he'd been turning customers away, due to their being nowhere to sit, we were having a friendly chat about it. We ordered the food, then my sister arrived with her kids too, so then she ordered. We'd bought drinks, cokes and lemonades for the kids, but during the meal the kids wanted another drink. We asked if we could have some tap water, to which he obviously wasn't happy about (it's free!!). He poured a couple of half glasses of water. We asked if we could have a jug, as the kids were very thirsty. He said we don't do jugs of water (!!), so we asked if he could at least fill the glasses up. He then went on to point out how he didn't like us to have tap water as he didn't make any money out of it!! The service was so unfriendly. We were as polite as he could have hoped for ... up until then. I ordered a Gourmet Burger, which would have been improved by being replaced by a MacDonalds. My wife had Sausage and Mash, and the sausages were pretty awful. We'd spent over £100 on food and drink. We were nice, the staff were unfriendly, the food was average at best. When I politely pointed out what I thought of his place as we left, he told me he'd been in the business for 20 years. He hasn't learnt much. The Bell Inn is the only alternative to Little Chefs for a long stretch of the A303. Next time I'm using a Little Chef. It's not great, but you know what to expect, and I bet they don't mind serving tap water.[Report for Removal] | Anthony Oliver Willesden Green London |
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| 13/08/2007 14:39:39 | Joe McNair | |
| Service was excellant particularly enjoyed the fine cuisine (compliments to the chef) and the wide and varied choice of fine Real Ales.[Report for Removal] | Joe McNair London London |
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