The Speckled Hen

In total contrast to the lady above, I visited the pub yesterday and have been here on numerous occasions previously, although not since April. When I visited in April I had my small child with me and found there were no highchairs, but baby changing facilities, therefore this time I was more prepared when I brought my child with me. However, when we got into the comfortable seating area it was very quickly apparent that there was an awful smell coming from the baby changing facilities and even worse when a parent came out of there, the smell just leaked into the eating area. I needed to use the facilities to change my child so had to go and ask for a key to use it (it is also a facility for the disabled). When I got in there the smell from the nappy bin was overwhelming, it clearly hadn't been emptied for days and there was no light. It also looked like it was used as storage space. I spoke to the barman and complained at the state of it and the smell and he replied the manager would only empty the bin when the pub was empty, to which I replied it could have been done that morning when the pub was closed as it clearly hadn't been emptied for days! We ended up moving to a different part of the pub because of the smell and then had to wait 35 minutes for sandwiches to be brought to the table because they had taken a large booking (we couldn't see a big party anywhere!), no cutlery was brought to the table, we had to ask for it, in all, our lunch out was a disaster and we won't be visiting the Speckled Hen again. [Oct 11]

09 Oct 11 The Speckled Hen

This is our local. Despite that, we'd not been for several years when we were turned away as we had a child and could eat in the child room or nowhere. But on our last visit, which was an evening visit with many school parents (there must have been about 30 of us), the drinks were affordable and the food was a step up from chain pub food! I'll definitely go back! [Jan 11] 24 Jan 11 The Speckled Hen