Anyone else not like Gastropubs?

[WisteriaLodge]

It's probably just me and I'm probably being unreasonable but anyone else not like them? They seem to be everywhere now, they look pleasant enough but they all look the same including the over priced menus, pale blue or grey tongue and groove in the dining/ bar area, I don't know, I just want a real old fashioned 16th century country pub with a roaring fire! There's no point to this post I'm just musing (moaning) but I can't be alone in feeling like this can I? My local pub has just been turned into one with a local 'celebrity' chef turning the menu all fancy. Maybe I'm getting old ha ha!

It really pisses me off, there's another pub which has gone all gastro, it used to pride itself on being a 17th century coaching inn, it even said it was on the swinging sign outside the pub, there's no mention of it at all now it's gone all Hyacinth Bucket. I feel like history is being erased..

If craft pub is the same as gastro pub then I agree!

Where I live the old gastropub (but it had lovely, well cooked food, nice menu etc) has recently rebranded and has a new menu. On the menu are things like stone baked pizzas, chunky chips, skinny fries, fries with a cheese dressing and onion and hot sauce, a burrito bowl (in a beet tortilla!) and various other dishes including wings, sharers, small plates and things like Mac n Cheese and BBQ Ranch chicken.

Me and 2 friends all opted for burgers, I had a normal burger with Stilton, cheese slice and hash brown plus chunky chips. Friends had me other burgers but one skinny and one chunky fries. I could barely eat my burger (just not tasty) and the fries were ok, edible. We got a drink for something like £1 or £2 extra as a deal but one friend who didn’t realise this had to ask and they made a bit of an issue about it!

We all agreed after our first visit (they also had hardly any of the special gins in stock) that we wouldn’t be returning! Luckily there are loads of other venues locally but it was a real disappointment.

I have to add the 'put it on a plate' song!

Is craft pub to do with the beers ?

Totally agree, we have a gastro pub on the corner of our road. We bypass it for what we call 'old man' pub up the road. They do one main and one vegetarian special a day eg shepherds pie, sausage and mash, ham and chips, proper Sunday roast. Mains are around £11 v the £22 burger in the gastro pub that isn't that great. They have huge bookshelves that work as a book swap, a community fridge and do real ale in take away cartons. Love it.

That song is so funny and true!

@GonnaGetGoingReturns
because a nice soft wheat tortilla just wouldn’t appeal to anyone would it ! would be nice to have a choice

That old pub sounds wonderful.....long may it continue!

Not sure to be honest...

@WisteriaLodge I hope it lasts!

At least the UK shortage of plates seems to be over and they have stopped serving food on planks of wood.

But yes, epic levels of piss taking still going on insofar as serving old man pub classic dishes at a massively marked up price and very average wine at £35+ a bottle.

Pet hates, cheese boards that only come with two or three crackers. Same with a hummus starters with only half a toasted pita bread. A baked camembert starter that is actually a mini camembert cheese rather than a normal size cheese but still charging £15 for it. Stinginess when it comes to roast potatoes, they are fucking potatoes, they cost nothing, why have you only given me two while charging over twenty quid for a Sunday roast you right fisted cunts.

@DanseAvecLesLoups
cheese being a hobby of mine - don’t get me started - supermarket rubber does not instantly become good cheese with the addition of a halved fresh fig

@DanseAvecLesLoups
’epic levels of piss taking’

sums it up 😭

Gastro pubs make me cross too

we rarely eat out, really, as it’s so expensive these days (cocktail £10-12, wine £7-9, beer £6, large GT £9 , starter £10-£12, main £18-£28, side bread or olives £5, pudding £8)

I went to a gastropub and decided to be healthy so I ordered a vegan salad, everyone else got burgers. Everyone else got massive burgers with 2 huge slabs of meat, chips and salad, I got a tiny bowl of 5 leaves, a small handful of quinoa and about 7 cubes of veg for just 10% less than they paid. Why are these places always so stingy with the salads? Meat costs WAY more than veg and veg doesn't need to be cooked.

@AriettyHomily ’s old man pub/ community hub sounds perfect to me. I have to say I love a good burger but sometimes you just want to go for a pint and a natter and not be relegated to standing at the bar because you’re not eating.

Wanky prices drive me mad - it looks like they’re giving their food a score. Plate-fuckery seems to be on the way out round here thank goodness.

@orbitalcrisis

yes but did it have the ubiquitous pea shoots chucked over it

I'm tired of 'gourmet burgers' taking up half the menu. If I am going for a sit down meal, I don't want a burger in a bun.

I would never order a vegetable based fish in the U.K., it’s always disappointing

roast aubergine? 3 tiny tough slices

all salads: Leaves from a bag and a tiny amount of something nice, maybe a quarter roast peper and 2 cubes of feta (aka luxury Mediterranean salad for £16)

asparagus? You get 3 if you’re lucky

mushy peas? Smear some on the side of your plate

Dish, not fish 😂😂😂

@HowDoYouOwnDisorder

Not even proper feta - that danish ‘greek style salad cheese’
exploiting vegans and vegetarians basically as there is always only one choice for them

I quite like a good burger, but again when you see them going for £18 or so you just have to admire the audacity of the management. It is not hard or expensive to make a burger, it used to be the cheapest thing on the menu, now it is up there with the pan fried seabass.

Oh, and don't think that your chunky chips being arranged Jenga fashion on the plate means I did not notice there is only nine if the fuckers.

They were all the rage around the millennium and are now out of fashion again (apart from a few good bits which have made it onto supermarket ranges. It may be that I am surrounded by poor ones because I have a gastropub cookbook with amazing recipes but I would never make it to most of the locations without a 4WD

I always tell them that I want everything on a plate when I order.
If they bring it on anything else, including chips in a basket after giving this instruction, then I send it back and tell them to plate it.

@orbitalcrisis My local charged £18 for 3 florets of “spiced” cauliflower in 2 bao buns with 5 chunky chips. I definitely felt ripped off