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!

There is a little cafe in town run by a lovely man, he’s open late and goes out of his way to a accommodate swaps and additions etc, so hospitable, great atmosphere and bring your own bottle as well 🍷
Not sophisticated at all but great for a bite and a chat with friends
Spicy bean burger salad cheese chips and coleslaw £7.00
cod chips mushy peas tartare lemon Crusty bread £11.00
was told it was fresh cod too not frozen and it looked fab

he told us he has permission for tables and chairs outside for the summer too, so pleased for him, used by locals year round as we are in a holiday town (Poole) so hopefully he will be really busy come summer
point being it’s better food than any so called gastropub locally and half the price

Nothing to add - but I have to agree with everyone. Bloody ‘gastro’

Exactly. I always ask if their pie is a fake pie or real pie. They know the difference.

If it only has a pastry hat it's not a pie!

What I want to know is: how do they wash these wooden boards and skates and tiles and buckets etc? Because I can’t see them fitting in an ordinary ( or catering) dishwasher.I’m afraid that they just get a quick swill around in a bowl at the end of the shift. 🤢

Slates, of course. Though I wouldn’t put it past some of them to put you dinner on a roller skate and deliver it in a ‘novel’ fashion ( I’m looking at you ‘ the Lamb’).

…and why do you never seem to get a comfortable chair, I gave up sitting on benches and stools when I left school . Is it to get rid of you more quickly so they can use the table for another unfortunate?

I like a pub that doesn't serve food.

Keeps the twats out.

The one near us is like reading a road atlas
e.g. Line caught North Sea Haddock with Fife grown Maris Piper chips and a side of organic mushy petit pois from xxxx artesan veg farm down the road.

FFS

@Toddlerteaplease love “lie pie” we went to what would have been described as a boutique hotel (similar to gastropub in terms of food) we weren’t staying, but our friends who were getting married there the next day booked a room for a pre-wedding dinner the night before.

We had to select our menu choices about three weeks before, I am gluten free so was very excited to see a gluten free steak pie as an option. On the evening it arrived and was just a plate with a beef casserole tipped out next to some chips and peas. I could have cried ☹️

I went someone that served me breakfast in a shovel.....

Come to the Black Country. I believe you will find what you are looking for here.

Ooh it really looks like lots of us feel the same, there will hopefully be a movement back towards the Olde English country pub complete with bloke in corner of the bar with dog!

I'd love to but it's a bit too long for me to commute to work! Fingers crossed traditional pubs stay in your area.

I think that's the wankiest thing I've ever heard..

I had been hoping gastropubs had had their day but they seem to be proliferating round here. I was a huge fan of them about 15 years ago; lovely cosy country pubs doing more up market food with better decor, good wine selection and nice loos, used to be a great option for a special occasion/fancy family Sunday lunch.

Current experience is that food v pricey but portion size and quality poor, they are often cold and draughty, what with all the hard surfaces and large open plan spaces, and the chairs are never comfortable and often artfully mismatched which means you in an armchair with your chin on the table whilst your other half wobbles 3 feet higher on an old lab stool.

We took our dog on a different walk a few days ago and popped into a traditional “old man’s” pub that we never usually go to. Dog often an arse in lots of “dog friendly” gastro type pubs but he was a dream in this one. Realised it was because he’d been able to settle himself comfortably on a swirly red carpet in a small warm room with a gentle hubbub of conversation in the background. We stayed for a considerable amount of drinks

Exactly, it's just a pretentious load of bollocks...

That old pub sounds fabulous QueenoftheAngles, I think Gastropubs were something of a novelty a few years back but now I think quite a few people are sick to the back teeth of them, especially when you've lost an old country pub to accommodate this wankfuckery...

Living in east London gone are the days of an east end boozer.

all gastro/hipster. I despise it!

Living in Middle of Nowhere here and our village pub just reopened all gastropub. I feel bad because I feel I should go there as it's a nice young couple running it, but it's so fucking expensive. Tasting menu for Italian Night was £65... you could fly to Italy for that.

I was in one for a Christmas meet up, it was a pub from my childhood that used to just be a boozer, yet is now part of a chain serving food. It is actually genuinely hard in my area to just find what used to be a normal pub not a pub trying to be something else.

Living in east London gone are the days of an east end boozer Same here in Sussex unless you go deep in the Sussex countryside, as in no tourists.

@professionalnomad
every bit of food has to have a backstory and some history doesn’t it ….but I am sceptical as I reckon it’s all from the wholesalers anyway, easy to fabricate a rustic personality for a potato - who is going to check 😭

There is a ‘famous for this area’ chippy in Westbourne called Chez Fred they have a chalk board up where they tell you where each fish has been caught and where the days potatoes have been grown and the variety, and it’s actually informative and not pretentious at all. Just genuine information to read whilst waiting for your order, rather than a load of old boswellox

@WisteriaLodge
thanks for starting the thread I have actually had a good laugh at some of the posts and also, more importantly made me determined to not get ripped off in 2023
happy new year 🥂

Happy New Year to you TwoMonthsOff! I've had a laugh on this thread too.

I meant to add that due to this thread I'm going to support our old country pubs even more