The Horse Pond Inn, Castle Cary

A recently renovated historic town pub which has just reopened with a modern flavour, mostly good. Certainly the awful noise from the sound system was marginally less pleasant than the sound of the Devil breaking wind, but as there was almost no-one in to hear it, it probably didn’t matter too much. It competed for air time with the TV screen which was showing trite drivel that apparently counts as comedy in America. There is a main bar at the front, and a smaller bar/dining area at the back. There is also a skittle alley and a very pleasant garden, and there are one or two B&B rooms. Food looked fairly standard, though the prices were high. On entry we waited for 7 minutes until the young barman noticed we were there, at which point he picked up a vacuum cleaner and hid, emerging a while later to explain that he wasn’t used to customers coming in asking for beer. This may be because there wasn’t any - well to be precise there wasn’t any real ale, just 4 embarassed handpumps with clips reversed. There were, to be fair, various keg offerings including Camden IPA, though this was around 25% more expensive than any other beers locallly: the excuse (there were a lot of these) was that as it was a London beer, they have to charge London prices. The beer, when it eventually arrived, was freezing cold and tasted as though it had originated in the eponymous pond (which still exists on the other side of the road). It feels a bit of a waste, having such a poorly run business in such a nice pub, but given the prices and lack of ale I’m not inclined to gallop back for a drink, though I might be tempted to use the B&B.

Official site of The Horse Pond Inn - www.rampubcompany.co.uk