The Bildeston Crown, Ipswich

With the King's Head and its microbrewery now closed, there are now just 2 pubs left in the large village of Bildeston. Whilst we didn't visit the Red Lion, we found this place to be much more of a hotel/restaurant than a pub. Entering through the rear door from the large car park with its adjacent garden, we ventured back to the front of the pub, where we found the public bar one side of the corridor. A more formal dining room was on the other side of the corridor, with the hotel reception desk located just behind both. Adnams Southwold Bitter is a regular ale here. Guests were Adnams Ghost Ship & Mauldon's Mole Trap. Whilst I was deliberating what to have, a couple of gents were also ordering and selected the Mole Trap. I decided to follow suit. Although, the beer was not particularly to my liking. It was around 2:40 on a Sunday afternoon and the two men at the bar were hoping to find something to eat. They had to make do with a bowl of scratchings, as the barmaid adopted a "computer says no" response, as apparently the kitchen had closed at 2pm and wasn't re-opening until 7pm. The look on their faces when 3 Sunday lunches were delivered to the table next to them around 20 minutes later was priceless. If this family had ordered their Sunday lunch before 2pm, they were probably just as peeved with the lengthy wait to receive it, as the two guys who had been refused service. Pretty poor service all round. A gin and a half of Mole Trap was in excess of £9. Whilst the surroundings are nice and the building has been done out to a nice standard, the high prices weren't quite justified and I got the impression that this place is trying to punch well above its weight and is failing to deliver. Stopping its Sunday lunch service by 2pm definitely seems to be an own goal when the pub trade is supposedly trying to recover and attract customers back.

Official site of the Crown Hotel in Bildeston - www.thebildestoncrown.com

Official site of the Crown Hotel in Bildeston - www.thebildestoncrown.com