The George, Ilminster

A traditional looking pub situated on the main road through this pleasant village, it consists of one L-shaped room internally as well as a small lean-to conservatory extension, and a pleasant courtyard garden with lots of hanging baskets and so forth. In contrast to the previous review, I found the young barman to be very friendly and helpful, as was the waitress who brought our food. Décor wise it’s fairly traditional, although not quite as quaint as I was anticipating perhaps. It has something of a farmhouse kitchen feel to it, with several of the tables laid up for food, although it certainly didn’t strike me as a gastro-pub. Flooring is predominantly red patterned carpet, with some quarry style tiling around the bar and parquet wooden flooring off to one side. There were plenty of black beams on the ceiling and a small stone fireplace contained a wood burning stove. A piano was in one corner, and there were a number of country scenes on the wall. The menu offered a decent enough selection of “pub grub” dishes, and there were a few specials chalked up on a board above the fireplace. My ham, egg & chips was a decent portion with thick slabs of ham and a couple of well cooked eggs. Across the table, a halloumi and pepper sandwich was also well received. Beers on tap were Rucking Mole and Butcombe, whilst the ciders were Thatcher’s Gold and Thatcher’s haze. All in all, a pretty decent little pub and well worth stopping by.

The pub is well described by Rex, below.  What should be a pleasant pitstop is wholly spoiled by the attitude of the young staff, presumably due to the absence of any grown-up management.  The young barman initially looked down his nose at us, presumably because we had arrived on a motorcycle.  We ordered beer than sat at the only table which didn’t have a ‘reserved’ sign on it, only for a waitress to run out and put one on it.  It should be noted that all tables except one were unoccupied.  The chef came out and asked our names, saying that we couldn’t sit at any of the reserved tables, even though no-one was expected to arrive before we had finished our drinks.  He wasn’t polite about it.  We were told it was OK to sit in the garden, but the door was locked and they were ‘too busy’ to open it.  The other customers were a group of normal men eating and half a dozen ladies whose average age must have been around 100, who were shown straight through to a function room at the back.  Two ales on, Butcombe’s Original and Tribute, in reasonable condition.  We won’t be back.

This pub provided a welcome lunch stop on the long drive down to Cornwall last week. It had the appearance of an old country pub, next door to a very much older Norman (Ithink) church. There is a car park at the rear, which seems a feature of country pubs. As you enter, the room on the right has some modern looking tables and chairs, all laid for diners. The main room has a nice old fireplace, and leads back to another small room with three standard tables and chairs. The inevitable ceiling beams above the bar counter bore the sort of humorous sayings one often sees - "wine improves with age, and the older I get the better I like it". There are some old, mainly black and white, photos on the walls There were a couple of ales on - Pedigree and Brakspear's Bitter. The food was fairly good as well, with main courses (inclding the classic pub grub steak and kidney pudding) at around £9 - £10, with lighter meals at £4.75 - £7.45. I guess that food is the main business at lunchtime, as several tables had reserved signs on them at Friday lunchtime. This is a nice enough pub, and did the job of providing somewhere for a relaxing hour and a half, as well as a couple of decent ales, on our journey west.

Official site of the George - www.thegeorgeilminster.co.uk

Official site of the George - www.thegeorgeilminster.co.uk

Once again I find BobOs review spot on. I may as well cut and paste. Suffice to say nothing spectcular, but OK food wise. The two real ales on my visit were Ringwood Best and Hobgoblin, both from the Marstons stable from whom the pub group which owns the pub sources all the beer. Shame, they could do a lot better with more local brews in an area that is fairly sparse on decent beer pubs and would notch the score up a point or two.

Comfortable country village pub. I called in for a swift pint while passing and received a warm welcome and efficient service. There were a couple of ales on, which were very well kept, but I didn't have time to sample the food which, to be honest, looked OK but with a somewhat boring menu. Above average.