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Detail Pages
Ye Olde Windsor Castle, Leatherhead
Bookham
Postal town: Leatherhead
KT23 3AA
Pub Type
Chef & Brewer (Spirit Pubs)Reviews (Current Rating Average: 5½ of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Graham Coombs left this review about Ye Olde Windsor Castle
A fairly slick Chef and Brewer in an upmarket commuter village, nicely furnished throughout so not a great deal of character. It does manage to keep some ales though, with TEA and 6X alongside the usual GK IPA, and Dorking XPA either just finished or just coming. The 'wait to be seated' sign is still an annoyance. There is a nice garden at the rear.
On 10th June 2022
- rating: 6
[User has posted 3339 recommendations about 3276 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Malden man left this review about Ye Olde Windsor Castle
Not much to add seeing as I appear to have shadowed Moby here, possibly the day after, same three beers on with a fourth unclipped, the Shere Drop was not great, not rejectable but didn't seem to taste as I know this beer should. The "Wait to be Seated" sign as you enter is just an irritation which I ignored, bearing in mind it was Sunday afternoon and a food led type of pub there were not that many in. The older part of the pub could be atmospheric with a bit of effort, the building pre-dates all around by at least 200years. You step up and down as you move around the connected areas, all kinds of seating including some barrel tables and all kinds of flooring. Outdoor seating front and back. The toilets were not great, irritating piped music for some reason and a smashed toilet seat. Service was best described as perfunctory.
One to tick if you need to but there are better options nearby, head the other way from Bookham Station or if walking on the common.
On 11th June 2017
- rating: 5
[User has posted 1708 recommendations about 1681 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Moby Duck left this review about Ye Olde Windsor Castle
A Chef & Brewer pub, so food led. It's quite spacious inside with a number of separate but walk through areas, the pub appears quite old and the wooden beams and uprights give it a reasonably authentic feel. Four handles on the bar provided a choice of Doom Bar, Greene King IPA and thankfully Surrey Hills Shere Drop, It's a Cask Marque accredited pub and as a result my beer was a couple of degrees too cold affecting negatively any flavour the beer may have had. It actually isn't a bad example of this type of pub, but it's not really my kind of thing.
On 11th June 2017
- rating: 5
[User has posted 1872 recommendations about 1845 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve of N21 left this review about Ye Olde Windsor Castle
Ye Olde Windsor Castle pub in Great Bookham, is part of the Chef & Brewer chain and therefore tries to be a traditional pub restaurant, but comes out more like an upmarket harvester, e.g. a comfortable place for a couple of pub meals but no real pub atmosphere..
The previous reviewer has described it pretty well, especially the large one room internal rambling space. It used to be a multi roomed public, lounge set up and the former public bar area which used to be the oldest part of the pub, is now a 'no children' area with a dart board and TV, and then the rest of the internal space is a series of areas mainly aligned for dining.
And the previous reviewer was correct for us, in that we drove to it for use as a restaurant and benefited from the large car park and the standard C&B menu.
No issues with the food and service levels were experienced, but then we were a bit late and arrived when most people were leaving from the lunchtime session, and our two meals came up promptly after ordering.
Four beers available on the assorted hand pumps which were the fairly uninspiring Courage Directors and the ubiquitous Doom Bar but these were complemented by Thwaites Wainwright and a rather excellent local Surry Hills Ranmore Ale. And between us we tried all but the Directors and they were well kept, albeit served a tad cold.
However I did witness a bit of lazy cellar work which is typical of these places. All three beers were on the go when we arrived. But when I went to pay the bill the two Thwaites pumps had “Coming Soon” plaques hung on them. In practice I guess this is a correct statement, but hanging this on a pump when it runs out because you don’t want to change it at that time still strikes me of being a bit “can’t be arsed” attitude.
On 15th April 2013
- rating: 6
[User has posted 2110 recommendations about 1992 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about Ye Olde Windsor Castle
There were four ales on handpump during my visit – Courage Best; Adnam’s Broadside; Spitfire; and Bombardier, with a couple of pumps unused. Only time for a swift half before catching my train: so, Bombardier at £1.65 a half. This is Chef & Brewer pub with the usual pubco style menu, but the prices aren’t excessive – most mains are in the £8 - £9 range. They advertise a weekday (Mon – Sat) lunch menu which seems a lot cheaper – e.g. the steak & ale pie is £6.49. The pub itself is a large rambling affair broken up into separate eating and drinking areas by large exposed brick pillars, archways and the like. The traditional dark brown, or perhaps black, beams are on the ceiling, some prints on the walls, pots and kettles and suchlike hanging from the beams, and the odd (or rather unidentified by yours truly) bit of farm or craft equipment on display completes the décor. Seating is standard tables and chairs. There’s a large garden at the back, with a large heated umbrella for smokers, with picnic benches both at the rear and front of the pub.
It’s got the look of a destination pub that caters for people who drive to it (there’s a large car park) for a reasonably priced pub meal. As chain pubs go, it seems a fairly good one. I would be happy to drop in again for a bite to eat, or a pint, sometime.
On 4th November 2010
- rating: 5
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]