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Detail Pages
Axe & Compass, Leighton Buzzard
Heath & Reach
Postal town: Leighton Buzzard
LU7 0AA
Served areas
Reviews of Axe & Compass (Average Rating: 6½ of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Blackthorn _ left this review about Axe & Compass
A good sized pub on the main road through the village, it consists of a good sized car park with a small accommodation block off of it, a beer garden with good views of the adjacent countryside and a patio area at the rear.
The rear bar is what might be described as the public bar and seemed a popular spot with locals on a recent Tuesday evening visit. The flooring was a mixture of strip wood and some grey, slate like tiles whilst the walls had wood panelling on the lower part and some lime green, floral wallpaper up above. There was a plasma on one wall as well as a pool table, darts board and a small trophy shelf. The lounge bar at the front of the pub had similar décor but with a straw colour carpet on the floor, some black beams on the ceiling and pale lemon paintwork on the walls. There were a few small pictures dotted around such as artistic drawings of food and drink and a few old black and white photos of the locale.
The menu offered a decent looking selection of pub grub dishes, with option such a Ham Egg & Chips, Fish & Chips, Steak and a Stilton Chicken Breast as well as a few burgers, baguettes and homemade pies. Most of the main courses were in the £8 - £9 range. My Chicken Tikka Masala initially looked promising with a generous portion of chicken and sauce on a bed of rice with an accompanying mini naan bread. However, the sauce wasn’t particularly tasty and the chicken had that curious rubbery quality that you sometimes find in cheap Chinese takeaways. The menu listed it at £8.25, but apparently they have a “50% off” deal Mondays to Fridays so it only cost me £4.47 (although eagle eyed readers will note that this is actually only about 46% off) so at these prices it would be churlish to complain. Offering half price food virtually all the time though does of course mean that in reality that’s all it’s worth and one might feel slightly aggrieved at paying the “normal” price on a weekend.
There were a good selection of beers on tap, although it would appear that they were running a beer festival on the occasion of my visit, so it may not always be this extensive. There were three hand pumps on the bar suggesting that this may be the usual number and a further three barrels sat on the end of the bar. A blackboard listed the options as Potton’s Phoenix and Lion IPA, Tring’s Phantom Monk, Vale’s Red Kite, Kite’s Scary Kite and Caledonian’s Autumn Red. The only cider on tap was Strongbow, although these were joined by boxes of Weston’s Country Perry and Family Reserve. Hopefully the latter are permanent fixtures and not part of the beer festival.
On 6th November 2013
- rating: 7
[User has posted 1947 recommendations about 1860 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve of N21 left this review about Axe & Compass
Heath and Reach is a small village near the Chiltern Hills in Bedfordshire, about two miles north of Leighton Buzzard and three miles south of Woburn. It used to boast five pubs back in the day, but the Red Lion has been turned into flats, the Dukes Head into an Indian restaurant and The Cock Horse into a hotel.
The Axe and Compass is one that remains, and is a fairly unremarkable village inn which retains a two room set up either side of a central serving bar.
The larger Public bar is dominated by a central pool table, two large plazmas running music videos, a dart board and several fruit machines and has a well worn feel and seating that has certainly seen some life. There were quite a few locals in on this early Monday evening, which as always a good sign.
It opens out onto a small patio area with seating which seems to be mainly utilised by smokers and beyond this is a decent garden section with kids play area.
The smaller front Lounge / Dining room is smarter and mainly laid to tables for eating. The food menu is honest pub grub fare at reasonable prices and there is a good range of home made pies at around the £7 mark.
Standard drinks offering with the usual chrome pumps. But at least there are three hand pumps although alarmingly for my visit these were dominated by the poor imitation that masquerades as Courage Best and Directors nowadays. Fortunately there does seem to be guest ales from the Concrete Cow microbrewery in Milton Keynes and the Courage Best pump was reverse clipped and a acme style homemade clip in crayon announced the availability of Watling gold, which was a decent pint and probably justified the petrol spent taking the detour from the nearby A5.
So in conclusion, a solid, although largely unremarkable village pub and I would have no problem with it being my local if I lived in the village. But I don’t so I can’t see myself rushing back.
On 26th July 2011
- rating: 6
[User has posted 2109 recommendations about 1991 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about Axe & Compass
Friendly staff, a very nice pint of a local mild (sorry, didn't write the name down), plenty of outside seating and a decent childrens' play area. A pleasant place to stop in one of the oddest-named places in England.
On 9th April 2007
- rating: 7
[User has posted 8086 recommendations about 8086 pubs]
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- Official site of the Axe & Compass, contains menu and event details - www.theaxeandcompass.co.uk
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- CAMRA WhatPub :: Axe & Compass - whatpub.com
Fenny Stratford, 6.36 miles, 2 hr 2 min walk (show)
Bow Brickhill, 6.45 miles, 2 hr 4 min walk (show)
Pub Details
Pub details supplied by members of this site to the best of their knowledge. Please check with pub directly before making a special trip.
- Accommodation : Yes last updated 21 February 2017 by Komakino .
- Bar Billiards : No last updated 21 February 2017 by Komakino .
- Beer Garden : Yes last updated 26 July 2011 by Moby Duck
- Car Park : Yes last updated 21 February 2017 by Komakino .
- Child Friendly : Yes last updated 21 February 2017 by Komakino .
- Darts : Yes last updated 26 July 2011 by Moby Duck
- Function Room : Yes last updated 21 February 2017 by Komakino .
- Hot Food : Yes last updated 29 July 2013 by Dave McNally
- Live TV Sports : Yes last updated 21 February 2017 by Komakino .
- Micropub : No last updated 21 February 2017 by Komakino .
- Pinball : No last updated 21 February 2017 by Komakino .
- Pool Table : Yes last updated 26 July 2011 by Moby Duck
- Real Ale : Yes last updated 26 July 2011 by Moby Duck
