The Stag & Huntsman
Hambleden
70%
Up down pub ranking
| Beer: | Three on offer. Two from Rebellion including their nearly beer IPA and the rather unusual and very well received Triple F brewery's Moondance. Everyone imbibing this said it was excellent. Only downer was the expected £4+ a pint. Someones got to pay for the fancy extension and jazzy garden. |
| Not beer: | £2 a pint for the L & S was criminal however, real coke out of a bottle instead of the powdered pump muck got the thumbs up from Keyboard at a medium price of £2.50 who was expecting the need for a titanium card to pay for it. Don't know the cost of the choccy. |
| Food | Like Jeykll & Hyde, these had a split personality with a bowl of so called "real" chips complete with skins together with a bowl of skinny fries style offerings. Real chips somewhat odd with crispy, very crispy and incinerated examples, but tasty nevertheless. Weird ketchup which made Mr Heinz seem almost saintly. |
| Hashmosphere | Given the somewhat strange back parlour, this stuffed full of what seemed like boardroom tables. With it's white beams, overpowering wallpaper and collection of old furnishings it was detached from the other bar areas and so enabled a full outpouring of the usual hash ribaldry. |
Comments
In the picture postcard village of Hambleden, which has American tourists positively salivating, lies the 19th century Stag & Huntsman situated as it is on the Culden Faw Estate. A hotel/restaurant/pub with a decidedly split personality, it used to be a straight forward village boozer with grub as a bonus. Subject to renovation, extension and, to the purist, ruination, it now features both old & new bits and it is seemingly attempting to appeal to both the traditionalist as well as the modernist. Not sure that this goal has been achieved.