County Arms, The Belvedere

We had our wedding at The County Arms and the entire day exceeded our expectations. Clara, Bradley and the team were fantastic both during the planning stages and throughout the day - they made us feel really valued and allowed us to completely relax and enjoy the planning process and, importantly, the day. The food was amazing and, despite the rain, the team kept the day running seamlessly which meant that the atmosphere was so good. We have had rave reviews from all of our guests, amazed by how good a pub wedding could be! We would 100% recommend this as a venue for anyone looking for a fun and low stress wedding option.

I am not often one to spend time to write reviews, but I was extremely disappointed with my experience at The County Arms. This is my new local pub and myself and 11 other friends had a terrible experience yesterday (Sunday 14th July) for the Euro's Final. I booked about 2.5 weeks before the Final to ensure I had a good seat with plenty of space for my friends, once we settled that and eventually people moved from our seats, we thought we could enjoy the rest of the evening... but we were wrong. The TV outside simply was not working. It kept cutting out, the speakers weren't functioning properly and we noticed this from 18:30. Myself and 3 of my friends had to keep notifying staff of this issue but nobody ever came back to us nor sort it. I appreciated they were busy and swamped with customers, so was happy to leave it until KO at 20:00. It still wasn't sorted by then and many people were irate. Then it got worse... The County Arms cannot take responsibility for England's dismal performance on the night, but they can take responsibility for not serving people beer. The bar was absolutely packed and only 4 (extremely overwhelmed) bar staff were working. Food took over an hour and a half and I suspect that had something to do with one of the chefs constantly coming out of the kitchen to join their mates for a cheeky little vape, rather than cooking food as per their job description. Getting service at the bar was taking about 35-40 minutes. Because I didn't want to miss the footy, from about 20:15, I decided to order via the Young's app directly to my table. An hour passes, and still no drinks. In my party of 12 people, there were 4-5 simple orders of 2 pints, for example. We then went in to the bar to see their whereabouts and were told it was around an hour for the drinks... not ideal, but it is what it is. At this point, 2.5 hours have passed and I have still not received my drinks. Nor have my friends. Having worked in hospitality, I appreciate that sometimes things go wrong which are out of your control and the last thing you need are irate and rude customers making you feel rubbish. We were very careful to be empathetic to the situation, but staff really didn't seem to care about it. They were coming over and saying "who ordered 2 Guinness?" Random people on nearby tables were just claiming any drink that was mentioned - how about bar staff use common sense and say "I have 2 pints for table 100 in the name of John", rather than just putting them down on a random table and walking away? Me and my friends estimate that we have lost out on near £100 because of this. Many other people were nipping out to the Londis opposite the pub and buying beers from there because they didn't want to wait over 2 hours for a drink... It was an utter shambles and you've lost out on north of £10,000 due to poor planning. You guys knew you'd be fully booked, so why not plan for this? It is so short-sighted and frankly ridiculous to not ensure you have enough bar staff on and chefs to plan for the demand. The place was also filthy - glasses everywhere on every table inside and the toilets were an absolute mess, but that's more the fault of idiotic patrons than The County Arms. I would not recommend watching live sports at The County Arms because you'll likely be very disappointed. Many people were getting extremely angry and aggressive with the situation and I do not blame them. As this is my new local pub, I have visited a dozen or so times, but doubt me and my friends will be revising any time soon. If you're going to charge nearly £7.50 for a beer and nearly £20 for a dry burger and chips, you need to offer a decent standard of product and service. I hope this review helps other customers make alternative arrangements - I would recommend The Roundhouse up the road.