Sirloin steak The Queen Hotel

Visits to The Queen Hotel are more and more infrequent, each rare occasion is worse than before.

The good staff from when it opened have long gone.  The food is terrible.

The Little Beer Corporation on tap The Queen Hotel #beer #Aldershot pic.twitter.com/FtAOc6Or4f

— Keith Parkins (@keithpp) June 12, 2018

Little Haka The Little Beer Corporation guest craft beer The Queen Hotel #beer #craftbeer #Aldershot pic.twitter.com/bqaH87wc3K

— Keith Parkins (@keithpp) June 12, 2018

I was surprised to find The Little Beer Corporation on tap. Maybe they had surplus beer Wetherspoon picked up on the cheap.

My meal was not good, service terrible, the usual drunks blocking the bar.

Once again I remind myself why I avoid pubs, frequent instead coffee shops and restaurants.

Wetherspoon News (summer 2018) had two bullshit articles.  One from Tim Martin praising LavAzza as quality coffee, the other from head of Camra talking complete bullshit on why pubs are closing (no mention of pubcos).

There are only two places to eat in Aldershot, Caffe Macchiato and Indonesia street food restaurant.

There is nowhere in Aldershot for coffee.

Piss-poor service at J D Wetherspoon

gammon steak, mash and peas

A couple of weeks ago at The Queen Hotel in Aldershot, I had a rump steak. It was excellent.

Last week, gammon steak. It too was good. I asked did it come with anything? I was told no. I was thus annoyed to find it came with two fried eggs, as I would have chosen something else.

Today, at The Queen Hotel, I ordered gammon steak, but this time asked for something else instead of eggs. For example peas or mushrooms.

I sat and waited. From where I was sat I could see a dinner sitting by the kitchen. Why was no one bringing it to a table? Was it mine? Several minutes passed by. A man and a child sat at a nearby table. They had to clear the table. Should I go and ask? Eventually it was brought over having been stood for several minutes. Part of the gammon steak was dried up,  the meal was not hot. I guess I should have rejected it.

Whilst I was eating my dinner, no one cleared the tables, now piled with dirty dishes, empty glasses. I noticed other dinners sat by the kitchen, no one collecting.

No one asked how was my dinner.

The pub was not busy.

Service is not usually bad like this. Something going very wrong.

J D Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin needs to investigate.

Late lunch at The Queen Hotel

rump streak

Rump steak at The Queen Hotel, a J D Wetherspoon pub.

The rump steal was excellent, mash instead of chips.

8 oz rump steak for £3-99, add in half a pint of Ruddles bitter £5-02.

Sharp’s Doom Bar

Sharp’s Doom Bar

The choice of guest ales at The Queen Hotel have over the last few weeks been going down week by week, that it got to the point there was no choice, often would be served London Pride.

Today, porter and stout. In itself unusual as porter and stout long vanished from most pubs.

Sharp’s Doom Bar is from Cornwall, named after a treacherous sand bank. I was put off for life beers from Cornwall, having found them to have a very nasty metallic bitter taste. It was as though arsenic had leached into the water from the tin mines (probably had). Thus it was with some reluctance, and little choice, I ordered Sharp’s Doom Bar. I was pleasantly surprised, and it was a lovely colour.

To eat, gammon and chips, at least that is what it would have been had I not varied my order. Chips are McCain and disgusting. It is possible to order mashed potatoes. I did not want the egg. Was it possible to have peas, maybe a mushroom? Apparently it was. A much more balanced meal, meat, potatoes and vegetables. I even got half a tomato.

Lunch at The Queen Hotel

steak and chips

After a successful opening in April, The Queen Hotel in Aldershot is now rapidly going downhill.

Tuesday steak day, ordered rump steak and chips.

The steak was ok, the solitary mushroom hot, the plate cold and the chips absolutely disgusting.

It beggars belief how any self respecting chef could serve chips that looked disgusting and tasted disgusting. Chips are never very good, but never this disgusting.

Meal comes with a free pint, and usually a reasonable choice of real ales from small breweries. Not today.

The manager who has been there since it opened not there. Not seen for some weeks. Maybe she has left. Maybe that is why it has gone downhill.

• Poor service and food at The Queen Hotel

Poor service and food at The Queen Hotel

rump steak less peas

rump steak with peas

Since it re-opened in April following a £2.3 million refurbishment, the service and food at the Victorian Queen Hotel in Aldershot has been very mixed. Sometimes very good, at other times very poor.

The week it opened, it was chaotic, it then improved, now complacency has set in.

Rump steak can be excellent, it can also be very poor. Usually tough, but tasty. Last week the steak almost cold, the peas cold, the mushroom cold.

I once made the mistake of ordering steak when it was not steak day. A big mistake, you pay a lot more.

Chicken is pretty disgusting.

Burgers usually good.

Gammon steak usually good. Though why no pineapple?

Curry avoid, go to a decent Indian restaurant.

Fish n chips, the fish usually very good, the chips leave much to be desired.

Beer is usually good. I once had to send a beer back. It was changed without a quibble. I opted for a cup of tea.

Today, the service was abysmal, as was the food.

I asked for fish n chips. I was charged the wrong price. When I queried this, I was told only available on Friday. I pointed out available at special price afternoon up until 5pm and it was only 4pm.

The excuse then was I had ordered London Pride and offer only applied to guest beers, and yet, most of the guest beers were not available, and whilst this may be true, I have had London Pride in the past.

Manager intervened, and went through at correct price.

Not the first time this has happened, charging for the free beer. Last time this happened, it was because the beer was over 5.0% alcohol. And yet I had specifically asked was it in the offer. They were going to throw away what had been drawn and serve me a different beer. I pointed out this was ridiculous. A manager intervened, I kept what had originally been drawn.

I have also been charged high price for gammon, when on offer during the afternoon.

The fish was awful. And was not served with peas.

I called over a member of staff, and said it was not edible, and wished to send it back.

Why, what is wrong with it?

Fish taste not good.

Cannot change because you do not like the the taste of the fish.

Then relented when I said I had had fish before.

I said I did not want fish, I would have the rump steak, left over from day before, which was on offer and cheaper than fish n chips.

Waitress had to go away and discover if this was possible.

Yes, it was. I emphasised that I wanted it with peas, peas which should have come with my fish n chips.

Rump steak served with chips, no peas.

I point out, I had asked for peas.

No, cannot have peas.

Then tried to claim I had not ordered peas with my fish n chips. It actually comes with peas.

Then tries to take away my steak and chips.

I said no, bring the peas,

The peas came. They did not taste very nice either.

At no time during my two different attempts at a decent meal, did anyone come over to ask how was the meal.

When my meal was finished, the waitress who had quibbled when I sent the fish n chips back came to clear away my plate. She made no attempt the pick up the peas that had spilled onto the table, or to clean the table.

Building work taking place. Apparently to install new staircase next to existing staircase. A somewhat pointless exercise, but I guess to segregate the hotel.

The Queen Hotel is a Grade II listed building. Should planning permission not be applied for?

The female manager who is usually there, very good and always helpful, not there. On holiday, left? Maybe explains how bad today.

A pretty bad experience.

A couple of hours later, I was feeling sick.

Lorry deliveries in Aldershot

outside The Queen Hotel kegs piled high

Thursday afternoon last week, the footpath outside The Queen Hotel in Aldershot was blocked by beer kegs, that in addition to the blocking of the public highway by A-boards, to which the local council turns a blind eye.

kegs rolled down the street

Kegs were being rolled down the street. At the time The Queen Hotel was full of little kids. Had one of them rushed out of the entrance without looking, and they had no reason to look, there would have been a serious accident and injury had one of these kids been mowed down by a runaway keg. There was no one positioned by the doorway to ensure no one walked out of the pub into the path of a keg.

lorry FJ61 BBX illegally parked

A lorry was illegally parked, for how long I do not know, but probably an hour or more (I observed over half an hour).

Next lorry delivery YB62 XDG

Early this evening, a lorry delivery for Next, the driver thought it was ok to lean on his horn and leave it blaring out continuously. That is until angry local residents and passers by made it abundantly clear that it was an offence to sound a horn from a stationary vehicle and the police would be called. The lorry was trying to drive down Union Street, a pedestrianised street, the back end of the lorry was halfway across the street it had turned in from, causing a major traffic hazard.

In both cases the lorry drivers were at fault and should be fined and ideally lose their licence to drive.

Although the lorry drivers were at fault, there is a wider problem of lorry deliveries and the failure of the local council to have proper policies in place.

Union Street is a pedestrianised street, and yet late afternoon, the barriers are opened up, allowing cars and lorries through making a nuisance in a pedestrianised street.

There has to be a system in place, as is the norm in European cities, where lorries are not allowed to drive to the doorstep, they have an off-loading zone on the periphery and have to deliver by trolley to the door.

We cannot have a system where businesses are allowed to externalise their costs to the rest of society. In this case the noise and nuisance of deliveries and Union Street being smashed to pieces by lorries.

The council needs to implement a policy where the lorries can only deliver an hour before the shops open, and in the evening (but not late at night) after the shops closed. The goods transferred by trolley from lorry or van to the businesses.

Such a system works in Istanbul, there is no reason why it cannot work in Aldershot, other than the ineptitude of the local council.

Union Street, a pedestrianised street with the exception of emergency vehicles, should be closed to vehicular traffic 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The quality of life of those using and residing in the town centre should hold precedence.

The Queen Hotel

The Queen Hotel boarded-up and derelict

The Queen Hotel renovated and re-opened

With Queen Victoria still on the throne, the Army acquired heathland around Aldershot. What had up until then been a quiet village, changed overnight into a Wild West frontier town.

A Grade II listed building, The Queen Hotel is one of the pubs dating from this period. It is the only surviving early Victorian pub.

In the 1970s, sawdust on the floor would have improved the place. In recent years, it has had the reputation of a haunt of prostitutes, rooms for rent by the hour.

Sitting derelict, it was acquired by J D Wetherspoon. They were rumoured to be interested in The Arcade, but such was the public outcry at the destruction of The Arcade, albeit a plastic replica of the original Victorian Arcade, Wetherspoon pulled out. The Arcade now sits boarded-up, most of the small retailers driven out by a greedy property developer.

Today, The Queen Hotel reopened, under the ownership of J D Wetherspoon.

Wetherpoon are to be complimented on the renovation. One of the few decent buildings left standing. But it does not have to be. In Union Street Caffe Macchiato have done an excellent job on their building. It shows what could be done, if there was a council with vision, but instead Aldershot is a town dominated by fast food outlets, large bars for binge drinkers and drunken yobs, gambling joints and tattoo parlours.

Inside, The Queen Hotel is much larger than the original building. It looks completely out of place for Aldershot, more like Windsor or Winchester.

One large dining area, and two smaller dining areas.

The tables are wooden or glass topped. Mine had old postcards of Aldershot beneath the glass. The glass was greasy, no one had bothered to clean the table properly.

There is a large outside seating area, screened off from the street.

Wetherspoon led the way making their pubs non-smoking. It would be great if they led the way making this outside area non-smoking.

Three gambling machines, zombies pushing money in. It is bad enough the zombies in front of the machines in the gambling joints in the town. Wetherspoon should remove these machines.

No widescreen TVs, no music. When are other pubs going to learn?

The food?

Today was steak day. I decided to have scampi and chips. Unlike many of the offers on the menu, it did not come with a free drink.

The scampi and chips was pretty disgusting. Like Morrisons Cafe on a bad day. Morrisons Cafe on a good day, is far better than this. Had I gone to Morrisons, after four o’clock, tea time meal deal, scampi and chips and a tea, a fiver, at The Queen Hotel £6-80 with no free drink.

A long bar, either marble or granite, the staff dressed as though behind the bar of an upmarket hotel.

A large selection of real ales.

I had a tea. Served in a mug. I tried to pour milk out of a jug. As hardly any milk came out, I assumed almost empty, tipped the jug up a bit further, milk poured out, overflowed the mug, and I was left with undrinkable tea.

The toilets were very smart and clean. But when are people going to install hand driers that work? The Dyson hand driers not only are effective but also use less energy.

I was quite surprised The Queen Hotel is still operating as a hotel.

When is free wifi not free wifi? When it is scam to steal personal data to them spam the user.

Shame on Wetherspoon they are are using a third party supplier for wifi, nothing more than a scam to obtain personal data. This is an abuse of their customers by Wetherspoon. Wetherspoon need to get their act together and offer genuine free wifi. If Waitrose can offer free wifi, if the local coffee shops can offer free wifi, then why not Wetherspoon?

Outside, A-boards blocking the highway. These should be removed. Something the local council should get onto.

It is a pity J D Wetherspoon did not acquire The Tumbledown Dick in Farnborough, and renovated it to the standard of The Queen Hotel. Instead, the Rotten Borough of Rushmoor granted planning consent for it to be trashed for a Drive-Thru McDoanld’s. It begs the question, why was the council talking to McDonald’s, not J D Wetherspoon?

• PHOTOS The Queen Hotel

The Queen Hotel

The Queen Hotel, boarded up and derelict

The Queen Hotel, a Victorian pub in Aldershot opposite the eyesore Westgate development, is sitting derelict and boarded up. Earlier in the week it was open.

18 pubs a week are being destroyed, not because of failings by pub landlords or because beer is too expensive, they are closing because greedy zombie pubcos are screwing the pub landlords, driving them out off business, then selling the pub off for redevelopment.

• How zombie pubco Punch is destroying pubs
• McDonald’s criticised by MPs for targeting pubs in the search for new sites
• Greedy pubcos are destroying our pubs
• Residents fear Gwernymynydd pub could be demolished for housing

It would be a tragedy if The Queen Hotel is demolished or even if it was gutted for housing.

It should be listed by the local council as a building of local historic importance, as it meets the criteria. But is it? If it is, it affords a degree of protection as it cannot be demolished, but then why are two pubs in nearby Farnborough, The Ship Inn and The Tumbledown Dick not listed.

• Buildings of Local Historical Importance in Aldershot and Farnborough

The local council lacks a pub protection policy, even though required to have one by national planning policy. A pub protection policy would require the pub to be put on the market as a pub. Though I note there was a For Sale board on the pub which has recently been removed. But for sale as what, a pub or a site with redevelopment potential?

• Last orders? How councils can protect local pubs from closure

The All Party Parliamentary pub group has written to the local council to ask what is their pub protection policy. It will be interesting to see what is their response, in the light they lack one and the council were told they are not required to have one.

• Save the Pub group writes to councils urging greater protection for community pubs under planning rules

The good news: Wetherspoon may have pulled out of trashing The Arcade. Wetherspoon may be the buyer of The Queen Hotel. But this needs to be confirmed.