Generally "The Warren" in Wokingham is a nice pub. Food is not bad, and they serve beer and cider. So we go there regularly.Apart from the usual insistence on serving draught cider with ice for no apparent reason, things went quite well and we had a nice meal and a few drinks.
But the last round was a bit odd. Somewhat short measures to say the least. The beer had a head that nearly went to the top of the glass at first, but when we had finished paying it has settled and needed topping up.
This in itself is not that unusual. The glasses are pint to rim not pint to line, which is pretty typical these days (shame).
One thing that was odd was that they did not fill the cider glass anywhere near full and that has no head so no excuse. See second picture.
What was really odd was that they initially refused to top up the beer. They refused on the basis that it was a pint to line glass and the line was the top of the CE mark.
What! Never have I heard such twaddle. The staff should be ashamed of themselves. They did, grudgingly, after some argument, top up the beer a bit. I did not even bother asking for a full pint of my cider.
If ever you go there - check your pints...
(not a Weatherspoon's BTW)
This is obviously a new racket going round the pub trade. The (lamentable in every possible way) Talbot in Belgravia has been pulling this stunt since it reopened a few months ago, and at around £4 for (85% of) a pint of Amstel or Strongbow you won't catch me drinking there unless it's a very good friend's leaving do and/or someone else is paying.
ReplyDeleteSadly the only time I've tried to involve trading standards their only interest was in whether the glass is the correct size, which completely misses the point.
So my family reckon you don't have to be so "anal" about it, its close enough, what's the problem.
ReplyDeleteI think we need a campaign to pay only 90% or so of what they ask and see how "anal" the bar staff are about paying the whole of what they asked for...
http://www.food.gov.uk/scotland/regsscotland/regulations/scotlandfoodlawguide/sflgpart13/
ReplyDelete"Section 28 of the 1985 Act makes short weight an offence."
Simples!
Trading Standards may not be interested (although it is their job) but Customs & Excise (or whatever they're called these days) will be, because the pub is collecting Duty for them, and it's done on the volume, so if they're giving a short measure they're collecting more Duty than they're passing on. Witholding money from the Government is not something they have a sense of humour about...
ReplyDeleteCAMRA have been arguing for lined glasses for decades, because rim-measure glasses pretty-much by definition will give short measure.
And if it is a line-measure glass, the stamp will say "to line" so the place you went is definitely taking the piss!
Cheers,
Howard