"My wife and I had lunch on Sunday. Disconcerting to find a gate half across the car park and with a Private car park notice. Welcome to the Bear on the Barge car park would be friendlier. The front door is shut and we had...to go round the side. There is no indication of this anywhere, however having been before, we knew there was a side entrance in the garden. Very small menu, mainly Greek Souvlakis, some skewer dishes and pizza. We had expected some sort of Sunday roast. It's a pub (or at least, it used to be) but the only beer was lager and only a choice of three at that. After the mains (one lamb and one halloumi skewer, and very tasty they were too), we asked about desserts. We're not doing those Something to do with covid.. How about a coffee. What would we like Filter A blank look. I asked Have you a machine Yes, they had a machine. OK, two cappucinos. Waitress came back ten minutes later to say they had no milk. Add to that we were sitting in an almost empty room on a cold, wet day with the door to the garden permanently open. The place can hold a huge number the large garden is full of tables and there is a big marquee at the side but they don't seem geared to cope. The waitress sympathised and said it was due to covid. Well, yes, but other places have bounced back. She also said they were going to close in September for refurbishment. I think that maybe a complete rethink of their core business would be useful. So no complaints about the food but it was not the pleasant Sunday lunch in a warm pub atmosphere that we had looked forward to."
