Ye Old Windsor Castle

I was very disappointed with my experience at Ye Olde Windsor Castle. I’ve heard it was under new management so I took the family (of 6) to have something to eat. The bartender took over ten minutes to serve me although there were only two of us waiting at the bar, and the toilets were disgusting.
We had starters (we don’t usually, we had vouchers though so decided to treat ourselves!) of garlic bread — the smallest portion I had ever had at nearly £4 each, and I had the beef burger while the others had fish and chips. The manager came over and asked if we wanted any sauces, allowed one person to speak and then ran off. Ten minutes later while we were well into our food, a waitress came over with one small pot of mayo so we asked her for the other sauces we require.
As I had a young child who is only just being potty trained with me, I took her to the bathroom which was so disgusting, I almost didn’t allow the child to use it. Another member of my party later told me that the men’s toilets had sick all over the urinals — right next to the manager who then ignored the issue and went to chat with customers sitting outside. We did not stay to order dessert, choosing to go home for coffee and cake.
Unfortunately, as with many similar pubs in Leatherhead, I left unhappy with the food and made a mental note to not return.

I ate here with my family on New Year Bank Holiday Monday (so pretty busy). Firstly, it took 30 minutes to have an order taken after we were seated (no drinks offered either!), and then it took AN HOUR for the food to arrive. Needless to say everyone in the restaurant was getting irritated, but there was no apology from the waiting staff in fact, one said here’s your food ‘at last’ in a sadly jokey manner. We had my mentally disabled brother with us, so ordered him a burger without the salad and sauces this was completely ignored by the chef, and made him very tense particularly after having to wait for an hour and a half for food after arriving. The waitress did apologise, but didn’t offer to correct the mistake. The food was also poor, a veggie burger with sweet potato fries, was missing the fries, the salads were under-​dressed, the scampi was broken up, and the mushy peas were dry. To make matters worse, when we went to get the bill (yes we had to go and find it), there were too many drinks on it. Real shame used to like this place, but poor service made it impossible to enjoy our latest visit!

The Windsor is a really lovely local pub, as pub chains go (chef and brewer). Great beer garden and the food isn’t too bad either, although there are far too many choices on the menu to give them any chance of cooking decent food and i suspect microwaves features strongly in the ‘cooking’ but you can’t complain about the price!

I’ve eaten here for a number of years and the food has always been consistently good quality and value for money. Friendly bar staff, good service and a great beer garden in the summer make this a regular destination for me and my family.