Crook and Shears Public house in Test Valley

A great night out - 20 of us in the Skittles alley last night with delicious food! Kim, Jess and her staff are doing a terrific job of reinvigorating this local favourite. Keep it up and we look forward to our next visit. Well done! I hear a rumour about a regular Quiz night - excellent!

Lovely hospitality and the food was great, selection of ale was good and location is idyllic

Extremely welcoming helpful staff and dog friendly

Having just visited for a meal do not order the steak unless you like shoe leather and a steak shaped in a square first time I’ve ever seen this done and for over £17 for said steak honestly the worst Ive ever not eaten (asked for a box to take home for my dogs) if you like your teeth do not order rare or any other type, never seen a steak shaped like that apparently it’s a pave steak used for pies and stews!!! Puddings on offer Victoria sponge?? Overall for what should have been a special and saved up for night was a waste of money and a disappointment.

Excellent food cooked to perfection. I had steak pie and my wife had gammon and we both had chocolate fudge cake with custard. The girls that were doing the tables are a credit to you.

What a welcome, warm & friendly....so much so we decided to stay and eat. After a lovely discussion the Chef volunteered some alternatives. So welcoming we're coming back !!

Great local pub under new manager with fab food from Ed the chef! So pleased the pub is now offering great food along with a lovely place to pop in for a drink

Lovely staff and great food by Ed the chef! Pub classics cooked well. So lucky to have this on our door step and will definitely be back!

Cracking Meal tonight under the new ownership! Great value for money and good range of beers. Will definitely be back.

I had the worst experience ever

Reasonable prices, wonderful service, a lovely country fee and they went off menu for my toddler who doesn't like meat.

Our local is now offering an extensive food menu. Beers are plentiful and the vibe is great. We booked a table last night and were so happy to see the pub full and very festive with all the locals.

Really nice atmosphere. Hadn't been for a while but will be going more regularly now.

Best pub in the local area, with incredibly friendly landlords, great service, and good food. Highly recommend over other pubs in area as much cheaper complimented by a great selection of drinks.

We ventured out as a family to The Crook & Sheers under new management for a family supper. Well what a wonderful experience and so fabulous to have a great warming landlord and lady. They went above and beyond from start to finish. I felt it was v much like how old pubs used to be when the landlord spoke and check in on customers. A wonderful little cosy quant thatched pub. Delicious affordable pub grub,great beer too my husband said. Well done to the new landlord and Landlady we will definitely be back. V impressed thank you. L Riley

Friendly Landlords, comfortable atmosphere and very tasty food.

Lovely village pub. Great atmosphere, especially since the new owners have taken over.

Great new owners, great atmosphere. So lovely to have the pub back to how it should be. Can’t wait to come back for a meal, must book though as it’s busy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Great county pub with a really welcoming atmosphere. The beer and food were faultless. Nigel and Judy were attentive and gracious hosts. We will definitely visit again.

We stumbled across this little gem late in the evening travelling home from Devon. The owners were extremely welcoming and the food was wonderful. Will definitely pop in again next time we’re passing.

Lovely friendly pub in a pretty village location. Service was great and made to feel very welcome.

Came with my partner. Had a fab meal, very well cooked. The staff are fantastic. Felt very welcomed and it’s a cozy venue

As cycled by earlier the Crook & Shears looked inviting; it was! A proper traditional village pub with commendable catering. Worth a short deviation off of main roads for a very pleasant meal in comfortable surroundings and a welcoming publican.

Came with family for dinner midweek and it couldn't have been nicer. Generous portions, well cooked food and beautifully presnted. Attentive and friendly staff in a beautiful old building. Will definitely be back.

The food gave me food poisoning, scampi to be exact.

I’m visiting from Essex and staying with friends locally! They always take me somewhere new each time for dinner and being pescatarian the menus are often limited! We chose the crook and shears for the menu as i could choose several dishes, once there we saw what a wonderful little gem this place is, steeped in history and the owner Emma was happy to show us around and explain the history! The food was incredible, I had the smoked haddock with potato gratin and hollandaise, the wine was fab and the place had a great atmosphere! I have already asked my friends to take me there next time to sample the winter menu! Thank you so much Emma and Neil

Such a lovely place, a warm welcome, attentive staff. Emma, her cooking skills are amazing. We had the fish cooked to perfection, she showed us around the 400 year old pub and gave us the history, we asked for. Will for sure go back l¹oved it.

Small, characterful pub run by lovely couple. They were a bit stretched on the day we visited, with just the two of them and a few items off their small menu. However, they couldn’t have been nicer and more helpful to our group, for example by offering a puzzle for the children. With just one in the kitchen, the food was impressively tasty and all ready at the same time. We would return!

Myself and my wite had a wonderful time here friendly landlady and also a great chef. The food was excellent piping hot and cooked to perfection. I have just recently had a stroke and found the premises easy to access. It's also dog friendly Sid enjoyed the garden. Highly recommend it

Absolutely brilliant, lovely village pub and the hosts 3mma and Niel are amazing. Get a pint in and meet the locals.

I found the pub to be welcoming and friendly .Both Emma and Neil could not have been more helpful ,the beer food and the atmospheres could not be any better .I have no idea how Emma managed to cook, serve and look great .Both Neil and Emma are hard working and good at there jobs. My steak was perfect and my wife fish and chips where top class

A great local pub with really friendly service.

Although it was a Thursday evening there was no food, the reason for our visit. My beer was served out of a can, which was a first in a pub. The "landlady" wasn't interested in engaging in any conversation, we drank up and left. The redecoration in the pub is really good, I was hoping for a better experience, and we got it in the next village.

Shame the chilli was lacking in chilli

Yummy food, great atmosphere and the landlady is an absolute gem ❤️❤️❤️

Haven’t been to this pub in years but the new owner has redecorated it very tastefully, the food was delicious and so was the glass of Shiraz I had to go with it. Would definitely recommend this lovely country pub.

Went here for a work do. Food was good, we had the skittle alley and beer garden pretty much to ourselves as it was a Thursday evening. We had a lovely time and will be going back for sure

We stumbled upon this lovely little pub quite by accident, thanks to Google! I was looking for somewhere not far off the main road to meet a friend, and this came up. The description of a "thatched pub" sealed it for me, and oh! I'm so happy we came here! The village looks like something straight out of a tourism brochure: thatched roofs, narrow lanes, history everywhere you turn... it is just beautiful. And the pub itself: slanted ceilings, huge old fireplace, dark beams, even a friendly pub dog! Neil, the landlord was very welcoming, as was the young lady behind the bar (didn't catch her name). Oh, and a lovely, quiet beer garden out back. Would definitely recommend this pub, and I look forward to stopping here again on a future trip back to the UK!

Headed here while driving back to London from a holiday in Cornwall. The food was fab, lovely back garden and the owners were so friendly and jovial. We had a lovely time playing a game of chess as well!

After having driven past The Crook And Shears in the pretty village of Upper Clatford many times, we finally had lunch there yesterday and it was a very pleasant experience. This thatched pub is beautiful, both inside and out. It is a traditional small English pub, low ceilings with beams and the bar in the centre. It is tastefully decorated in calm colours while maintaining the charm of the old building. And fresh bouquets flowers on the tables. We had the ham, egg and chips and fillet of haddock with gratin potatoes and poached egg, both dishes were delicious. And they have Doombar on tap, so what’s not to like. This is a small gem of a pub and it has earned itself a place on our list of regular pubs to have lunch or dinner at. Well worth a visit.

Beautiful pub with a large garden with plenty of umbrellas for shade and a very welcoming friendly bar lady

So glad tbis wonderful place our local! Love it!

Really disappointed with the wine choice. Paid £18 for a cheap bottle of wine , which you can buy for £5 in Tesco. Was not what I would expect. Had wine before there and no complaints. Pubs should know what wine they are selling.

Just happened stop here for noon meal. Food and atmosphere were awesome.

Really friendly hosts… great Sunday lunch! Thoroughly enjoyed it

What a lovely pub with lovely Emma and co running it. Booked a table for 11 of us and the dog. Super friendly, super accommodating to our needs and patient! A proper Old fashioned welcome - delicious Sunday roast dinners, puds and drinks .. and snacks for the dog too! We’re so grateful. Highly recommended. thank you - “we’ll be back”!🙏🥰

Lovely beer and food, welcoming landlady and locals. Very nice log fire burning - a truly quintessential English pub for a cold January evening. Will definitely be coming here again.

An amazing country pub with gorgeous food and lovely hosts. Made to feel very welcome and loved the real fires. Just the tonic for two weary travellers on the way back to Devon. Had the steak and ale pie which was delicious and my colleague had the fish and chips again first class. Wish it was my local!

Lovely pub and garden, always very welcoming and dog friendly!

I must say that the atmosphere at this pub was both homely and comfortable. The food, particularly the pork belly, was simply delicious. The steak pie was also good, although it couldn't quite compare to the pork belly. The beer was also excellent. However, there were a couple of drawbacks to my experience. Firstly, I was asked to move to an isolated part of the pub almost immediately after sitting down. Secondly, while I had ordered sweet potato fries, I was served chunky chips instead. Lastly, I found the place to be a bit chilly and wished I had brought a thicker jumper. Despite these minor issues, the pub's excellent food and drinks more than made up for it.

Friendly staff. Embracing the pub atmosphere. Small pub with lots of character.

In early December after looking at reviews for the new owners we thought we would try the Sunday lunch, the pub has had a very much needed make over and was looking very comfy. We were welcomed and shown to our table, I had a pint of real ale and my wife had a glass of wine, both very acceptable, we ordered the Sunday roast of which we choose the Turkey. Our dinners arrived quickly and our plates were very full, the food was delicious, my wife could not finish her plate but I persevered and enjoyed all of it. Whilst waiting to digest the young lady owner came and had a chat with us which we thought was a very nice touch, we wish them success, the Crook and Shears is back

Great country pub, always welcoming, well worth a visit

Awesome traditional pub with a great atmosphere. We went as a group of 18 for an early Christmas do and had the skittle alley room. The landlady managed to cook, serve and kept us in drink, by herself. The food was awesome and I have no idea how she managed it!

We booked the skittles room for a team lunch and we had a great experience. The food was excellent, a great selection of beers and the service perfect

We booked the skittle alley for our works Xmas lunch. Upon arrival we were given a very warm welcome, served our drinks and shown to the Skittle room. There were 18 of us in total and we had pre booked our meals. The food was...

Fabulous dog friendly find, food was incredible and the staff are warm welcoming and super friendly but highly recommend

We had an impromptu visit to this lovely quaint pub having visited Andover and just googled somewhere close to eat - at first we thought there wasn’t any parking but called the pub and found we were allowed to park in the village hall car...

Beautiful and cosy country pub with lovely food and service. Will definitely be back.

Visited on the way to Dorset from Kent, this pub is an absolute gem and the landlady was absolutely wonderful. We ordered a pizza which was one of the best I have eaten

Excellent food, atmosphere, great service and a beautiful pub. Amazing selection of puddings, would recommend!

Lovely country pub! Went for lunch today the food was amazing also the vegetarian option! Nice back ground music and lovely land lady who is also the chef. Would definitely recommend this pub

We stopped off at this lovely pub on our way home to Devon. And what a great find it was! Sunday roast beef was delicious and my fish and chips the best. And all at a very reasonable price. The interiors very cosy on a...

Really friendly, welcoming place with delicious food! We had the Sunday Roast which was spectacular! Dogs allowed, roaring fire and outside tables. Highly recommend

A warm and friendly pub very recommendable very good value for money

What a wonderful pub! The owner was gracious enough to allow us to take photos! This pub was in the town that my Mayflower Descendent, Stephen Hopkins, was born and baptized! The beer was cold and the conversation wonderful! At the time, they were looking for a chef - otherwise, we would've eaten here. I'm sure it would be as wonderful as the rest!

Brilliant thatch roof pub. Friendly new owner, good beer selection and spacious back garden. Great spot for the end of a ride or to break up a road trip.

A lovely typically English village pub. Warm welcome, great company and a lovely atmosphere. Good Luck to the new owners the pub looks great!

Friendly staff and beautifully decorated Inside and outside. Tranquil setting.

Emma has done an amazing refurb of this lovely pub. Will now be visiting often.

Very inviting and would go back 🙂

Good luck to Emma and team Regards Mick

I hadnt been to the Crook for a good few years after having a negative experience. We had heard that the pub was under new ownership and decided to pop in. What a transformation!!! The pub has been given a new lease of life, clean,...

So good to have such friendly staff in a local pub .. Was amazed to see how full it was at 5pm on a Friday … Great atmosphere with the locals .

The new owners of the pub have really spent time to bring a much needed face-lift to the Crook. They are friendly and it is really clean in there.

Gorgeous pub with amazing staff

Gutted. It’s closed down. Used to be a lovely pub

AVOID. AVOID AVOID. Attended for a special family birthday, group of 20 so booked here specifically because it had a skittle alley we could be situated in so sounded all great. Preorder required which is understandable considering size. Booked for 12 o clock.. at 12:03 with all but 2 guests yet to arrive, we were being told that we needed to sit down so starters could start coming out, we explained we were waiting on a couple more and they said they needed to get the starters out now due to other tables.. 3 minutes after we were booked to sit down.. ropey start. I’d like to say that they managed to at least do a good job of the drinks order, but even then I would be lying, someone ordered a coke and a coffee, to which the response was ‘pfft that might take a bit longer’ bamboozled but accepted a longer wait.. well turns out we’re still waiting on that coffee because it never did turn up. Starters arrived and come to think of it, I don’t think this course actually did come with any problems, so top marks there. But, with this rise in form came the ultimate decline. An hour and a half after receiving our starters which we rushed to sit down for due to other tables needing serving.. we finally started seeing mains filter in. Bare in mind it’s a Sunday, and everyone was having a roast and not an array of dishes, this was quite possibly the most shambollic attempt at a main course I will ever encounter. Between the first plate coming out, and the last plate coming out, there was at least 30 minutes between, meaning everyone was eating at completely different times unless you wanted to tuck into a stone cold dinner after staring at it for 30 minutes. This is also ironic, because 5 plates out of the 20 had to go back straight away due to them being handed out cold so god knows how long they had been sat in the kitchen for before hand. Just a complete shambles, and clearly the kitchen couldn’t cope with that many meals, even if it was 20 roasts that featured the same food bar meat so you would assume it’s easier to prepare in bulk. Quality of the roast was far from good either, lamb was more fat than meat.. one long carrot and parsnip per plate and 2 roasties.. great value for £18. Onto desert.. and it doesn’t get any better. Chocolate brownie was listed on the menu, so it was rather surprising when chocolate sponge came out on 4 plates, and then (you won’t believe this) they ran out of the brownies that weren’t brownies (even though we pre ordered) and 2 people recieved chocolate melt in the middle puddings that you can buy in Tesco, that were significantly smaller then what everyone else got, couldn’t quite believe it ourselves and rightfully so they weren’t paid for when it came to paying the bill. So not only did we not have what we ordered on any plate, but we also paid £9 a ‘brownie’ for the privellege. We then had more trouble when trying to sort the bill as they were initially refusing to split the 20 PERSON bill!! They wanted someone to pay the full wack. Comical. To top off the whole experience we’ve just had, this place charges what most would consider premium prices for pub grub.. £9 for starters and deserts, £18 for roasts, for that money you expect high quality food and experience and as you can read above, that’s not what we received. This place is 100% not suitable for catering for as many as 20 people, so if you are considering it for a function then please please please save yourself the money and disappointment that we recieved. 60th birthday meal officially ruined.

I was extremely disappointed by the food and service. The roast lamb with the dinner was a roll of fat and stuffing, very little meat. The veg was two potatoes, half a carrot and a handful of peas, broccoli, curly kale and cauliflower cheese which came out half an hour before our last meal came out. When the meals came out they were cold and even though they were sent back they were still not very warm. We prebooked the menu and discovered the puddings we had chosen were out of stock, they had 4 and 2 substitutes which were disgusting. It looks as though they cannot cope with a party of people but they shouldn't have taken the booking. I was so hungry after leaving there, I had to eat when I got home. Not good value for money at all.

We had a large party booked for 12pm and upon arrival we were told that our starters were ready and we needed to be seated- it was 12.03pm and we hadn’t even ordered drinks yet. The starters were delicious and there were clean plates all...

Lovely little pub old world great beer lovely staff and although we did not eat alot of people did and the food looked and smelt delicious

Small pub with good food, had a little beer garden as well.

We have just been for a Sunday roast and have left feeling very disappointed in the way that we were treated. We were greeted by a lovely waitress who took our order, however when our food arrived my roast turkey was roast pork. Being a...

Excellent village pub with a landlord who knows his ales. Top-notch.

Simple local pub grub. Ordered a Mushroom and Blue cheese burger (and my friend ordered a curry). Both meals really tasty and homemade. Portion size good too. Friendly and helpful lass behind the bar. Easy parking on the road and a nice (busy) atmosphere. Will...

Simple terms, the Crook & Shears is a traditional, non pretentious friendly local pub. The food is good, home cooked traditional fayre, and the service is genuine and friendly. Lovely and cosy in winter with the fires going or summer out in the garden or under the gazebo. We recently had a family gathering in the traditional Skittle alley with food and it was brilliant. Great fun and we were well looked after. Great to hire for a work or family event. Great pub, great team.

Superb quality food, fantastic roast dinner

Lovely local pub. Small but really friendly staff and dog friendly too!

Lovely roast and fantastic gravy. The landlord was extra friendly and gave treats to Berry our dog

Beautiful dinner in a charming local pub, all home cooked and great selection.

Their 'homemade' pies are amazing. Their Sunday roast is also very good. Glad I don't live closer, I'd be twice my size..

Group of 5 of us for Sunday lunch. Disappointing service and meal. Best bit was the beef & lamb meat and nut roast. Green beans inedible and hardly cooked, diced carrot overdone, yorkshire burnt on top, and roast spud so so. Best bit was the...

A really nice olde world pub good food and friendly staff.

Believing that the journey is as important as the destination. We stopped here for lunch to break up our journey from London to Axminster. Absolutely charming pub, good food and friendly staff. Parking out front is very limited but there is a car park just...

Food quality wasn't great for the price my beef was over cooked and tough price for starters where way over priced for frozen whitebait and a bit of lattice and Bidfood tar tar sauce and when asking for the bill I was told the total not given a actual copy of our bill I asked for a break down and it was still unclear drinks total and food total and added service charge that wasn't printed on the menu seems like a only locals only pub to us won't be returning unfortunately as we have just moved into the area

Yes it is a quaint pub situated in a very quaint village.....But the menu was dominated by ‘pub grub’ no kids meals, no salads or ‘lighter bites’ like sandwiches etc. Virtually everything was priced at £13.95. We were served with dry burgers a small handful of overdone chips and some ‘sad looking’ salad. The coke was clearly nearly flat cola! I booked in advance, we were allocated a table in the shade next to the outside toilets. The pub and garden was nearly empty so we moved to a more inviting table. The landlord?was clearly upset by this saying as my guests (who were stuck on the M25)were late, he might have to move us. I note that although there were a a sprinkling of new customers when we left his comments to me were in my opinion of ‘this is a locals pub and we were not welcome! £85 for 4 burgers (one divided for the children) and ham eggs and chips was totally overpriced. Avoid unless you are a local.

Very rude staff. Probly it was even the owner of the pub. Refused to welcome us in because it was just the two of us & saying that they did not have enough food for everyone was very hard to believe to be frank. Pointless...

Its amazing to find a place that does an amazing roast dinner. Its heads and shoulders above the burnt offerings from other establishments.

Brilliant pub, great food and fab landlords. Can't recommend enough! I would share pictures of the amazing Sunday lunch we just had but it's disappeared...

A great pub with a friendly atmosphere and very good food and beer.