The Dragon Bar in Rother

This is the second time I have visited The George for a drink since it reopened. Both times have been disappointing. The first time, I visited with a group of friends and we ordered Mojitos. I firstly had to wait a significant amount of time to be acknowledged and served, and when I was, the member of the bar staff told me they were out of mint and advised us to go elsewhere as they were short of staff! The second visit, my partner and I ordered a glass of prosecco and a glass of wine. They were both on tap! The woman serving overfilled the Prosecco glass so the drink cascaded down the sides of the glass, and then handed it to me wet. Weatherspoons could do a better job and at a third of the price! It was a very cold evening and we were surprised that the fire in the bar was not lit. However! Along came a member of staff with fire lighting equipment. The table in front of the fire was occupied with a party of people trying to enjoy a chat and drink. The member of staff proceeded to attempt to light the fire. He went away with no fire lit, returned to check on it and disappeared eventually with an unlit fire. This is all such a shame. It's a beautiful building with so much to offer after everything that has happened. But the staff need to pull their socks up to guarantee returning trade.

Bad service! Got our starters before our drinks. Starters were very disappointing. Came here for a treat as we never have time off together as a couple and feel like we have wasted our time and money. Also the ‘still water’ (tap water) smells and tastes disgusting. The mains came and they were cold, flavour was nice though. But over all experience was rubbish. We won’t come again

We popped in for a drink at the newly refurbished George. We live locally and have been here in the past for meals and a wedding, so curious to see it post fire and keen to support. One staff member at the busy bar, struggling to serve customers. I waited a considerable time at the bar. I was not acknowledged and there was no apology for the time waiting. Her colleague returned and served a business man who just rocked up ahead of me. Poor service. Poor communication between staff. We left feeling fed up and went to the Waterworks where we were warmly greeted, met some lovely people and had a good time. Very disappointing experience at The George. The experience felt sexist and the atmosphere pretentious.

Visited the George today for a drink to see what its like after the refurbishment. Found the bar staff rude and unwelcoming. Heard a waiter telling a dinner Hoegaarden is a local ale ?? Very poor also parts of this once fabulous building now look like a cheap harvester restaurant. Terrible will never return. What a shame.

Wine on tap, why ? We were going to the George to eat but we didn’t get that far, bar staff asking us to hunt down the restaurant staff for a table, not great. We had 2 glasses of wine both tasted really acidic with same strange taste. Malbec and Pinot Grigio should not have similar tastes. I think the wine on tap possibly needs a clean.

So his review is for he bar only. I must say we have eaten in the new restaurant before and it was awesome. Great food and service. So Thank you. So why the issue with the bar? Well, I popped in on Saturday night. After waiting at a non busy bar while for some time i was asked what i would like to drink. 'Two gin & tonics, Plymouth gin would be great' I said. A moody man poured the drinks into standard tall glasses, little ice and no garnish. Presented them to me with a tonic bottles on the side and said. "that's £24.50..." Now i have no problem paying for a drink and being charged a premium for it, if the drink is worth it and has been given some love and care. This was like a no effort drink, pub poured and the not worth the price the George are charging. I did complain and the bar man did then find a gin glasses and garnish etc. But not everyone would and it's just not right charging London prices if you can't deliver on the experience. Disappointing.

This is the first time I have been back since it’s reopening following the devastating fire. We had until then and over the years, been frequent visitors. The rebuild/renovation looks like a good job but what on earth have they done to the service and where on earth has all the seating gone in the bar? We came on a Tuesday night. On the surface it looks like they offer some 6 different ales. All of them were off! Asked for peanuts, - “run out”. A fellow guest had to ask not to be served a G&T in a wine glass. We then sat down at our table and upon looking around noticed that all the empty tables still had used glasses and various bits of detritus on them. They we’re still like that, when we left an hour later. And all this in an establishment that was 90% empty! The staff were perfectly pleasant, but I’m not sure they knew what their jobs were and there was quite blatantly no management. The only thing I can think of was that they were getting over a large weekend wedding. Though that is no excuse for what should be the premier hotel in the town. Gordon Ramsay would run rampant in this place !

This is a review of the bar not restaurant. I visited last week with some friends for some drinks. On first impressions the overall refurb is stunning and they really have done the building justice. Unfortunately the customer service, price and experience is nothing like it once was. The bar staff are in extremely creased and casual attire, one of which also blessed us with some very unprofessional small talk and even called one of my friends ‘mate’, appropriate in a pub perhaps but not quite so much what you expect from this establishment. One of my friends ordered a whiskey and the barman asked if he wanted it in a shot glass which was very odd. My other friends ordered cocktails, they were fine and average price but some of the cocktail glasses weren’t even fully filled and none of them had any garnishings whatsoever. I tried to order a Baileys and the barman tried to upsell me a shot instead which again was odd. We all paid separate but I bought a single Baileys and a pint of bitter and it came to £13/14 which I thought was shocking! The outside area where we sat was lovely, although there weren’t any ashtrays out so there were quite a few cigarette butts on the ground and the tables are very close together. I will not be deterred and will be back again to try out the restaurant but I won’t be coming with as higher expectations as I used to have…

Having read the great reviews of The George I was really looking forward to trying it. We went into the bar to order cocktails and we were told that they were between menus and didn’t have many of the ingredients including mint, would you believe,for many of the cocktails on the menu shown to me. I would have thought they would keep gin vodka etc in stock. It may have been a staffing issue or perhaps the management has changed. A real shame.