Details

10 / 10

I cant believe what I have read in the comment posted below ... This is a Traditional pub in all its glory. The beer is fantastic, the service is great, the regulars are friendly. What more could you ask for. The food is also really good and for the price I would say its the best deal in town. They have Karaoke on a Sunday which is great and a quiz night on a Tuesday, so come on down and see what yoy are missing ...... Seriously come and joinus for a beer .... Mine's a Boddies !!

8 / 10

If you want Witherspoons et al go somewhere else. If you want friendly Ye Olde Worlde brit pub, good ale and lunch time food in a warm friendly atmosphere, this is the place. New owner but person has been manager for decades so nothing much has changed, even the old landlady still works at the pub.

Well what the folks have been saying in earlier reviews is quite true.
Tommy and Linda were the driving enthusiasm behind the Roebuck for 20 years and while Iain worked as their manager for a goodly piece of that time he hasn't inherited their work ethic (read lazy)and definitely not their natural chatty warmth and hospitality.
It's a very cold and virtually hostile environment to walk into now since they retired. The bar staff aren't the smiling, chatty, friendly stereotypes one expects.
Miserable and morose is a better description. A couple of them do have an irritating habit of disappearing into the beer garden every few minutes for a smoko, normally just when someone needs serving.
All been there too long, part of the furniture and lacking a good kick in the backsides. It's bit like walking into a government departments office and waiting to be attended to: a bureaucratic frigidity, once served, then ignored, unless one of the bar staff's personal clique.
Little wonder the pub's losing custom to the Malt Shovels, Orange Tree and Brickies. Recent outside decor isn't too bad but funds should have been committed first to refurbishing the lounge toilets for both sexes. Apparently the ladies are in a worse state than the gents, which is hard to believe.
The vaunted beer garden for them that smokes is an over-rated heap, a stretch of canvass and a couple of tables, and open to every naunce of the cold winds and sweeping rains.
A comment was made in one review that the pub's goodwill has started sliding down Victoria Street. I'd venture it has slid all the way down to Kingway by now. Avoid at all costs ! (JBD)

1 / 10

Since T & L have retired and Iain's running the shop you never see him, never has a chat with his customers early doors or evenings. Just plays on the frutie with the barmaid and hardly lets on to his customers.
Barmaids suit themselves what they do and bron won't serve you again if you dont tip her. dotty dot's even worse. angie you have to go and look for when you want serving and alistair is so miserable he looks suicidal and makes customers feel the same way.Like the other review said, barstaff been there so long they do what they want and think they own the place. New paint job on the outside looks gawdy and cheap. Pity they didn't spend some money on the inside decor, or on a full refit of the disgusting ladies toilets. Iain's got the sunday late night karaoke back on which is okay for the after hours drinkers and the drunken monday club. All in all, not a patch on what it was with T & L there. Wear your stab jacket if you go drinking there, so much backstabing. beer gardenis a dump and very drafty and cold even if the gas heater is on.

The pub has lost its old friendly character and atmosphere since Tom and Linda left. Ian's the new landlord now and got no idea how to look after his regulars, that's why he's upsetting so many and losing them. He's never around really after cooking lunches and always seems stressed out and devoid of any sense of humour unless he's making the joke. Daytime barmaid weekdays is forever on the fruitie, half the time with Ian, or out in the beer garden having a smoke and complains like hell if someone walks in and wants serving. No wonder she's always sick and grumpy. Yet another classical example of bar staff being there so long they think they own the place and can do as they like, same as Dot on Monday and Tuesday nights. Very cliquish place. Toilets are worse than a disgrace, my missus won't use them now.