The Dolfor Inn

Having arrived at 5pm, we entered the pub on opening to ask if we could have a table for four, the response was, we are fully booked? The pub was completely empty! We were visiting family and are from the south coast where many pubs tend to run tables in shifts of a couple of hours to achieve maximum potential. We found the landlord quite rude with no attempt to ask if we wanted a drink or check to see if there had been any cancellations, or maybe check for late evening bookings, therefore giving us the opportunity to enjoy this lovely looking country pub for an hour or so. We went on to find a lovely welcoming pub in Sarn, where we had a lovely meal.

Beautiful meal on all accounts…four different choices from the menu both for starters and mains. Service was faultless . We declined pudding, not that we ere not tempted but we were fully satisfied with what we had enjoyed. Thank you for a lovely evening in glorious Mid Wales.

We booked the Dolfor Inn for a visit to Newtown. We were asked a time of our arrival. When we got there we found the Inn closed and nobody answering the door. After 10 mins waiting in the rain and cold wind and a couple of phone calls, a lady came down to let us in. We were immediately asked what we wanted for dinner that night as we had booked to eat it and then asked what we wanted for breakfast the following morning. A bit strange but there you go! The room looked quite nice but could have done with a good clean. Cobwebs everywhere! Dinner that night was quite nice. We both ordered the Christmas dinner. Shame about the bisto gravy though! There was a large group of ladies having a Christmas party. We noticed there was no effort made by the owners to put crackers or anything Christmassy on the tables for them. We went to sit in the bar after our meal and noticed how dead it was apart from a local and one of the owners. The owner said the locals didn’t drink there. Noticing quite a few houses around the pub and bearing in mind what a secluded area it was, we started to wonder why. The owner went on to tell us of his 23 years working in Spain and all the holidays he was having, and basically how the Dolfor Inn was just a means of topping up his pension pot. He clearly had no regard for any of the locals or anything to do with the Inn other than to make what he could out of it. In the morning we had some bad news and had to leave a day early. We’d booked for 2 nights. We had breakfast which was ok but quite greasy. The owner served it, loudly hacking up from the back of his throat. Not the nicest thing when you’re trying to eat! We told him we’d have to leave early and he said “Oh dear!” We packed and left. We messaged him a couple of days later to see if we could get our 1 night refund but received an email back saying the policy was to give 48 hours notice if you wanted to cancel. This seemed ridiculous as we had already spent the first night there. Such a shame this beautiful old fashioned pub has fallen into the hands of people who don’t care about it. A local Inn is meant to be about local people. You can clearly see that this is trying to be made into a fast money spinner which I doubt will be successful. Such a shame as the building and the locals deserve better than this.I just hope that the next owners keep the nostalgia of this beautiful little Inn and all the locals in mind. After all, it is the locals who keep a business going in the bleak months of winter!