please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Gavin and his old Guitar my friend!
Even a Guiness costs 4.45, I'm beginning to lose interest in this once great pub!
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Who (the bleep) is Gavin - £5 for a good pint of lager is normal!?
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THE ESB was fine, BUT A PINT OF LAGER WOULD SET ME BACK OVER 5 QUID! GAVIN AND HIS GUITAR STILL PLAY HERE!
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I had a pint of Fullers ESB the other day and it cost £4.10 for a beer. I sat at one of the tables towards the far end of the pub and then I left.
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Much better today for some reason! Almost totally empty so thats probably why. The Landlord was enjoying the cricket. The beer is pretty good and they showed plenty of sport on tv!
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Pint of Olivers Island. Amazingly weak beer but drinkable. They do Monday darts nights now but where is the darts board?
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Pub has now opened again. Excellent tasting real ale and the interior is much smarter and brighter than previously. Very good.
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Bank Holiday Monday visit. Really needs improving, surely its time 2 kick the kids out of the pub. I dont think anyone can enjoy their pint with kids screaming away, yes this was the main atmosphere and cheesey music. Scrappy tables and looking tatty.
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I assume Steve is the landlord. Seems like a nice enough chap. Put itself is devoid of much life or anything going on. How can they make pubs more interesting again? Still an ok pub for a Fullers piss up.
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Today I went into the Kings Head (Kings Road) In Guildford and ordered a pint of Fullers ESB. It cost £4.10 and a lady served me who was nice. There are even tables by the window and you can watch people walking by. The place is OK, but not amazing.
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This is Randy Santel (Atlas) With Atlas and Zeus promotion and proud owner of ******. I haven't been to the Kings Head today yet. Will I be going. We'll find out!
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Redhill has been on my list of places to visit. I'll be visiting soon for some epic food/beer challenges *flexes muscles*
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You should be up on a gallows, pal...
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This is Randy Santel (Atlas) With Atlas and Zeus promotion and proud owner of ****** This afternoon I was very very excited as I went to the Kings Head and took on the real ale Challenge!! I had two minutes to drink a pint of ESB Fullers ale. I managed the challenge in 1 minute 23 seconds and win the free t shirt and shall be up on the wall of fame.
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Got served in a half friendly manner! Beers never excite but typical and reasonable Fullers. Too many kids for my liking and a bit messy today. Still better than the Stoke!
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You need to calm down Mr Boffin. This is a fine and relaxing pub with excellent ale. The pint of ESB today was fine. You will get served when you calm down lad.
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Pretty shit today. In fact I walked out. One person behind the bar, lots of customers either hogging the bar or not getting served. Improve customer service at once and this was only at 5pm
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This used to be a nice pub but has gone downhill these days. There are quite a few issues with this pub. First of all, there are a lot of annoying punters, they like to create noise and you may not feel welcome if not a regular. The landlord is a bit of a strange bloke, he could appear more friendly. The pub lacks an atmosphere and feels mundane, while the beer has reasonable quality but is over priced. Also the seating is kind of messy! Only 3/10 given the current state of this place.
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Served a nice bowl of chips within 10 minutes and staff were even kinda friendly! Oh the stoke cannot learn. Annoying punters at times but deserves an 8 or 9
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I did the reasonable thing and came to the Kings Head today. Nothing wrong with kids being in a pub, but when the parents can't control them its a lot of shouting and doesn't make it enjoyable for the other punters. Sadly the pub doesn't do food between 3-5pm so it was a bit of a mixed bag, the ale choice if acceptable but the pub is somewhat miserable, not even any Sky Sports on for example.
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Used to be good, but shit these days they are not competing with the Stoke across the road. Boring beer range, boring interior and seating, very tired and miserable right now.
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This pub isn't very interesting as I think NoDisgrace has pointed out. I am trying to find something interesting to say about it but struggling. At least Gavin and his Guitar find this an interesting pub, he never seems to get bored of it at all.
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A pleasant building with a clean bar-style interior and very well kept beer. The Tilly Hop Troll was moreish and on truly excellent form. Not sure if we were unlucky, but the food was extremely disapppointing - overpriced and badly made, I'm afraid. Worth a visit for the ale though.
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A fine selection of well looked after ales, a covered garden to drink them in and friendly staff make this place a well worth a visit.
Whether it is 'the best pub in Guildford' (their words) is debatable but it is certainly in the top 4.
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Very expensive to drink here and having lived nearby for a couple of years I find it to be a clicky, snobbish & unfriendly pub. The candle and lighting decor make it useful to take someone for dinner. As a local pub, I'm not so sure though. The staff are polite and diligent, it just seems that newcomers aren't really welcome.
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The Kings Head is located outside the centre of Guildford. But it is a nice local pub which is much bigger than it first seems with several separate drinking areas. Live football was showing on my Monday evening visit. I'm not sure whether it's a Fullers pub or not, as they had London Pride, Chiswick & ESB. But they also had Hogsback Tea & Tillingbourne Hop Troll. Nice to see a couple of local guest ales. Nice and cosy pub.
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Thanks for making me log on every time I join you stupid beer website!
Anyway the Kings Head was a pretty good experience on a Thursday evening with friendly service and the ESB beer was in good condition. These days this pub has candles on every table, it makes for a strange atmosphere, but fairly chilled out nontheless. Big TV screens show the football when it is on otherwise it is typical background music.
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This is my favourite pub in town at the moment. Doesn't look much from outside but a fantastic bar serving all sorts of unusual lagers and bitters. The only 'run of the mill' lager is Carling and they have about 6 more on draught from Germany, Czech and Belgium - including Duval on draught !
Great pub with an amazing selection of beers !
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An above acceptable pub but slightly less than as good as before the GASTRO revolution.
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Well I returned to the king's head on a Friday night about a month after my last visit below. Things have certainly improved on the service front. Staff friendly, good beers. Gets a thumbs up.
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Went in with 3 other friends on Monday evening after a customer from the pub I work in recommended it. We went in and were greeted by a fairly sullen bar maid who asked me and my boyfriend for ID. As a barmaid myself I had no problem with this as we are both over 21. My other friends who are 23 and 24 were not asked and we went to sit down in their nice spacious beer garden. We had a good time even ordering more drinks from a man who i assume is the landlord (who didn't ID me). All went well til the end of the evening... a couple of other mates came in to find us and were told the pub was closed. They explained that they didn't want drinks they were just looking for us, at which point the landlord said it was fine and just to go through. He then came outside and began rudely telling us that we were not to come back without ID and that he would definitely of ID'ed my friend to which he rudely pointed. We all went to get our ID out to show him we were all over 18 but he said it was too late and not to bother! I explained that I had already been ID'ed and he seemed shocked and asked me who by. I seriously felt that we were made to feel sincerely unwelcome at this pub as we were young. We were made to feel like we had done something wrong despite the fact that we were all of age and it was his misfailings not to ID us not ours! We were not rowdy, never rude and actually put quite a lot of money behind his pub and his rude lecture at the end has guaranteed that I will never go back to this pub again, which is a shame because me and my boyfriend were planning on getting a meal there. For the over 30's this is a nice pub with a lovely refurb. for the under 30's I wouldn't bother because you will be made to feel unwelcome, whether or not you have ID or not!
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Popped for some post work beers and the football on Friday evening. The refurb has pretty drastically changed the look of the place. Compared to other pubs in Guildford it's ended up somewhere between the Drummond and the Whitehouse. A farily large selection of international beers are now available, including a pretty good range of Belgian beers. Thankfully, the pub is still in the hands of Fullers and so there's plenty of good ales on tap.
Unfortuantely there are evidently teething problems. The majority of the staff working clearly had no experience of working in a pub, aside from a couple of very hardworking supervisors! We ordered food (you have to ask for a menu) which was pretty decent quality when it eventally arrived, unfortunately spread out over about an hour.
I shall be giving it a couple of weeks/months before trying the place again, and hopefully the staff will have found their feet by then as the new King's Head has a lot of potential.
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Visited Monday afternoon this week, good local boozer, beer in good condition, friendly landlord and nice area out the back to sit in the sun, full marks all round.
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Fullers pub....well kept beers...good grub...good old fashioned boozer...top marks
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This is in very man ways an excellent and warm pub. Excellent place to go for the winter as it does feel pretty comfortable. The Pride was on fine form during a recent visit and the place did seem fairly popular with the locals. Staff were efficent, apart from one member! But it is nearly Christmas.
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Good old fashioned boozer with cosy atmosphere. As a habit I always make my first pint Pride in Fuller's pubs, because if they can't get that right....happy to say fine pint, didn't eat but all in all nice visit. Smoking area heated if that's your thing and car-park aswell so rather tempting to leave the car and have another pint! Definately recommend, and will go back to try food. Loads of locals/regulars who were all welcoming not intimidating which was nice. Telly aswell though don't know if they show sport. 8/10
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visited today - ate here and also sampled some of Fullers' finest! Really nice warm atmosphere - the coal fires had been stoked up and made it look and feel even better than it was! Outside area looked great - even in the rain - and the Xmas decs were subtle and non too imposing. Good mixed crowd - and very helpful, polite and friendly team. Want to visit again soon to see how the Quiz Night is and maybe Gavin with his guitar on Dec 19th too!
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Stay in Guildford a couple of nights a week and stumbled into this one (sober when I stumbled in).
Beer is very well kept, good locals, staff friendly with a sense of humour.
Flat screen TV showing sports however the place retains it's tradional pub look and feel.
Good heated smoking area with big umbrellas to keep you dry.
All in all a very comfortable pub with quality Fullers beers.
Oh, nice barmaids :-)
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Fab Fullers pub.
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Anyfing by Fullers is gd value.
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Its pretty gd right now...
Real ales of ESB, Discovery, Pride, Chiswick and Honey Dew - also selection of bottled beers.
ESB not as good as others. 10/10
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What has happened to the beer here? Visited the other night and ESB, Honey Dew and London Pride all did not taste good. Or have Fullers just gone downhill. Not sure its worth drinking the Fullers ale sometimes. This still has a friendly atmosphere and is a good pub and I intend to eat out here fairly soon.
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An enjoyable atmosphere and larger than it appears from the outside so easy enough to hide away in a corner and sample some of the offerings from Fullers.
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Really nice pub with a really bubbley young lady behind the bar, i have to say the steak pie was scrummy and it was so relaxing by the roaring log fire, i will definatley re visit!!
Ria66 - 28 Oct 2008 22:57 |
There are conflicting views here about the King's Head, what I will say is over the years its been a tremendous pub. I am sure the new people in charge are doing their best. Some people really are too quick to judge, give it time my friends.
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Actually "sensible pub reviewer" i am no such lady, i have recently moved back to the area and these "local" pubs in the area are the only ones that i have been back to and found that this one was the only one that i liked, last time i checked this website is for writing reviews and that is what i have done and presume that is the reason you are on it too. and "surrey pub man" you wouldn't know a decent pub if you head butted the bar. I am more than happy to be a or become a local here even tho i am not i felt very welcoming
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So new Barlady and Barman take over at Kings Head. You are the lady in question DiscoBird, interesting how you should dismiss the other 3 most local pubs and put a good review of Kings Head. I'm with SurreyPubMan on this one.
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Thanks for the post DiscoBird, to be honest this place was poor on previous visit, and today well it was not worthwhile either.
It has turned into something of a scruffy locals pub, very much geared towards the middle-aged man. Don't expect to be welcomed here if your not a local!
Very disappointed as this used to be a good pub and sells Fullers beer. Nevermind, perhaps The Royal Oak is better.
Last visit for a while...
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used to drink here a long time ago and have been going back in more and more lately, friendly staff, new landlord & landlady(it was needed)well kept beer and welcoming locals equals great pulling power to me, also food seems to have improved since the last time i was here.
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I'd agree with Jonny. Staff should wake up!
Do you mean Kronunberg 1664? I'm not sure why people would drink this here when there are fine pints of Fullers, lager drinker I expect.
Good to see a pub actually bringing a Dartboard in rather than the reverse.
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Guildfords best pub, selling Guildfords best 1664!
Always a good atmosphere, only negative thing, staff can sometimes be a bit lethargic.
Jon
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Always used to be Guildford's best pub and on a recent tour of some of the town's alehouses, it's still up there. Superior Fuller's pub with a pleasingly rambling interior.
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Still an excellent pub with the usual mixture of Fullers drinks. Now has a dartboard too.
anonymous - 25 Apr 2008 15:14 |
This i would say is the best pub within walking distance of Guildford and far better than most places in the town by a long way.Its clean well looked after beers are limited yes as its a Fullers outlet but well kept,not a place i would take anyone for a meal but would for a drink.
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Hurrah for a �proper� pub � sadly all too rare amidst the numerous circuit pubs/bars that are the Guildford drinking scene. Although a tied pub (therefore few/no guest ales?), the Fullers ales on tap are always more than capably kept and served by the ever approachable staff. Additionally, you get a good mixture of varied regulars and �passers by�. Always worth a visit. Long may this continue.Shame the pool table went in the �recent� refurbishment though (:-)
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We came here to watch the second half of the FA Cup final (19 May). Easily less busy than the Stoke and I sensibly got a round in before the half time whistle, so was served promptly. 2 Magners, a pint of London pride and a vodka coke came to �12.25, so make what you want from that if anything about the prices of drinksWe were in the centre of the pub, so could comfortably see both large TV screens.
Once the (YAWN) match had finished, we sat out in the decent beer garden which was enjoyable soaking up the evening summer sun till just before 7. I would certainly come here again to drink in the beer garden and to watch televised footy.
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I love the Sunday Roast!!!!
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Great pub reasonable for food good if you like Fuller`s ales which are kept very well.
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Still the best pub in Guildford. Took my parents there on Saturday for food and they loved it.
Went there again later on and it was the landlord and landlady's leaving do. They had live music (Gavin and His Guitar?) and the place was packed. I just hope whoever takes it over can keep up the high standards.
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Not a bad place to eat & drink
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BEEN TO THIS PUB ON THREE TIMES FOR LUNCH. THE FOOD IS THE BEST PUB FOOD I HAVE EVER HAD. GREAT ROAST DINNERS. I LOVE LOTS OF GRAVY SO WHEN ASKED FOR EXTRA THEY BROUGHT A HUGE GRAVY BOAT FULL TO THE BRIM. FANTASTIC. YUM YUM
anonymous - 26 May 2006 16:39 |
Really enjoy this pub, probably one of the last 'real' pubs in central Guildford. Lovely terraced garden , great in the summer, and as far as i'm aware is being revamped for this years sunny days....! Always worth a visit, one of my favourites.
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Excellent pub with well kept Fuller's ales. The Chiswick and London Pride are both fantastic. I think they also have a guest ale.
The food is top notch pub grub - e.g. gourmet burgers, homemade chilli con carne - very reasonable prices too. Nice atmosphere too: good mix of people and nicely busy on weeknights. The bar staff are efficient and friendly and the landlady is gorgeous!
There is a big TV but it's not the best place to watch football in. However, if that's what you want you're probably better off in some lager pit anyway.
I would give it 10 out of 10 if they had a no smoking policy.
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Good pub! Reasonably price with pretty good food. Recently been redecorated. Has a nice beer garden with heaters, took the pool table away though...shame.
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Good range of beers, and a big bar. Not enough seating inside so best in the summer. Good Sunday grub as I remember, but a bit studenty/college on a week night. I am sure the lasttime I was there the most asked question was "What did you get in your A Levels" Huh Bothered !
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Gigantic easy access urinals are a plus for the bladdered. Fine selection of tasty miserible git ale including Lion's Pride and the seasonal Morris Dance.
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Not the best pub for watching football in. The view is likely to be rather blocked. Good outside sitting area. Theres very little pressure on buying extra drinks
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You have to be careful with this pub - it has a habit of being quiet! Good beer though as it is a Fuller's pub
Will - 14 Aug 2004 22:34 |
This is a good place. They often serve strawberries and cream in the summer as well, personally i reckon 5pm on a Wednesday is the best time to get a drink here.
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Contrary to Sally's comments I was shocked to discover one of the local lushes engaged in an active petitioning campaign to reinstate the entry of said lushes 4 legged friend into the pub.
Needless to say, dog friendly or not, it remains a great local with the house double whiskeys and mixer tremendous value at only �2.40.
Combine that with their regular weekly pub quiz normally featuring an addled quiz master and you have an interesting opportunity for confusion and bewilderment!
Mortonian - 31 Mar 2004 11:39 |
Superb atmosphere especially when Greg and his pals are singing. Cheerful bar staff, including Ed who will dress up to please the customers (most recently a Tutu - pink!!) and of course there is the Ali G lookalike.
Genuinely friendly local pub where you can take your dog for a pint too.
Good food and beer, very pretty garden. Parking too!
Sally - 1 Feb 2003 11:08 |
This is probably my favourite pub in the world. I spend much of my time here quaffing pints of Guinness with my friends. Some of the regulars are very funny. The Spaniard and Dark Lord can be found there most evenings. Be wary if you meet them as they get quite aggressive after too many beers. At 9pm Super Alan Cooper turns up and everyone sing his name as he walks through the door! Stella Steve, The Area Manager, is a great bloke. He drinks on average 12 pints of Stella a day. He's got quite a cult following in the area!
Greg - 17 Oct 2002 13:27 |
Lovely old fashioned, low cellinged pub with a nice sized beer garden. Serving superb ale and pub grub.
Jenny Borton - 17 May 2002 13:57 |
