The Malthouse, Ironbridge

After an afternoon's shopping my daughter and I called in here for a relaxing drink at around 5.00pm today. This was our first visit since Xmas 2008. We entered the pub into what turned out to be the dining area so I turned to go left up some steps into the bar area. A member of staff immediately asked "Are you alright there?" which was a bit surprising as we had only just walked in. I said "I'm just looking for the bar" and she said "It's closed". My daughter said, "Well can we have a drink in here then?" and she said yes, so I walked over to see what real ales they had. While I was looking the member of staff went off to have a word with an old woman with blonde hair, who then snapped at us "We're closed"! I said "Oh". I was astonished as people were still eating and drinking in there and we had just been told we could have a drink. I remarked that there were people drinking outside and she said "We are closed". I asked what time they would open and she said they would not be open for us and told us to leave. Absolutely stunned by the woman's rudeness we went outside and sat down, whereupon a male member of staff came out and told us we had 5 minutes to leave or he would call the police. When I asked why he said it was because we were not fit to be served. I have never been so insulted and treated so disgustingly badly anywhere and would warn any potential visitors of the very weird and severe attitude problem in this pub. Disgraceful.

19 May 2010 23:38