Maldon – Rose and Crown Pub (JD Wetherspoon)

As Liam and I were coming back from London we did our usual thing of visiting a pub from the JD Wetherspoon chain which I haven’t visited before. The Rose and Crown, located on the town’s main road of the High Street has the bonus of being a Good Beer Guide listed pub to add to my little collection.

The pub was operated by Punch Taverns until 2013, but was taken over by JD Wetherspoon in 2014 (opening in June 2015 after they had spent £1.6 million on the redevelopment) and they did an extensive amount of archaeological work and they’ve put a lot of that on-line, once again one of the few pub companies that takes the heritage of their venues very seriously. The structural heart of the building is from the sixteenth century, but it was extensively remodelled in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It has been a licensed premises since around the 1780s, although there’s not a vast amount of information I can find about its history over recent decades.

Part of the beer selection, there were a choice of six different ales when I visited, although there were no darker beers. I liked they must have got bored when putting the little jars with colour samples of the beer in front of the taps.

The rest of the bar and advertising that from this week they’re selling 1664 and Poretti, although it’s unlikely I could taste these riveting lagers from each other. Anyway, there’s something for everyone….

A taster of the Midnight Bell beer from Leeds Brewery which I’ve had before a few times, a dark and malty ale which is rather agreeable.

Half a pint of the Copper Cascade from Stewart Brewing, which I haven’t had before, but was clean, malty, refreshing and it had a slight taste of toffee.

The side of the pub and there’s a beer garden at the rear. The staircase to the toilets is quite narrow and relatively steep, I suspect they must have found it quite a challenge to insert that sensitively into the historic building and there are numerous low ceilings dotted around the place that taller customers need to be careful of.

Since this is a JD Wetherspoon venue, I thought I’d see if there were any reviews that would surprise and delight me. The pub is rated towards the higher end of the spectrum for pubs in the chain and I got a positive vibe about the arrangements. It wasn’t spotlessly clean, but the team members were friendly and engaging.

“Used to be good, I do believe it’s a case of which manager is on, my order was taken correctly then on two occasions it’s came out wrong , had to watch my friends eat , 25 mins later mine comes out. I didn’t eat it as i felt awkward and stressed because of service. No refund given, shame”

I wouldn’t have felt awkward….

“the pub not very comfortable Atmospheric should really be sold on to a freeholders that runs a grate pub with brilliant food and can attract the best out of people not the worst catal grid experience roll on new owners good bye nice but dim tim the present owner”

Hmmmm.

“Staff are dreadful. One of them is a complete liar & behaves inappropiateley. Dreadful place.”

I wish people would give more information when they post reviews like this, a bit of drama is always exciting.

“Rubbish beer, rubbish service by surly children. There are far better pubs in Maldon, spend a bit more and enjoy those instead of this place.”

Rubbish beer? Hmmmm.

“I had to take the seal of the source”

I don’t know how some people manage to be so brave.

“Full of men”

Occasionally this happens in any pub….

“Didn’t go there”

Very helpful.

“My partner food had aluminium foil stuck on the bottom of it, do your staff know how dangerous Ingestion of aluminium foil is !!!!!!! Perhaps Tim Martin would like to reply”

Tim Martin didn’t reply and there was a photo of the foil which was an absolutely tiny piece. And it’s not dangerous at all, it’s non-toxic.

Anyway, I digress once again. I liked this pub, it had a sense of history to it, the team members were friendly and the beers were well-kept. We didn’t have a need to eat on this occasion, but the food coming out look well presented and everything felt well managed.