The Water Rat - Ripon United Kingdom

An ice cold beer, in the sun, with a view of the river... Need I say anymore? Well, yes apparently I do need to say more as there is a minimum number of characters.

On a nice visit to Ripon. A Rat weekend! Last night in the One Eyed Rat pub for a drink today in The River Rat for Sunday Lunch Before lunch we had a nice walk along the Ripon Canal, which is just across the toad from the The River Rat pub which sites on a small river. We booked a table on Saturday for 1pm Sunday in the conservatory. On arrival greeted nicely by a member of waiting staff shown to our seats. We decided to both have the two course carvery. To start was chicken pate with warm bread, a nice good portion. Then followed a carvery meal of blue roast Beef, with all the trimmings. Blue Beef is not everyone's taste but was a different eating experience Should you not like it, then ask the chef to cook it further, don't complain that it's not cooked. Our meal was great plentiful. The conservatory-was light but a tad warm where as the inside was darker with a small bar. Plenty of patrons during our meal. Barely no parking directly outside but a space can be found on the main road. My only point, young staff need training constant reminders. Clean tables with a clean cloth cleaning solution.

Gorgeous riverside pub, clean and quirky, lots of little nooks and crannies, a newly decorated snug, and a conservatory type extension, we drank in a cosy part of the pub watching Bargain Hunt on tv, no idea why, as we wouldn't watch it at home, but it seemed appropriate, and then transferred to the conservatory over-looking the river to eat. I am de-toxing and have a list as long as your arm of food to avoid, so asked at the bar if there was any chance of a salad, as there were none on the menu. No trouble, came the reply, and you REALLY felt it was NO trouble. A fantaticly fresh and crisp salad arrived with Trev's ham and mustard sarnie and a portion of divine chips to share) which he said was delicious. Good old fashioned fayre, served and presented beautifully. We will definately be back next time we visit Ripon.

As im a local and live in Ripon . after me ,my husband son had finished are walk , we decided to have a bit to eat at the water rat, we found a table chairs out side , then my son went to get the drinks, on are table they had a plastic union jack table cloth over the table which was sticky and had ash on it , i went in and asked when they had time would they come out and clean the table, the waitress said yes when they had time. so we sat at the table with are drinks and waited, we waited 25 minutes in that time two waitresses had been outside five times between them to collect dishes and not at any time did they attempt to clean our table or any of the other table's that they had taken dishes of, we decided not to eat there , but i wanted the landlord to know what had happened at his establishment, so i asked if i could have a word with him , he was working behind the bar and made no attempt to come to the other side of the bar for a chat , i told him what had happened and all he said was we were busy i mentioned that they had come out side and cleared away dishes of other tables so why couldnt they of brought a cloth to clean are table as we were planning to eat there , then the waitress that i asked to clean the table said well i didn't know you wanted to eat, i said it shouldn't matter if i was eating or drinking which i was told from the landlord , people that are eating come first . i said your customer service needs looking at, so i said we wouldn't be visiting again, the reply was bye ! which he said in a arrogant manner then the waitress laughed, which i said wasn't very nice, i know this is long winded, but i do feel very strongly about it . The food is lovely there but the customer service really needs to be looked in to ..