Samuel Smith Brewery Reviews 

As a relatively 'new' businessperson to North Yorkshire, I am truly appalled at the social damage that this disgusting entity seems to be perpetrating. I'm truly amazed at how many decent people have so many negative things to say.

Appalling!

The old duffer who owns these pubs is SO intransigent….he’s prepared to let great premises go to rack and ruin rather than provide what the customers want.

Humphrey:
- It’s 2024. I love talking with people but I also need to earn a living. (To enable me to drink in your pubs!!) Therefore I need premises that allow me to use my devices while I’m out and about. Your *ridiculous* “no device” rule in INSANE! ESPECIALLY as you’re more than happy for people to use their phones to PAY!!!!!

- If I’m on my own in a pub….i want to look at my phone. I also may also want to talk with my partner who I haven’t seen all week because I work away.

- Your policies are divisive, destructive and downright narrow minded and anti-customer. What is it, in your DNA, that makes you so stubborn, intransigent and resistant to change???

- I’m sitting in one of your pubs now…..quietly on my phone while other loudmouths in the pub are shouting the place down?!! How is that fair?

- Your policies are SO out of touch…..at the detriment of your business and your customer. Why are you so bitter???!!!

- Live and let live Humphrey. The way you operate is Stalinist at best!!!

Samuel smith has no care for his staff, flaunts health and safety standards.
Samuel smith and his legal team from wardhadaway solicitors are complicit in covering up dishonesty,data breach and fraud.
We were provided PRIVELAGED INFORMATION in a data breach by Samuel Smith shows clearly in documents both Samuel smith and their solicitors had also been dishonest to the ICO.
consiquenses were LIFE CHANGING.My condition PTSD judge agreed was probably caused by the way I was treated.
He won't take responsibility for failures and puts blame onto staff.

Disgraceful rules. Can't get out your phones or swear? It's a pub! If I wanted to go to a Michelin star restaurant I'd go to one. Were newspapers banned in there back in the 80s too? What a joke. It's 2024

Sam Smiths Best XXXXX BITTER at my local is the cheapest AND best in town....and I live in a town with lots of pubs.

Ate and drank at Windsor castle pub in Victoria.
Really disinterested bar staff, in a like group together with a mate other side of bar. Hard to get their attention. Then ordering food seemingly confused bar person even though it was on menu.
Felt like we were inconvenience to the bar staff.

SAM SMITHS BREWERY you need to get rid of the staff running The Brown Bear Sheffield City Centre they are appalling!!!! Dirty, unwashed hair, lack of personal hygiene and chewing gum not what you need to see when you walk into what used to be a nice traditional old pub (despite the ban on phones and swearing) their lack of knowledge was obvious and the choice of drinks so poor only one of us out of four was able to have a drink. I took my friends visiting from Manchester in there this week (we are all ladies 65 plus) never have I felt so unwelcome and experienced such a hostile environment as I did on this visit. DEFINITELY WONT BE BACK

Business suicide----As if pubs aren't struggling enough , Humphrey Smith then bans phones , swearing, dogs then shuts down pubs over petty and pathetic reasons. Over the years of using these pubs I have enjoyed their unusual and old fashioned atmosphere and their new 4X and dark mild are a quality beer for the money, and I like the fact that he tries to stop swearing and keep a standard of behaviour; but if as reported the brewery is struggling this is directly down to Humphrey's policy of petty closures leaving 120 out of his 200 pubs closed. Nobody wants to work there because there is no job security, it really is quite a sad situation and many good landlords have disappeared. Humphrey wants people to chat to each other in his pubs but you can't do that when they are shut. Basically it is a very poorly run business, which is sad because at one time they were cornerstones of our community. Bye Bye Sam Smiths pubs .

Good luck with finding one of their pubs that's actually open. 7 out of 9 local to me are closed. The reason? They can't get staff, their reputation is that bad.
If you find an open one, their draconian rules, general dirtyness and lack of choice puts you right off.

Samuel Smith pubs used to be good for cheap beers and the beers taste good. Now this isn't the case, they are well over priced and I had better beers for less money elsewhere. a pint of organic wheat beer costs £7.30 pnt, this is ridiculous, it doesn't cost that much to make. Samuel Smith today is well over rated and if they keep this up, people will stop going and they will close. This is pure profiteering at a time where the cost of living, energy bills and interest rates are sky high. Pubs are closing down at a relentless rate because of profiteering.

I worked for them and they never paid me. modern day slavery is well and active here at Swiss Cottage. they dont pay a lot of people and besides one other person, for the past 35 years they have employed only Eastern Europeans .

Went to the Yorkshire gray near Oxford Circus. The pub was empty. The beer was mediocre and I had forgotten about their policy of selling crap own brand everything as I hadn't been in one of their pubs for about 20 years.
After a bad beer I wanted a whiskey .
Almost any pub you go in will have a few single malts. Not here. They tried to tell me their own blend was a single malt. Which it isn't. I thought I'd try a tequila instead but it was disgusting. Undrinkable.

Even the crisps are rubbish. And they were rushing us out the door from 10:30 I don't understand why Sam Smith's are still in business. The business model is a disaster. I hope they go under quickly and allow their pubs to be taken over by people who understand customer service and the idea of giving people what they want. I imagine that if they had pubs in the old Soviet Union they were very much like this.

Pubs are boring. I don't want to play board games.
Wow it's wierd

So we can't use our phones ( we do, I'm writing this from the pub) but now some IDIOT at head office has decided we can no longer take our dogs in the pub, my local has lost an enormous amount of business due to this latest STUPID rule and will now lose me, off to the free house down the road where we are both welcome!!
I am not a number, I am a free man! And that should give you an idea of my age!!

Pitiful beyond belief! Went to Ye Olde Cheddar Cheese on Fleet Street probably the most historic pub in their portfolio. No bar staff around and when one did arrive he was surly. Asked the waitress where steaks were that are pictured on their website and she responded that that’s just for marketing they don’t sell any ! Sat down regardless but after looking at state of glasses and cutlery which might never have been washed - decided to leave before risking our health. Hang your head in shame Sam Smiths - a brewery I loved and respected from my 20’s has become the worst pub I have ever visited. Do not go to Ye Olde Cheddar Cheese !

The Horse and Jockey in Ossett made us very welcome. The locals were very friendly. Our friends travelled from Suffolk to our wedding and were blown away with the friendliness of the pub. Beer was excellent.

Worst ale ever. The pubs are outdated and not a good atmosphere but the ale really takes it. I would put them in the same league as Doom Bar and Abbots... Not fit to be used to clean the pipes out.

Terrible !!! Visited the Viking in Middlesbrough and I think the barmaid was possibly drunk or chemically sedated ! We had to ask for our pints to be topped up as the pint was 75% head ! I cannot see this chain surviving the modern market ! I’m all for conversation but banning mobiles, tablets and laptops in a digital era in a pub chain that does not invest in its pubs !!! Well, I’m off to Wetherspoons as Sam Smiths as a brand is dead !

Samuel Smiths you should be a shamed of your selves allowing the running of Harewood Arms, My wife and I stayed there recently and we were hugely disappointed with the service, rooms and the breakfast was a shear washout for the £90.00 per night charge, and to say its owned by SS its is a real shame, come on SS put your hand in your pocket and spend some money on the place, its drab, bleak, and old building is crying out for some TLC, must say though the best bitter is still fantastic..