This is by far the best pub in Bamber Bridge and the whole Preston area! The Withy Arms opened just over 3 years back and was remodelled from the former Top House pub, located centrally on Station Road.

The outside looks perhaps unimpressive painted in grey-I think it personally complements the building-but once inside you will find a welcoming, smart, rustic pub with a snug and main bar area. There is a wood burning stove which adds to the surroundings and is great for the cold winter months and a smart, well stocked bar offering a wide range of beers.

There are 5 real ales that include the specially brewed Withy Arms ale-an impressive, good value session ale at just over £2 a pint!-this is brewed by the amazing Thwaites brewery. Additionally there are great world lagers and bottled beers including Stiegl Austrian lager and Belgian beers-all are good value.

The food is amazing also-excellent roast Sunday lunches, hearty pub classics, lighter lunch time snacks and a range of gastro-pub specials.

There is a small car park and outdoor terraces at the back with small outdoor area at the front of the pub.

The wine list is also excellent with impressive house wines available for £9.99 and a range of quality world wines including reasonably prices champagnes if you are looking for something for celebrating!

I recently had half a rack of ribs with chips and salad from the lighter lunch time snack menu-the food was delicious and I was full-all for £ 4.50!

An outstanding local pub and worth visiting for food even if not travelling specifically to Bamber Bridge. The Withy Arms is a free house and the owners also own the local School Lane club and just over 1 year back opened The Withy Arms Leyland-hopefully they will continue to open more great pubs soon!

The Walton Fox is located in Bamber Bridge next to the Premier Inn Preston South-Craven Drive and directly opposite the Premier Inn Preston South-Cuerden Way however if staying at these hotels and you have a car I would recommend venturing further field if looking for dining options. The Walton Fox is the worse of the on site pubs so if you are looking for a quick drink I would go across the road-ironically that pub is a 2 for £ 10 pub whereas The Walton Fox is part of the Vintage Inn's brand-Mitchell & Butler's Traditional British country pub brand-so should be the better of the 2 options!

The reason for this is mainly due to the fact that, in my opinion, the food served at The Walton Fox is consistently of poor quality and is well over priced.

The food appears to be frozen/microwaved and the waiting staff also seem uninterested and not trained to the expected standard.

It's a shame as the actual pub atmosphere is quite cosy with real log fires offering warmth in the winter months. The bar staff are more friendly but even for drinks only the pub is let down by poorly conditioned real ales-the drinks are also expensive for this type of location.

There is a beer garden which is actually a lovely location for sitting out in the summer months with a beer-the beer garden is only a few hundred feet away from a major roundabout and motorway junction however it is bizarrely relaxing sat outside enjoying a cold beer.

That is about the only time that I would consider joining friends, family or colleagues and certainly not for food-perhaps a quick drink as an exception if chosen by others as a starting point.

On my last visit the immediate seating area around the bar was busy so I chose a table in the near-empty restaurant-it was about 5 pm on a Friday afternoon. Note that the tables were not particularly laid out very formally-just cutlery in a pot and table mats-and there were no reservation signs. A waitress approached me to take my order and I advised that I was just in for a drink-and I had already purchased this from the bar-she promptly requested me to leave the table and take a seat in the bar area!

There are no signs advising that the area is for dining only-I suggest these are put out if this is the case.

Based on my already dim view of the establishment this has put me off even further-the opposite pub offers a better option for a quick drink.

I haven't been to another Vintage Inn's location for over a year but I usually find them good for casual dining and quiet drinks and the Mitchell & Butler's portfolio usually offers a diverse range of eating and drinking options so I hope the management and corporate take note and look to make improvements!

The pub has potential to be a good pub restaurant and I am sure more local people would come if things improved increasing weekend and holiday trade when the hotels are usually quieter with business travellers who automatically just rock up due to the proximity of the pub to the hotels and the fact a lot will be in expenses.

In the meantime there are much better eating and drinking options in the area.