08/10/2026
A small rant from the Landlady…..
❤️ A little word from us here at The Church House Inn…
We’ve recently received some criticism for using AI-generated images to advertise some of our food. So, I thought I’d address it.
Firstly, yes, we sometimes use AI images to help promote our menus and special offers. We’re not trying to hide that, and we’re certainly not trying to deceive anybody.
What some people perhaps don’t appreciate is what actually goes into running a small, independent country pub.
We’re not a big chain with a marketing department, a social media manager, a professional photographer and a team of people creating content.
We’re publicans. We work incredibly long days, often 16 hours a day, seven days a week. We’re behind the bar, in the kitchen, serving customers, cleaning, ordering stock, managing staff, paying bills, dealing with suppliers and doing absolutely everything else that comes with keeping a small business afloat.
And somewhere amongst all of that, we’re supposed to find time to professionally photograph every single dish we produce!
Sometimes, quite frankly, we just don’t have the time. But 9 times out of 10 we do use images of our own food but when AI puts it in to a poster with wording or a message the image changes (see the pinned comment). We WOULD NOT put out an advert for our food that we could not replicate. We WOULD NOT mislead people that way.
So yes, we use technology to help us promote our business. And I make absolutely no apology for that.
What matters to us is the food that actually leaves our kitchen, the quality of our ingredients, the effort our chefs put into preparing it and the experience our customers have when they visit.
An AI-generated picture doesn’t cook your dinner. Our chefs do.
And here’s the thing that really frustrates me…
If you’ve never stepped foot inside our pub, never ordered a meal and never tasted our food, how on earth can you possibly judge its quality?
By all means, come and visit us. Order something from our menu. Enjoy the experience. And if the food doesn’t live up to your expectations, tell us! We will always listen to genuine, constructive feedback from people who have actually experienced what we offer.
But sitting behind a keyboard criticising a small business you’ve never supported, based purely on a promotional image, seems terribly unfair.
Small independent pubs are facing enough challenges without people actively trying to discourage others from visiting them.
We work bloody hard. We care enormously about our pub, our customers and the food we serve. We’re not perfect, and we’ve never claimed to be. But we give this business absolutely everything we’ve got.
So before you criticise a small business, perhaps consider the people behind it, the hours they work and the sacrifices they make just to keep the doors open.
And if you really want to know what our food is like?
Come and try it. Let your taste buds do the judging, rather than your keyboard. 😉
Do you comment on McDonalds posts? I haven’t had a burger that looks like their posters and adverts for about 30 years!!! Or is it just small businesses you like to irritate? Because we aren’t the ones with an £4.5 billion global marketing budget FYI.
To everyone who continues to support us, eat with us, drink with us and champion our little country pub, thank you. You’re the reason we keep doing what we do. ❤️
Much love,
Kristen, Sean and all the team at The Church House Inn ❤️
P.S. Our food is cooked by real chefs, served by real people and enjoyed by real customers. No artificial intelligence required for that bit! 😉
