We are returning customers after friends introduced us to this pub previously. This time we returned with family and it all honesty our experience was less than satisfactory. I will start by saying the quality of food was lovely just as it was on previous...visits but unfortunately that’s as far as my praise can stretch at this time.
I had prebooked our table and upon arrival was told ‘your table is over there in the corner’ no one showed us to the table which absolutely is not a problem, but it also meant no one asked us if we required a high chair for my 2 year old so my husband went and found one. It also meant no one took our drinks order until we went to the bar and asked. When the young gentleman did come over we ordered all of our food at the same time as we knew what we wanted - worth mentioning our table was booked at 6pm so at the latest we probably ordered at 6:15 (or no one came to take our drinks orders for a considerable long time). Our drinks arrived a short while afterwards although two were wrong and had to be taken back to the bar to be rectified.
Some time later we got the starters 3 of us had ordered - at this time because we’d been waiting a while we asked for my toddlers meal to be brought out as she was very hungry. I can’t say for sure what time our starters were served, but according to a member of staff it’s not unusual for a 30-40 minute wait after starters for mains. This was communicated to me after I complained at the end. At no point prior to ordering were we told of any wait on food. Also worth mentioning a member of staff asked if everything was ok during our starters and as previously stated as the food was delicious we answered yes.
At this point despite waiting for starters we assumed now these had been served our mains wouldn’t be long, unfortunately we were wrong. Eventually at 7:27 my husband asked how long our mains would be, and decided if they weren’t there by 7:30pm we would leave. After we’d chased up the young gentleman our mains did then arrive - so for some of our party after arriving at 6pm this was their first food, and would have been for my toddler had we not requested it earlier. We then felt we had to rush our meals as my toddler had finished and we were keen to get her home to bed so as to not be a nuisance to anybody else (hence the early booking).
As we were finishing our food my husband asked for the bill and voiced our displeasure but was told a 40 minute wait was usual and he said it would be nice to be informed of that upon ordering. No real apology or gesture of goodwill. I wasn’t happy with this so I went up to pay and asked for my toddlers meal costing £7.50 to be taken off our roughly £136 bill. Again this wasn’t done immediately and I had to argue my point that it wasn’t really acceptable we had to chase staff for our mains. At this point the member of staff who had asked if our starters were ok did say well I did ask if everything was ok which I feel wasn’t really conducive or appropriate as at that point some of my issues hadn’t even happened and we did answer that everything was ok as the food was lovely.
All in all lovely food was spoilt by poor service, my issue wasn’t even really with the wait, it was the complete lack of communication. If we had been warned or even apologised for the wait we could have made the choice to take our custom elsewhere or wait and then that would have been our own decision to blame, however in this instance I feel there was very poor service and no real accountability taken. I hope the owner sees this and takes my praise of the excellent food, but could offer me assurances that if I were to ever return we would receive much better service. I would love to be able to come back and change my recommendation to reflect my previous views.More
