We recently visited the Bear for a family lunch (7 adults) to celebrate my Mother's birthday. We'd been before and enjoyed it, so thought we would go again.
We were shown to the table in the restaurant room, and told on arrival that the ordering system had changed: we would have to order our drinks separately at the bar but they would takea food order. The starters and mains arrived OK, although the 'chunky vegetable soup' was very thin and watery. Others mains were perfectly OK for the money, if not outstanding (paella seemed to go down very well, fish and chips were served with a horrible, watery version of mushy peas).
We wanted a jug of water and were told to ask for that at the bar, too, which involved a wait of about 10 minutes (while my food arrived and went cold). There was just one member of staff on the bar on a busy Saturday lunchtime, and he didn't appear for several minutes while I and two other customers stared at an empty counter.
Then we waited to order desserts. We were offered menus but no-one came to take the order. After 20 minutes we asked at the bar, to be told that dessert orders had to be made at the bar. No-one told us this. As a gesture, the young woman behind the bar said she'd send someone to take the order. After we waited another 15 minutes without service, we gave up and paid. When my Mother complained she was told, 'we don't do birthday celebrations any more'. When does a meal for 7 people become a birthday celebration? We hadn't been looking for anything other than a nice meal.
Overall, a very disappointing experience compared with previous visits. read more