On a recent trip home we went to the BT several times. Being a relatively new establishment, the decor is nice. The bathrooms could do with a better clean and maybe some bleach. The food is nice and it has the makings of really being an asset for the community. What is really bad is the truly atrocious customer service. There really is no excuse for the many staff members who really could not care less! Where are the managers and why has this culture been allowed to fester in such as new establishment??
Here is my experience. First night we pop down with relatives. 6 of us in the sports bar. The first person goes up to order the first round. No one there. He waits, he eventually goes to the other bar and is told 'oh, she'll be back in a minute'. So this bartender couldn't take the order of a waiting customer on a fairly slow evening, he couldn't get the drinks from his own bar and bring them through to avoid til issues and he couldn't come into the sports bar and serve the waiting customer there?.OK. So my relative goes back to the Sports bar and waits for the return of the bartender. She appears! HUZZAH! He places his order and she says, no word of a lie.... 'it would be more convenient for me if you went and ordered in the other bar!' Lol, so he did!! Where is Basil Fawlty when you need him! Anyway we didn't stay too much longer and went home.
Next time, about a week later, we took a large group of 17 down to go to the trivia night and eat dinner. I looked up the time for trivia on the internet and when we arrived saw several signs saying 'Thursday, 7pm' When we arrived I asked at the bar 'where is the trivia night held?' I was told 'in the sports bar'. Awesome, in we go and sit down. It's looking pretty quiet. Maybe trivia night is not very popular?? Anyway I went up to the bar and asked and was told ' oh, it's not on this week' Hmmmm. Maybe that should have been in the internet or on any of the signs etc. Ok, well we are there for dinner anyway so we finished our drinks, and moved in to the dining area.
The food was pretty good and arrived in a timely manner. We were a large group so of course it didn't all come out together but that's no big deal. It's not fine dining. The runners/ servers could do with a talking to about customer service. They just don't care and seem pretty frazzled for a fairly straightforward evening. Of course they are going to get slammed during dinner rush but seriously there was no excuse for their truly poor table skills. Even for a pub. Seriously what is the place playing at? Someone (owner/manager) seems confused about what it is. Is it fine dining 'Graziers Steakhouse' Nope. Is it Pub food? Not really, why not do the old rolled up cutlery in the napkin and get people to grab it themselves when they order? Especially when there was no cutlery or napkins on our tables and the runners slammed down loose cutlery on a round bar tray for us to do it ourselves. I went and got the napkins from the kitchen and did 'do it myself'. Also why were the runners bringing out more food and standing at the end of the table where everyone had a meal and yelling across the general din 'who has the t_bone?' etc, rather than go to the end of the table where people are still waiting for their meal? The clearing away was also laughable. Reaching across people from all angles. Does no one here know you serve from the left and clear from the right??? No one? So anyway the service is pretty rough and ready. The BT appears to be trying to masquerade as something it's not, probably to justify the prices they charge. The service should improve, the staff are clearly not being mentored or taught by their managers and that is a shame.
I hope it works out because it could be really great. read more
