We have visited this pub a number of times and have always enjoyed the experience, but I'm afraid today was an exception.
We went along on a Sunday lunchtime to celebrate my fiance's mum's birthday with another friend. We were taken to our table straight away and asked for our drink order by a waitress. The drinks were served promptly and the conversation began to flow. Forty five minutes later, the conversation stalled when we realised how long we'd been waiting to have our food order to be taken. We thought we had to order at the bar maybe, so my fiance enquired at the bar and was told it was table service. A different waitress took our order.
Half an hour later our food was served. The chips served with the scampi meal were nearly cold and the pheasant had been overcooked. We waited twenty minutes for someone to clear our table. A third waitress came to do so and asked how our meals had been. Queue awkward pause before I piped up with the fact that my meal had been OK, followed by silence from my fellow diners. She put the plates back down on the table and sharply asked what was wrong with the rest of it. My company wanted to complain about the relevant problems without creating a scene and felt intimidated with her attitude, so said nothing. She cleared the table saying she'd get the pudding board, but didn't come back.
We flagged down a waiter to get the pudding board. A fair while later someone came to take our order, but after waiting a further half hour for the puddings to arrive, my fiance enquired to their whereabouts at the bar. As soon as he sat back down, they all appeared. No one came to clear our table and after waiting for another 20 minutes, my fiance went to pay at the bar and found that no one acknowledged his presence for a time longer than he deemed appropriate. He had to make an effort to get their attention. Throughout the meal, not one waiter/waitress asked if everything was ok. It was Sunday lunchtime, but it wasn't busy and they seemed short staffed.
I honestly wondered if they would have noticed us if we'd walked out without paying. read more