Went here this evening for a family celebration. We had a table of 14 and it was terrible, in many…read moreways.
The first thing I want to be very clear about is the staff. They were mostly pleasant and polite and this review is not a reflection on them, they did try their best, they were not rude at any time, but seemed very short staffed.
Firstly, for our drinks on arrival, and throughout the evening, there was 1 person behind the bar trying to serve people at the bar, and drinks for the tables. He tried his best, and was pleasant, but we waited for ages every time we went to the bar.
Second, the table layout was a mishmash, and not enough places set out, but they did set out another place, when we told them.
Then we came to order the meal...... many in the party wanted steak but when the server came, he said they had no gammon, no steak, no lasagne and only 2 fish, for fish and chips. This was quarter to 8 on a Saturday night, and we had booked this previously. The restaurant was fairly busy, but we have been here a number of times before and there wasn't an unusual number of people in the establishment. During difficult times, I can accept running out of 1 or even 2 dishes but to not have staple meals like steak and gammon available is rubbish. Many of us ordered something that we didn't really want because first, second and third "normal choices" were all unavailable. You simply cannot run a business like this, it won't work and people won't tolerate it. It isn't acceptable. If you're restricted on supply of ingredients, you should lower your capacity because we would rather you said you were fully booked, and we would have gone elsewhere.
When the starters came they looked ok, but many were cold.
The main courses, again looked ok, but many were cold.
Quite frankly, the food wasn't great at all, apart from the 2 pizzas the younger ones had, they were ok.
Dessert was ok but you can't really get that wrong........
At the end of the night, 3 of the guests fancied a cocktail. 2 of these were "passion fruit martinis'. We paid (£8 each I believe) and they brought these to the table and said "sorry we have no passion fruit so I sprinkled some raspberry bits on them". Great!
We had paid at the bar for all our drinks (over £250), but for the food, I paid and it was £380. After I paid, I sat down but then remembered I hadn't given them my qr code on the "Vintage Inns app" for my "loyalty points", so I went back to the bar. It was 11:02. The barman said they had turned the tills off so there was nothing he could do, nothing at all. This was the icing on the cake, and I felt very much cheated.
The ambience wasn't great either. There was a leak through the roof so there was water all over the floor in the bar area and we were in a side area and it was really cold - many of the party ate with their big coats on.
We didn't feel it right to complain because the staff were clearly overrun - I helped them by clearing away many glasses from the table, but had we complained, there was nothing they could have done to rectify the situation anyway, so we just left.
My view is that if this establishment continues like this, it won't be there for long. Poor availability of food, not enough staff and a cold restaurant serving cold food isn't what people want. We spent almost £650, which is a considerable amount.
Again, I'm really sorry for the staff, they really did try their best and at no point were any of them rude, but the company who own this place, and the management team, really need to get a grip.
If you don't look after your customers, others will.
Tonight, not only have you got 14 people who won't be returning to this establishment, but also because of the "loyalty" app rip off, many of us won't be using any other Vintage inns either.
It was lovely for us to get together as a family, but this was a massive disappointment and we will not be returning.
Very poor indeed.
