This was my first time at the Royal China restaurant in Werrington, Peterborough, however I would not recommend it to anyone! The occasion (my sisters birthday meal) was ruined due to to the catalogue of errors & poor service. We had an early evening booking for the table of 15 at 6pm, due to having a 2 year old in the party, in order to avoid a late night.
In the 3 and a half hours we were seated we were only served 2 meal courses & 2 rounds of drinks!
After our starter we even ended up clearing our own table due to lack of service. The first round of drinks took one whole hour to be brought to our table and despite polite reminders, this did not improve. We were seated in the back room, even though there were equally larger parties in the main restaurant, however this area was isolated and very cold. Of the 15 main courses we only received 13, with the other 2 turning up after everyone else had finished theirs.
I appreciate it was a busy evening for the restaurant with minimal staffing, I was given a very lame excuse that when they took the booking, they thought the snowy weather conditions would keep other customers away and the restaurant would not be as busy, however other diners with no bookings were being ushered in, and this was obviously adding to the problem. I asked to speak to the manager on many occasions but I was unsuccessful and never saw him. I was not rude but wanted to express our misgivings as I feel customer feedback is vitally important in this type of industry.
The 3 course meal was priced at £13.80 per person, we however only received 2 courses, otherwise it probably would have been midnight by the time we got out of there! The 2 rounds of drinks, in 3 and a half hours came to £49, very minimal for 15 people. We reluctantly agreed to pay £10 per head, to include the drinks at the protest of the chief waitress, who felt we had no case for a reduction! Disappointed does not cover how I feel our birthday meal went. Even though it was my first time at the Royal China, other family members within the party are regulars and spend a lot of money there, the chief waitress even acknowledged this.
However, I for one will not be going back! read more
