We arrived with our toddler son after spending the morning at the Natural History Museum. Having looked round the town center to see what was on offer, we settled for the Akeman. This was mainly because there was plenty of seating and it seemed a reasonable establishment from it's appearance, menu and of course it's proximity to the museum was an added bonus.
The service once inside was friendly, but very, very slow. We ordered drinks as soon as we sat down. They arrived 15 minutes later after we'd reminded the waitress. She told us as she took our food order "oh... your drinks are ready on the bar....", we wondered how long they had been sat there.
We then waited another 25-30 minutes for our food to arrive, we were all getting really hungry, but the place was reasonably quiet so we couldn't see any reason for the delay. I ordered the burger and it arrived slightly over cooked for my taste. I wasn't given the choice of how I'd like it cooked, so I can't blame them for that (or can I?). My wife's duck sandwich was dry and tasteless and looked like £0.75 rather than £9.75 and was only marginally saved by the addition of fries to the order for an extra £1. My sons Cod Wheels were cooked to the point of being inedible, dry and tough, they looked like someone had forgotten them in the fryer.
When we were asked about the food, I explained the problems and we were offered free desert & coffee, which my wife accepted, but to add insult to injury the waitress forgot to put the order into the kitchen and after waiting another 15-20 minutes we asked for the bill and received it with the desert. Our son was getting understandably tired, so after a couple of bites of unremarkable and what seemed bought in apple pie, we paid our bill and left.
To sum up, the bar and restaurant decor has seen better days, but it seemed well used and comfortably shabby. The service really needs some work, the (assistant?) manager didn't seem terribly interested in his customers and the waiting staff were friendly, but not very well trained/managed. For an establishment selling a 7oz fillet steak for £25, they hav a long way to go to get my business back, but maybe we were just really unlucky......
To the owner:
The duck sandwich is known to the staff to be a loser, other customers have complained about it, either re-invent it or get it off your menu, it's really letting you and your customers down.
Get your managers to manage instead of eating in front of customers and hanging off the till at the front of the restaurant like some sort of over dressed greeter. read more