"Today we visited for the first time in many years. We won’t be returning and frankly wouldn’t recommend this restaurant to anyone if you have a basic expectation of quality food and service ! We arrived slightly early for our 5.30pm reservation very much looking forward to a Sunday roast ! We were met by an incredibly stressed gentleman ! Perhaps this was a sign ! We we’re seated to our table, and they waiter seemed desperate to take our drinks reservation as soon as we sat ! A waiter then rushed to our table to explain they had run out of the beef roast and only had 3 portions of the pork roast left. As a party of 4 including 3 adults and a pre teen the menu was appealing but we had come for the roast so we’re particularly disappointed to hear that there was no beef. We decided to take the remaining 3 portions of pork and he rushed away having not completed our order. We asked the waitress who delivered the drinks if he could return to complete our order and make a note of our daughters meal choice and the addition of bread, oil and two dips to nibble on whilst waiting ! It took perhaps 10 mins for bread and dips to be brought out which seemed reasonable but the empty plates sat with us for at least 15 mins after we’d finished if not longer ! We didn’t order starters so expected our roast pork meals and burger to be brought out relatively swiftly to be honest. From the time of placing our order it took well over an hour for our meals to arrive ! We had asked part way through our wait where the meals were and the waiter explained they’d had a rush on and they wouldn’t be long ! As another 15 mins passed we were frankly ready to walk out just as our food arrived ! The burger was ‘warm’ not hot and the roast pork dinner we were expecting was a pork loin steak with the usual roast trimmings most of which was dry and over cooked ! If a beef or pork roast dinner is described on a menu we expected slices of roast pork from a joint of meat. We didn’t expect one individual pork loin steak each. When we asked the waiter if this was because they had run out, he claimed they roast a complete loin joint then slice but they certainly seemed too dry for that to have been the case ! This meat had clearly been seared on both sides and was dry ! We expressed our dissatisfaction with timeframe and of the meals we had been presented with and the waiter was very apologetic ! Stressing he was very sorry multiple times ! We explained we would make do as we couldn’t bear the idea of waiting any longer for new food; replacement burger etc so he left us to eat. At no point during our meal were we asked if we needed anything else or if everything was now ok. We asked for our bill and given how sorry the waiter had been earlier in our sitting and had explained they had been rushed that afternoon we had expected a gesture of apology on the bill. Perhaps a small discount to back up the repeated apology ! There was no such gesture so I approached a different waiter at the till station to discuss our bill. I explained we had expressed our dissatisfaction with the meal to his colleague at the time and as we were talking a woman jumped in and asked what the problem was. I explained I had already had a conversation with the other waiter but briefly explained again. She said that our wait of over an hour for food was perfectly acceptable as we’d had starters ! We hadn’t, we’d had bread and dips which isn’t stated under starters so we understood to be an apertizer whilst waiting but she insisted that it was a starter and the main meals are not started until starter plates are collected ! Well, there in lies a contributing issue as the bread plates were not collected swiftly at all so if the kitchen waits until plates are cleared then this contributed to the reason it had taken so long to receive our meals ! It didn’t however explain why food was warm not hot in the case of the burger and over cooked on the roasts. I do understand that a restaurant kitchen may wait until a starter (had we actually had one) is complete before progressing a main however we are talking about a roast dinner which is I would imagine based on the drynesss of the vegetables and Yorkshire puddings pre made, ready to heat and plate so no matter, the delay in our food reaching our table was not acceptable. I suggested the timings were still not acceptable and explanation appropriate and said I’ll leave the bill with you to consider. The woman followed me back to our table and said ‘well, that’s your bill and slammed it on the table’ Astonished I asked if there was another person I could speak to and she said I’m the owner ! She turned and walked away ! At this point I am absolutely flabbergasted that somebody who could speak to a customer in the manner and tone she did is the owner ! This woman seemed incredibly unreasonable, was clearly unwilling to have a sensible conversation about how unhappy we were and was evidently never going to take any responsibility for the poor service we had received so I decided we should just pay the bill in full and leave rather than waste any more time ! I would never usually write such a damming review however I have never been spoken to by a member of staff in any restaurant, owner or otherwise like I was today. I appreciate at busy times waiting times may extend however a simple explanation that the is the case is all that is needed to manage a customers expectation. Ignoring a table becuse their food isn’t ready and suggesting it’s due out when it isn’t does not help the cause at all and only results in disappointment ! Based on our experience today we will never return and will certainly not recommend this restaurant to anyone we know and we sincerely hope that the staff reflect on our observations and never treat a customer in this manner again."
