"We stayed at Legoland on March 22nd and 23rd 2024, and had a fantastic day out at the theme park on both days. On the Friday night we went to the Tournament Tavern restaurant and had a lovely evening the food was great and the customer service, led by our waiter Lewis, was excellent. Our standards aren’t particularly spectacular to be honest; for example we don’t expect food to be of Michelin Star standard, or the waiting staff to be able to juggle balls of fire on a unicycle whilst taking our order. Our must haves include things like food being warm enough to eat, and generally served without kitchen foil still attached to it… …So after another lovely day out at the theme park (despite the chilly March weather) we looked forward to another nice evening of food, this time at the Bricks family restaurant. Our table was booked for 6pm, by which point we knew our children would be extremely hungry and ready to eat after a long day’s shenanigans at the park. I went down just before 6 to give the waiting staff a birthday cake for one of our party’s children so we could sing happy 5th birthday to him after our meals. The staff were more than happy to accommodate, and took away the cake for later on. A great start. We then sat down for food promptly at 6pm, and the waiting staff were quick to take our orders. £25 for the three courses for the kids, and £29 for 2 courses for the adults. Not the cheapest, however certainly not the most expensive either however we had high hopes after the prior night at the Tournament Tavern. The waitress had come over to serve us quickly as well, so we were really off to a flyer now… As the kids were super hungry, we made a point of asking if the kids starters could come out as a priority, with their mains to follow as soon as possible as well. No problem, we were assured and within five minutes ALL of our starters appeared on the table, along with drinks. Brilliant. The starters overall were nice, but were clearly charged at a bit of a premium considering what they were; for example kids veg and houmous, and adults beef spring rolls. We finished our starters, and then waited for someone to come back to us to clear the plates. And then we waited some more. We waited a bit more after that, and then a little longer. I’d grown a full beard by the time the waitress reappeared to take our plates away. She cleared most, but not all the plates, and then off she went again. And so we waited some more… and a little longer after that. And by the time anyone appeared again, not only had my wife also grown a full beard but my three year old son had by now turned 18 and no longer qualified for the kids menu. In total we waited an hour to be served our mains, and having specifically asked for prompt meals for the children when we arrived, to be forgotten was very disappointing. In fact, I honestly think that if we hadn’t finally caved in and asked another waiter to go and find out where our mains were, then we might actually have turned into Lego statues before being served. So it was all going downhill at this point. Anyone with young kids will know the pain; they were tired and super hungry by now, but nothing that Youtube Kids couldn’t resolve don’t judge me… So the mains came out after an hour, and everyone is by now losing the will to live. Not to worry though, we have good quality meals to look forward to now… remember guys £25 for three courses kids, and £29 for two courses adults… Luckily my 7 year old daughter is not a trained Sous Chef (yet), nor is my 3 year old son a connoisseur of the kitchen, however it didn’t take Gino D’acampo to see immediately that these were just microwaved meals hastily bunged in a bowl with pasta pieces glued tightly together for good measure. If I said that both the macaroni and cheese and spagehetti meatballs dishes were ‘hot’, then this would be an understatement. ‘Incinerated in the flames of hell’ would be a far more accurate description, and luckily I tested the temperature and advised the kids to let it cool down for a decade before attempting to eat their meals. It really was appalling quality, and deplorable service to put dishes out for young kids at that temperature. Having worked in hospitality in years gone by, yes I do understand that a microwave is often a necessary tool to support with the cooking process but this was terrible. ‘So what else have you got to whinge about?’ I hear you implore… after discovering the heat of my children’s meals was on a par with the surface of the sun, bizarrely it was the other way around for me: I had to send my chickpea curry back to the kitchen as it was cold. my friend’s son, the one who was having the birthday cake, had foil in his meal. It was a very small piece of foil to be fair, however… it was FOIL in a kids meal for the love of god! I mean we’re all for natural ingredients in our kid’s meals, but we draw a line at feeding our children materials that can be found in the Periodic table. So yes, this had to go back to the kitchen too, and a further wait as a result. Of course, by now, we each needed a good programme of counselling and some strong sedatives to overcome the whole experience, and we finally threw in the towel when our friend’s son asked to go to bed beford his birthday cake came out. Enough was enough. By now, the manager was involved, and to her credit at the end of the night she did provide us with a discount in recognition of the poor service we had encountered. As compensation for the missed birthday cake, she also offered to put a candle in a pancake the following morning at breakfast instead… however, sadly for a child of 5 years old a candle in a pancake doesn’t quite captivate the imagination… but we agreed nevertheless. All in all, a dreadful experience. I’m sure we were the unlucky ones and that the vast majority of visitors have a fantastic experience at Bricks. However, I’m a firm believer that if prices are set high, then customer service and quality standards should reflect these. Sadly, this was not the case for us on our visit to Bricks. (Although i’m now hoping to have a candle in a Weetabix if ever I go for breakfast there on my birthday in the future)."
