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The Queen's Head

The Queen's Head

Sugarbrook Lane, B60 4LH, Bromsgrove, United Kingdom

Pub • Pizza • Steak • British


"This location should, in theory, be 10/10 experience in my opinion.. Wonderful building.. Various parts to it, as in a nice main restaurant, with plenty of seating of varying styles.. A canal right next to it with narrow boats meandering past the location.. So why was our experience dissapointing .? Ok.. Service by staff was hit and miss.. And you can't say there wasn't enough staff on duty on a gorgeous Sunday lunchtime.. In main restaurant.. The marquee extension and seating outside, staff were plentiful.. But if you have staff just twiddling fingers and not watching customers, whether for food and drinks orders,or actually trying to pay the bill at the end of our time there.. Lost count of number of times we asked for our bill please .. Finally , one young lady got the bill.. Then vanished again.. She came back a short time later, and said she has to wait for the card machine.. Seriously, has such a large, well established business only operating a small number of card payment machines that customers have to sit and wait..? After around 10mins, we just got up to walk to one of the various cash till/ screens, dotted around the location.. But here again, we just didn't get served , until a gentleman in a grey polo shirt asked if he could help? Absolutely you can..I said to him.. Can we PLEASE PAY OUR BILL..???? We've been waiting far to long to just pay our bill.. Suddenly a card machine was made available.. Billl paid,we left... The actual cusne was very nice.. Couldn't fault that part of our experience.."

The Artichoke

The Artichoke

Rattington Street, Canterbury, United Kingdom

Pub • Steak • Vegan • British


"Awful experience that my family and I went through at the The Artichoke pub in Chartham that resulted in plates being physically snatched (from behind our backs) out of the hands of a mother who was breast feeding at the time all whilst a four year old was watching!!! The actions of the staff were absolutely disgraceful, despicable and rude. Initially everything was fine and we were greeted warmly and were made comfortable with our seating. The atmosphere was warm and friendly which makes it all the more surprising how events unfolded. The issue started when our main course was brought to the table. It was my daughter who noticed that her dinner was incredibly cold (we all had variations of the roast) and after checking I felt that all 4 meals were cold. Some elements had some warmth but most were cold to the point it would have been unpleasant to eat. The gravy was lukewarm on one side but cold on another plus the plates were cold, potatoes hard and meats very dry. My issue isn’t one with the food rather how it was dealt with by the staff as I would expect that the standard process would be for a customer to inform a member of the team and for a replacement to be offered with an apology. We had waited a while for the food (we were told that it was being plated up long before it arrived which is why I think it was cold) but when I let Chelsea know that it was cold it took an awfully long time for another member of staff to attend to “deal with it,” whilst she playfully chatted with another table. Given that we have young children who need to get to bed we did need to get on. A lady, Holly Millin I think, eventually came over and was extremely curt and sharp which felt very much out of place as no complaint had been made. She did offer to replace or to cancel the meal with no charge. We accepted the former as the latter would have meant that our daughter would have gone without dinner when we needed to get her home ready for school but it made us feel very undervalued to the point that we were being inconvenient. I did ask the lady that I was surprised that food could be brought out without checking and she said that food is probed and that plates are hot enough to burn your skin. This didn’t help offer an explanation as to why ours were cold but I didn’t press any further. After the replacement meals were brought out Chelsea asked if everything was okay and I said that the food was indeed warm but I was surprised that we weren’t offered an apology because the state of the initial meals was entirely unacceptable – I was simply shocked by her brazen reply of “I am sorry that you feel that way” which we took to be very condescending and sarcastic. After this interaction I looked at my wife with incredulity and perhaps let out a nervous laugh. Chelsea must have overheard my reaction to her sarcasm and reported to her manager that we laughed at her (which we hadn’t). At which point the manager came over and without warning snatched our plates whilst stating that we had laughed at Chelsea which we hadn’t. My wife was breast feeding at that time that Holly leant over her to snatch her barely started dinner. Holly then proceeded to physically grab the plate away from my mother-in-law who had no idea the lady was behind her – she had her cutlery in her hands and was chewing! My mother-in-law also does not speak English and had no idea what was happening. How can reporting a cold meal be escalated to this level? From initially nice service to plate snatching. This certainly is not normal behaviour for any human. We still cannot believe what happened. Today my daughter is still upset as she witnessed an altercation by a lady she did not know and my wife is shocked that a person could be physically aggressive whilst she was breast feeding a baby – anything could have happened if the plate would have hit his head. Be warned something is not right with these people..."

The Plough Inn, Kelmscott

The Plough Inn, Kelmscott

Kelmscott, Nr. Lechlade, GL7 3HD, West Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

Full • Steak • British • Breakfast


"We visited The Plough on two consecutive nights on the basis of reviews and because we could walk from where we were staying in Kelmscott. Neither experience was great. First night we both made the mistake of having the Double Gloucester cheese soufflé. Let 's just say this was not what we expected a cheese soufflé to be. It was more like a steamed pudding in a bowl of cheese sauce with grilled cheese on top! Neither of us could finish it and it gave my wife such bad indigestion that she couldn 't eat any of her rather greasy chicken escalope main course. Avoid at all costs. The second night we both opted for the steak frites. This was passable but the meat had obviously been standing for a while as the beure café de paris on top was not melting, it was so cold. We were hungry so couldn 't be bothered to send it back but we did query it as the plates were being cleared. The message came back from the kitchen that there had been no delay . But that just sums the place up. The waiting staff had no idea what they were doing and took an age to do anything. We ordered sparkling wine as an aperitif (once I had found the wine list for myself! and this was left for several minutes where we could see it going flat before anyone bothered to bring it to the table. We ordered wine to go with the mains and we had to ask for it again as we were at risk of finishing eating before it arrived! To summarise, set your expectations low and you might have a nice time and avoid the cheese soufflé."

The Harrow Inn

The Harrow Inn

High Street, SN4 0AE, Swindon, United Kingdom

Pub • Steak • British • Vegetarian


"Oh dear, this didn 't go well at all. I had high expectations given the previous reviews. I used to eat here but hadn 't been for years due to changes in ownership. Our starters were pleasant (I had cheese chunks and only had 2, which was a little disappointing, whilst my friend had fried shrimp and had about 6). Her main was the duck breast, and I had steak. This was when it started to go wrong! The food was lukewarm (tepid, even). I didn 't feel inclined to complain as it just lovely to be out with my friend. When I enquired about her duck, she said it was a very strange texture, so I tried it ... it was like eating mushy pate. It had no substance or solidity at all. At this point I had been eating around the outside of my steak, saving the middle bit as this is my favourite. Unfortunately, when I got to it, I found that it, too, was mushy. The waitress had told us when I ordered medium rare that it was not available as the steak was put in a water bath beforehand to make it tender and so medium was the only option. I believe that she was referring to sous vide , and when meat is overcooked by this method, it does become mushy. The waiter did relay our comments to the chef, and we did find that the charges for the meat had been removed from the bill. We still paid for our two potato side dishes which we hadn 't eaten because there hadn 't been anything to accompany them, but never mind. We tried to order coffee the waiter didn 't know if they served decaf (turns out they do). I asked for a floater coffee but he didn 't know what that was so I said that if they didn 't do floater coffee, I would just have a coffee with cream. He came back to say that they don 't have cream. I asked for Earl Grey tea, which they do have. I was then served Breakfast tea. They did then change it for Earl Grey. In the end, my friend and I had an enjoyable evening out, and laughed at the events of the evening. But, to be honest, I think it is highly unlikely we will go back because part of the pleasure of a meal out is to actually eat and enjoy the food, which didn 't happen on this occasion."