Sharing Platter For Two
The Harvard Inn

The Harvard Inn

40 High Street Stock, Essex CM4 9BJ, Chelmsford, United Kingdom

Steak • Hotels • British • Vegetarian


"today harvard inn (22 October) visited with friends for lunch and drink. we received not the warmest reception, 3 young girls working from the bar, but were more interested in their phones than actually a service. when we came to our table, there were no best or serviettes. we waited 15 minutes to take our food order and ask for a wine list. then we had to wait 10 minutes to order a bottle of wine. when the weeping was overlaid, he was left on the table, we were not offered to try it and it was not poured for us. waiting for eating was long, 35 minutes for 2 x sausages and maic and 1 x fish and chips. When the food finally arrived, there was no cute yet. we had to ask that, and it was just in a stack on the table. the fish and chips were very good as the sausages and mashing. until a human hair was found in the maic! the waitress came over and took the food with an empty expression and murmured an apology. we waited for some time again that teller will be taken away and ask for the bill. also here it took at least 10 minutes to pass. I wouldn't worry about waiting, but the bar was absolutely empty! halfway through our meal came a table of 10, there were already cutlery and serviettes laid and water was provided. the staff seemed to be much more attentive to this group. I am incredibly disappointed as I was already in the harvard inn and eating and the service was impeccable. Not sure if there is a change of hands or if there is a lack of training. the young staff seemed to have no idea, and as already mentioned was more interest in chatting and their handys. I am grateful that the meal with the found hair was taken out of the bill. sad to say that I don't return."

A La Turka

A La Turka

15 St Dunstans St, CT2 8AF, Canterbury, United Kingdom

Cafés • Kebab • Seafood • European


"I 've been going to A La Turk Westgate for a few years now and have always loved it there, but I was incredibly disappointed today with the service. The waitress, Tara, spoke to me and my friends in the foulest manner. She was so horrible to us. I 've never been spoken to like that in my life. My friend wanted to order the lamb shank, to which Tara basically shouted, IF YOU CANT FIND IT, THEN ITS NOT ON THE MENU, IS IT?? I was genuinely shocked that she spoke to my friend like this. Normally, if customers are trying to find an item on the menu but don’t remember the exact name of the dish, one would assume the waitress would help and guide the customer. But no – instead, Tara was getting frustrated that we were taking our time to order. In the end, we realised the lamb shank is called Kleftico on the menu, which honestly I think the average person would call a lamb shank. (I’ll post a photo and you be the judge). Like sorry we didn’t know the exact terminology English isn’t our first language, but we shouldn’t be spoken to like that regardless. On numerous occasions, Tara spoke to us like we were a burden. We felt like we were a bother and became scared to even ask for anything because of how aggressively she spoke to us. Maybe she was having a bad day, but at your job you have a duty to be professional with your customers. I actually lost my appetite entirely because of how we were spoken to. It ruined my evening completely. I didn’t end up eating my meal, that’s how much her behaviour impacted all of our night. It was so painful to watch the waitress Tara speak to my friend like this – there was absolutely no reason to belittle someone like this. I’m not even exaggerating at all. I asked Tara if we had offended her or done something wrong, as I was trying to understand why she was treating us so badly. She responded, No, you didn’t offend me, I’m just very hot, it’s been a hot day. Tara didn’t apologise at all. Tara then came back, and we thought maybe she would come to apologise. But no – she just explained that her role is essentially to ask if we want anything extra, food or drink, and that is the process, and whatever is on the menu is on the menu. I saw her treating the new waitress so badly, it’s only an observation but I’m genuinely concerned she may be bullying her. The new waitress was so sweet to us and was the only reason we didn’t walk out. The new waitress was kind, smiley, and professional she has fabulous customer service. It was honestly the worst experience I have ever had in a restaurant. I have to be honest, though, the food is still amazing; the quality of the food is great. The kitchen is definitely doing something right, but I’ll have to boycott this place as they clearly do not value customer service as highly as their food."

Rockers Steak House

Rockers Steak House

52 Mill Road, CB1 7GX, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Meat • Steak • Cheese • Salads


"This was my first ever time going to Rockers steakhouse and such a shame that I had really bad experience with them and I've been put off for going there again. I went there for a company Christmas dinner and there were about 20 of us, we booked the table in advance and as it was a Christmas dinner it was requested that we have to pre order our food from the Christmas menu, which we did. When we arrived, the table wasn't fully prepared, as they allowed other customers sit where we were going to be, before we arrived, so some of us had to wait standing, whilst other customers were finishing eating, and to me it seemed that they weren't told that their table was going to be used for a big group, as they were taking their time to finish their meal (not really their fault, if they were unaware . Once we all sat down, took some time for staff to clean the tables and we had to ask them to do this. For those who asked the the three course meal, their starts came quick, but sadly after that, the mains took 2hrs to come out regardless of who ordered the 3 or 2 course meal. I could see that other tables were getting their food before us, and these customers arrived after us, not to mention again that our food was pre ordered. At this point, a lot of us were tired as we had a long day at work, some of us also relied on public transport to go home and in addition it was a long journey home for some of us (2hr bus journey home! and we were getting annoyed that our food was taking too long to come out; so a lot of us ate the main when it arrived and cancelled our dessert. When it came to cancelling our dessert, the supervisor of the restaurant was getting annoyed and being rude that so many of us were cancelling dessert and only wanted to pay for the main. Some of us managed to pay only for the main, but sadly there were others that were forced to pay as well for the dessert and had to wait for the dessert to be ready just to take it home, and when they were ready, no one told us that these were ready and we had to find out from the kitchen, this meant that some of us had to wait even more because we didn't know that the desserts were ready to be taken away. For those who decided to stay and eat their dessert, once again we had to wait a long time for the desserts to come out. During the time we all finished our mains and got our desserts, the tables didn't get cleared and I waited a long time for this to happen as I wanted to let them know that I wished to take the remaining of my food home. This meant, that I ate my dessert next to my unfinished main. When I went to pay, I refused to pay the full amount as I felt that the restaurant ruined our company Christmas meal and when I explained this to the supervisor, she once again was rude and didn't accept what I wanted to pay, and only offered to remove the service charge, but I insisted and fortunately the main manager came and accepted what I wanted to pay. I'm so disappointed in how our Christmas meal went as my colleague put so much effort in organising this and she even created a spreadsheet stating who ordered what and who had allergies and shared this spreadsheet with the restaurant to make easier for them, but some how they still messed up; one of my colleagues who was gluten intolerant got a normal burger instead of a gluten free burger, the salads came after the the burgers (and don't know why it took so long for a couple of salads to come out , and not to mention that one of them was a halloumi salad, where they forgot to add the halloumi which had to be requested to be added in. I understand that working in a restaurant can be stressful and that the people there work long hours (like we do and that that night was really busy, but I feel that there was no excuse for them to mess up like they did as they knew in advance how many of us were going to be, what time we were going there and the date, plus they also knew what we ordered. I feel that they were totally unprepared and unorganised to receive us, as I feel that knowing the information they had and knowing how big our group was, we should have been priority that night. In addition to all of this, not only l felt like the food was nothing special, some of us also got sick later on that night, and I think it's because the food wasn't properly cooked (the burger I had was slightly pinkish in the inside, but as my burger wasn't the only one like that, we all thought that the burger was meant to be like that . My conclusion is that the Rocker's steakhouse is unable to deal with big group bookings and it's best to avoid going there if you are a big group."