Royal Oak Restaurant — Restaurant in Surrey

Where do I start....biggest issue besides being over priced for the quality was our experience with the owners daughter Andrea? This lady has little decorum and no filter on her comments, she was quite rude, I'm sure she thinks she's funny....she is not. We were escorted to our table by Andrea, with me carrying the only menu that I was looking at by the front desk and the only one left in the restaurant which we had to share between 4 people, then 6-Judy came minutes later (the only quick thing to happen) to take our order and was taken aback because we were not ready to order, and when I pointed out that half our party had not even seen the "special" menu as were not given one, and had to share the 1 menu between 4 people she went into that they are so busy...like it was our fault somehow. The food was hit and miss but mostly miss...the calamari starter was cooked In oil that was not hot enough making them very greasy instead of crunchy, (the menu has the wrong price on the calamari and you will be charged a dollar more). The French onion soup was a disappointment...have not seen this on a menu since 1980 so was kinda excited to have it....in this case chunks of hard onion not undercooked just fibrous, not a lot of cheese, as described but enough. The Cesar salad that came with e prime rib was watery, no flavour at all, 2 people had the 9oz prime rib, which was ok but one plate clearly had a much larger portion than the other, both smothered in this unknown flavour of a gravy and the meat was quite unlike prime rib and more like a basic roast...comments by both and I did try it "disappointing" x 3, the lasagne was cold in the middle and besides it being a generous portion size was nothing more than average goop with cheese on top. One person wanted the scallops and our waitress rolled her eyes (6 judy) and said she would pick something else as they tasted funny and most people send them back anyhow...really. The highlight was the roast lamb which was tender and flavourful, however it was highly salted, but I like that. I think Andrea took offence to me as she had to do an extra trip from the bar to our table at the far end of the restaurant. We ordered the Pinot Grigio which our waitress (6 -Judy) asked if we wanted the red or white, when I asked if Pinot Grigio came in red she ran off....anyhow they have 2 Pinot grigios on the menu and of course not having the opportunity to tell our waitress which one we wanted Andrea brought the wrong one...only 2.00 difference in price (we wanted the more expensive one) but we like to try new things.... the Hungarian Pinot was very nice and good value at $22.00 The service was very slow and indifferent from our waitress (6-judy) whose only comments to us throughout the whole evening was how busy she was...no apologies for the long waits for everything esp the main courses, no smiles, like we were a huge inconvenience to her. The bill for 4 people, 2 starters, 4 mains and a bottle of wine....145.00 plus 15% (which she did not deserve). Have driven by this place for years and would suggest to others to...

This is a letter I sent to the owner.

Dear Royal Oak Manager, June 4, 2017

A few weeks ago, on the day before Mother’s Day, a group of us went to your restaurant. Myself, wife, her mom, brothers and nieces and nephews, etc. A family affair, as their family has done for over a decade at your restaurant for such occasions. They are first and second generation Surreyites, and have been excellent customers of yours for as many years, celebrations including birthdays, anniversaries, even renting out your entire restaurant for a baptism and first communion.

Our waitress on that celebration evening was kind, friendly and very thorough despite how busy it was and the restaurant being seemingly understaffed. I even mentioned at one point that we had a good personable waitress. We placed our orders, ate our appetizers, and expected to enjoy dinner together, celebrating Mother’s Day. Move ahead, about an hour or so later. Everyone had finished their meals, everyone EXCEPT mom. Why? BECAUSE SHE STILL IS AWAITING HER MEDITERRANEAN CHICKEN DINNER. That’s right. It’s all for her that we were there, a celebration of Mother’s Day, and that was how it went. Mother’s day at a restaurant. She gets served last, not just near the end of the rest of us eating our dinners, but once we were all finished, she finally got her dinner. This pretty much spoiled our $175 dinner. When we asked the waitress about this, she said that there had been a problem or a “miscommunication” in the kitchen, and she apologized, and it was obvious she meant it. OK. But sure enough, when mother's order finally arrived, we all sat there awkwardly watching her begin to eat it because we were all done, even the kids. At this point her desire to eat had passed and she packed up the meal to bring home. The bill came accompanied by more apologies from the waitress, but nothing concrete was offered. No dessert offer, no compensatory drink offer, and very noticeably no break on the bill. Not wanting to upset Mother, we said nothing to the waitress which we tipped well because we did not know if it was or not her fault. I’m glad I finally got this off my chest. Again, I stress that this family has been going to your restaurant for years, providing excellent word of mouth business, including buying gift certificates at Christmas time. I’m writing to you about this in all sincerity and in the hope that you have a plan B here for this ruined Mother’s Day celebration in which your restaurant failed to play its important role, that of a happy experience.

Me: As of this writing I am still awaiting an answer from the owner. It has now been 5 weeks. You decide about this...

Okay, first time here last night. Came as a large group with a reservation. Took 30 minutes to get our drink orders and another 25 after that to take our food order. Wish I listened to the reviews and did not come here at all. The menu and qualitiy of the food is that of a Torcadero or Olympia pizza except its not cheap AT ALL. The prices are that of high quality family owned greek restaraunt that you can always count on for being exceptional. The quality was not good. The small greek salad was 17 dollars. The tomato slices were so large I had to cut them in half, and there was not even olive oil or lemon drizzled on or any type of dressing. It was fresh though, minus some of the olives tasting funny. The calamari was super whatever. At a greek restaurant of all places, you'd think ypu could count on them for calamari. It was a decent portion, but all rings, no legs on the calamari, and a little over cooked. I'd give it a 6 out of 10. I am a calamari Connoisseur. The seafood Alfredo was making heavy cream and garlic with zero other flavoring. There were about 5 larger prawns in there and the quantity of baby shrimps and scallops was quite reasonable, it was the sauce that killed it for us. Please add some white wine and tone down on the garlic. Same for the tzatiki and houmous. They have a large drink menu, i did not have any, but they were cult classics and a lot of blended, coconut milk features which did sound quite yummy, and hard to find at most places these days. Our server was a young gentleman who was quite wonderful, and he did a great job. There was an autogratuity added to our bill as we were with a larger group. The bill for my son and I was 165.00! I went for dinner the night before to earls with my hubby and we each had a main, and 4 drinks and our bill was 150 and it was a way more pleasant dining experience. I definitely will not be back here, I think there is potential, they clearly do well for themselves hence why they don't feel the need to fine tune the quality of the food. Wish them the...