Cock - Mugginton — Restaurant in Amber Valley

I’d give a negative star for service if possible. We had made a reservation on a Sunday to celebrate a birthday with the family (which they were aware of when booking) and at first all seemed well. The garden area was pretty and the restaurant looked nice, staff were pleasant, even the starters came and went okay. However when we got to dinner it all went drastically and suddenly downhill. We’d placed a relatively simple order; 3x trio of meats roast, 1x chateaubriand (to share for 2), 2x beef roasts and 1x sea bass. No special requests or allergies.

When the mains came out, the staff brought what they told us were 2x pork roasts, which no one had ordered to then tell us that they weren’t pork but a trio, which we had ordered. After these first 2 roasts were placed down we noticed the plates were missing most of what they should’ve had. The trio was supposed to have all 3 meats, beef, chicken, pork, veg, crackling, apple sauce, bread sauce. We’d additionally confirmed with the waitress that they would have stuffing too as this was part of the chicken roast. Our plates had the smallest sliver of chicken (McDonald’s nuggets are bigger), the fattiest piece of pork and no beef as well as no bread or apple sauce or stuffing. The plate was also the messiest presentation with gravy dripping everywhere. When this was flagged to the waitress who took our order she took only one of the two plates back and even when returning there was still no sauce. We then mentioned the other trio was missing the same items so she came back and returned with a semi- corrected plate (no crackling or sauces). The beef added on one plate looked more like bacon it was so well done, crispy and thin! However this wasn’t the end of the trio saga - whilst this was happening everyone else was getting their plates which were fine. Shortly after, the third trio roast came out, again wrong in the exact same way which we had to flag to that staff. Having worked in hospitality and service before you’d think they’d check before serving?! Once the mains were sorted, no one asked whether we wanted any sauces (again, a standard thing when serving roasts at least at competent restaurants). as the trios should’ve came with at least apple sauce or bread sauce we’d asked for apple, mint, Dijon mustard and a little extra gravy. We had to follow up 3 times with 2 different waitresses, one of whom was our tables waitress and took our orders/“fixed” the trios. after around 5 minutes a platter of 2x mint sauce, apple sauce and gravy came out, this placed precariously off the edge of our table next to my visibly elderly grandma which again you’d surely think twice about given there was room for the sauces at the middle of the table. By this point half the table had finished their dishes whilst others were still waiting for sauces promised earlier. The waitress told us she’d come back with Dijon and low and behold never did, instead was stood directly behind us sorting cutlery! We actually checked with the waitress as to whether you had Dijon as I know a few places don’t and she confirmed you did - if you don’t have it save my time and your own efforts and let me know. We were waiting for the sauce but decided to make a start without the mustard and thank goodness we did as it never turned up. Throughout the meal, no one came to check on us, clearly as they knew we were still missing a requested sauce. The most confusing thing is why we weren’t just told you didn’t have Dijon??

When plates were cleared this was flagged to our waitress who acted shocked that we hadn’t received the Dijon, despite specifically asking her multiple times and it being her that said she’d be back with it.

All in all the food was very average but ultimately the service ruined it. We’ve just been on holiday where we had average food but service was exceptional which makes you forget about the bland food you’re eating but this unfortunately wasn’t the case here.

Having never been before I was genuinely excited to eat here but for sure not return after this....

Just visited this place for the valentines set menu priced at £39 per head before any drinks. My partner had originally booked an outside pod for us both so we was away from the crowd and had our own peace and private setting. And upon arrival we were off to bad start from the jump when the staff made us aware they had double booked the pods and there wasn’t one available for us. They offered us a complimentary drink each for the disappointment. Getting onto sitting at the table the waitress was slow at getting to us to even take our drinks order. When she finally arrived at the table we placed our drinks order and she never once asked us about food if we even ready to give the food order. The drinks came around 15 minutes later. Even though a couple sitting across from us arrived after us they received their drinks before us even though we obviously ordered before them. Back to the drinks my drink came wrong what I ordered was a rum and coke and what arrived was a whisky and coke. We’d been at the table 1 hour and 15 minutes and all we’d had was starters. Although both starter and main course was beautiful with it being valentines we decided to go for the ‘deluxe’ sharing platter for pudding although there was no description of what it was now I understand why because it was quite frankly embarrassing what they dished up. Got the bill asked for the manager explained all of the above and all we received was a whimpered apology and he offered to give us the drinks free which we was already getting anyway because of the f**k up to start with after they’d doubled booked the pod. May I just add for the period me and my partner were sat at the table the pod outside lay empty the whole time🤣. The manger then proceeded to bring the updated bill over and left it with us. 10 minutes went past and still no one came over to allow us to pay for the food we just wanted to get out the place and leave at this point. I had to leave the table and take my bill into the bar area just to get a member of staff to pay for the food. We’ve been multiple times before and it’s never disappointed but this has just been a our and our shocking experience. We will not be returning again& I’d strongly advise others not too. Two words,...

Booked for 8:30, arrived on time, ordered drinks at the table after maybe 10 mins. Waitress came back to take food order at 8:45, before our drinks had come. Drinks arrived shortly after. Then began the long wait for food. Food eventually arrived at 9:30, which in itself is bad. You expect to be eating something well within an hour of arriving.

What made it worse was that when we arrived we were surprised not at how busy it was, because it was a Friday night, but at how packed-in the tables were. They'd fitted in as many tables as they could. I ordered the pie which came with chips or mash. I asked if I could have half chips, half mash, but was told that this was not possible because it had already been portioned up. How then could this take 45 mins to arrive from when we ordered it?

When the food arrived it wasn't great. The cheapest mains were around £15 and they were what you'd expect from a £10 mains kind of pub. The pie seemed very microwaved, chips were nice, gravy was excellent. My partner had cannelloni which was absolutely drowned in cheese to the point she couldn't taste anything except cheese.

We were offered a desert menu but we said that we couldn't be bothered with the wait.

When we left, we told the waitress that we hadn't left a tip because the service was really slow, but said that it was not her fault. She said that they're short staffed in the kitchen but they're working on it, and she apologised. If you're short staffed, why have you taken bookings for every possible table, and why have you also rammed as many tables in as possible?

A very disappointing...