The Red Lion - JD Wetherspoons — Restaurant in Amber Valley

The food is exactly what you'd expect from a Wetherspoons - very average, but it's cheap, edible & cooked properly (or at least ours was), so it fills a hole, as they say.

During our visit, my friend ordered everything via the app, which didn't seem very user-friendly and only notified her that our first choices of food was unavailable as she tried to place the order, so we had to start again and choose other options, meaning it took much longer than it should have done.

The service we received during our visit was poor and quite frankly, odd! Firstly, the food arrived before our drinks which was bizarre and my friend also ordered a side portion of cheese for me, as I felt particularly hungry and wanted to sprinkle it over my chips. When we noticed the extra cheese missing as our meals were served to us, my friend mentioned this to the server, who advised that his colleague in the kitchen didn't know whether I wanted the portion of cheese grated in a bowl, or just adding as an extra slice of cheese on my BBQ chicken, which already comes with 1 x slice...Obviously, the former was what I wanted, but since the member of staff in the kitchen made an incorrect assumption, instead of asking one of the serving staff to check with me like she should've done, I received the latter. It didn't seem worth making a fuss about a bit of cheese, so I let it go, especially because I highly doubt it would have gotten me anywhere anyway. Lastly, just to top off the bad service, I ordered two drinks - a soft drink and cup of tea. The hot drinks at this branch of Wetherspoons are refillable, so you're usually just given a mug and the rest is self-service, yet the same server who delivered our meals returned with the drinks, including my mug of tea, which already had a teabag in it and was filled with hot water, so when I asked him about the milk, he told to go and get it from the hot drinks station by the bar and said he hadn't brought me any, because he didn't know if I wanted it. Again, he should've asked if I needed milk and / or sugar, especially since he elected to put the teabag in the mug and fill it up with hot water for me in the first place.

I understand that this is Spoons and you don't expect five star service. Plus, for all I know, it could have been this poor lad's first day, but the lack of customer service / communication skills both amongst staff + between them and customers is embarrassing. This always boils down to bad management, so please train your...

Me and my friend used to come here every week, a regular meeting place for breakfast, we even knew most of the staff and they often saved us our little ‘booth’, we loved coming. This was our breakfast spot for a number of years. Then shortly after lockdown we resumed our breakfasts, but the place had a new manager. The manager had taken a disliking to us as we’d asked her why we had to get a clean cup in between refills of coffee, why couldn’t we keep our cup….a simple question, one which she didn’t know the answer to. We weren’t rude just simply asking a question. The following week we were exchanging our cups at the bar, chatting and laughing with staff/regulars, we’d sat down with our coffees when the manager came up to us and told us we were barred for ‘laughing at her’!!!! We tried to explain but she wasn’t interested. Shocked is an understatement Both me and my friend messaged Wetherspoon's customer service but they didn’t seem interested. We’ve since tried to go back to Red Lion but have been thrown out! All because she thought we were laughing/talking about her behind her back, which of course we weren’t. I wouldn’t go back now if you paid me, this woman needs to be sacked, she’s on a massive power trip, this was our regular for years and holds special sentimental memories for me, which she has now ruined. 1 star is too much I’d give -1 if I could! We had no problems with the old manager, in fact he used to come sit with us and have a chat...

Well I thought places being closed or the limited opening recently due to Coronavirus would give businesses an opportunity and the time to study how they deliver their business and their products. Not the case unfortunately with Ripley Wetherspoons, not at the moment anyway. We used to love dining here, the food was always excellent and served quicky and with a smile. But this wasn't the case on Sunday 15 August 2021 when we called in during the morning for an all day breakfast. We had to wait soo long that I was beginning to think they had forgotten us. The food finally arrived. Some of it was luke warm, the rest was cold. When the young lady appeared to ask if everything was ok with the meal, I told her it was cold and asked her if it had been left on a shelf because it also took a lot longer than usual. She apologised and off she went. No attempt made to rectify. Prices have gone up as well, understandable to a point but if businesses are forced to increase their prices then they ought to at least ensure they are delivering. I don't think we'll be going back or not for a while at least, hopefully as they get used to services as usual again things might start to improve. I really hope so as ordinarily there's nothing nicer than a...