Conningbrook - Ashford — Restaurant in Ashford

We ended up here after finding our pub of choice had a band..not food. Explained this to the staff, as rather hungry and was welcomed with the fact that food was still being served but not for much longer. We accommodated the kitchens needs and had ordered within 3 minutes of this advice. Not our usual choice.... not a lover of "franchise cuisine" but needs must. After ordering 2 x "on the menu items", 1 kids meal and the carvery (which we established we would obtain once the other covers had been delivered... it was a family meal out), we found our seats. Then we were told something was off menu so a re-order was made. When the food was delivered to the table, we were informed that the calvary had now shut, so the poor sod expecting that could have a refund...but no lunch. The children's meal was past inedible, which begs the question "how difficult is a ramekin of Bolognese, to get right?", the Menu burger looked, smelt and tasted as if the cow itself had rejected its own flesh, the ribs had clearly been cooked at some previous time or date and had been over tanned under a heat lamp but left the cold limp chips drowning in cold fat beneath and of course one of our table members had NO food at all. The ribs were swiftly expedited to the bar (no garden waiting staff), and after a brief reasoning as to why no one with a care for their own digestive system would even attempt to tackle them, was given, a rather uninterested "Youth" uttered something that made no clerical sense but the word "Refund" did sort of resinate. Whilst our rather less choosie children picked through what can only be described as "Pigs swill". We did see the duty manager being made aware of our complaint, she chose to not address, apologise or even reason, but instead cleared tables and and make no attempt hide the fact she was "mine sweeping the over half full return plates" she was collecting... possibly the reason for her size, but a bad choice in wearing coral which highlighted both her size and the guilty pleasure that had caused it. As we left, what we had hoped to be a nice family meal out, with what is a great, child friendly garden and not huge expectations of "bistro" food, but didn't even come close to what I refuse to even serve my dogs,.. No real apology was made, what appeared to be a table of local half-wits, had their own take on the situation and we returned back to civilisation and ordered a chinese take away, which actually is proving to be...

Absolutely would not recommend, Came this evening with family. Group of 9 -might I add only 4 adults. All ordered easy, then was told 20mins later that the starters we ordered had run out. Reorder different starters. 10 mins later , didn’t have them either. Then ordered starters again but was offended to change the bits that were missing- on said starters. 10 mins later again. ‘Sorry 2 main meals you’ve ordered have run out too. Not sure what’s going on there but, seriously abit of communication would be a start.

I think we dealt with about 4 members of staff and honestly only one was in my eyes any good at her job, (young lady with long brown hair). One of the party was so feed up at this point he decided to not bother and be meal-less.

When the starters finally arrived the -added bits (you know the replacements for the missing items) weren’t even on it.

Wrong drinks were delivered to the table. twice. Told the waiters this.

Now let’s get to the bill.

2 separate family’s, so two payments were taken, first gentleman paid on card. Then we noticed they had charged us for the missing items and the wrong drinks they delivered. AND THEY ADDED A Service charge. Now don’t get confused here. I’m not a tight arse but over my dead body was I paying for that. Nor was I paying for the wrong and missing items.

The waiter then took it upon herself to refund the first man (without asking) and then tell him he needed to pay the new amended amount. (It wasn’t he’s part of the bill, so completely irreverent). It was my part that was incorrect.

I then asked how long until his payment would be refunded and she’s snottily said ‘dunno about 5 days’ like she’s didn’t give a hoot. Unfortunately this man was paying via his phone and his phone had died after he made the first payment. I then asked why did you refund without asking first. It wasn’t his bill that was the issue. I’m not sure if she was being difficult or just didn’t have any form of common sense. But that could have been seriously embarrassing for people that might not have had extra in the bank to afford to pay for a meal twice.

Over all I think the staff massively lack skills such as team work, common sense, communication and manners.

The food wasn’t anything special either. We won’t be back.

And to the young lady with the long brown hair, -hunny, get a new job. You’re worth more that working...

We stayed the night last night to be honest now I'm only going off experiences from before when we arrived. We were waiting a while and then we actually went and got someone to check us in. We went up to the room. The rooms looked clean that was until we looked on the bed. There was a dead fly under the pillow and little black bits all over the sheets Now I know it's impossible to get everything off the sheets when you put them on clean, but to me this was unacceptable in my eyes it just seems to me that there is a lack of care when cleaning the rooms we have stayed in this hotel before. last year the year before and the year before that and we had no problems whatsoever. The staff tend to go missing but you know they could be working else where in the building anyway we went out for dinner because I'm not a particular fan of the food in the pub and then we came back. Even though we had turned our radiator off. It was extremely hot in the room. We had the windows open etc and it was still very very warm which led to an uncomfortable night sleep. It seems to me that they're not maximised in staff. The people that now own the hotel and pub seem to me that they are purely profiting rather than customer satisfaction. We have breakfast this morning and it was rubbish. The sausage was cheap and tasted like s* the egg wasn't even cooked properly and that was on my plate and my wife's. The mushroom tasted off. the only thing that was any good was the hash browns you get one slice of toast and that isn't even cooked the way I liked it. in a nutshell. Since this place has been taken over by redcat, it seems to me that the hell bent on just making money and not keeping with maintenance of the property, doubt there properly staffed and just need a general clean environment. Sadly to say we won't be returning to this hotel anytime soon. I thought I would put this on here because I don't like seeing people waste their money I speak the truth of all places and this one sadly...