The Darby Digger — Restaurant in Basildon

Went for a meal on Friday evening, as we have used this restaurant before as it is handy. There were three of us. The orders were scampi chips and peaskthey had run out of mushy peas) , a carvery order, and the Fish and chip platter (that I'd had a couple of times before. The platter contains a piece of fish,sausage in batter, choice of peas ,Extra chips and two slices of bread with butter. Firstly the platter came on a standard plate (instead of the usual larger platter dish ) . The chips totaled about fifteen, no where enough to go with the sausage and fish, and not an Extra chip sized portion as stated on the menu (and as per supplied on previous visits ) I actually had a portion the same size as came.with the scampi and chips. I queried this with the waitress and she disappeared to the kitchen, eventually came back with the order reciept and said I didn't order extra chips. I explained I didn't say that, I said that they hadn't supplied what was on the menu...it should be a larger portion, she disappeared again to the kitchen ....I continued to eat as I like.my food hot. When she eventually came back she said the chef said that was the portion. I told her to get the manager, who eventually decided to come over from the bar, and explained the whole thing ,from not being on a platter sized plate to not supplying the extra chip size portion with the meal. She disappeared ,came.back and s say anything about extra chip sized portion, waving a menu at my face. I stopped eating, put my glasses on and took the menus from the table and showed her....she seemed annoyed that I was right and disappeared off to the kitchen....for ages, and by now I had just about finished my meal when she came back, and her answer was several from we have trainees to a new process of portioning. I repointed out the menu listing,the size of the portio of chips and comparing it to the serving with the scampi and chips and she came back with the chef said he'd put too many chips on the scampi plate and I had the correct portion...on the question of why it was not served on the larger platter plate she said nothing.

Now I've been here a fair few times, usually as a table for three, but I will no longer be using this restaurant,or franchise and will be passing on my experience to my friends and social network....

We left and got desserts on the...

After visiting stone house today. I’m more than disgusted. We came about 1pm and were served by a Lovely helpful man called Lloyd. We got 2 carvery’s and a burger meal. When going over to the counter we noticed the roast potatoes were really dry and not many left. We asked how long a new lot will be. To the right of us there was a staff meeting going on with around 8 people. Lloyd was running round doing about 3 people’s job as 1. Every now and then a man with a beard got up to help him the sat back down. We received the burger meal before the potatoes were even out and ready, which is so unusual. Lloyd was really apologetic and kept checking to see if they were ready. Once my mum and dad went up to the counter to get their carvery 40 minutes after entering the restaurant the meat was dry and all the veg looked like they were from yesterday. Nothing was fresh. My burger meal was missing the bacon and the manager came over and tried to tell me it was there once showing him the burger he finally got the bacon. I was in disgust watching what I watched today as a manager my self in nandos, I couldn’t help myself but make a complaint. Lloyd once again came to apologise and said he will speak to the manager regarding a refund. This was done. I then had to ask the manager if he thought holding a staff meeting at a peak time on a Monday at 1pm was considered acceptable. He said the general manager arranged the meeting and we just had to attend.

Another customer came in then walked straight out. 2 more people complaining regarding the condition the food was in. Another lady walked out and said note to myself don’t come in on a Monday again. The customers on the table next to us said how horrible the food was.

It seemed them having a staff meeting at 1pm peak lunch time was more important than the customers. This is a business, a lot of work needs doing in regard to the customer service. When mentioning we were going to make a complaint the manager just said yes. He didn’t seem he knew how to deal with the situation.

We are regulars in this restaurant, every time we come there is always something missing, or a wait on food.

I feel so sorry for Lloyd after watching him today he tried so hard to make our experience better. For all the other members of staff and managers, a lot of work...

Would never return EVER!! We arrive 25mins after them opening it was empty only 4 other groups of ppl sitting eating paid for the food n went to get it only to find there was hardly any food there n what was there looked as if it had been sitting under the heat lamps for hours did not look freshly cooked at all even tho they had only been opened for 35mins by this time Waited a very long time for them to cook some eggs n bake beans only for them to bring 5 eggs out!!! And no beans !! By this time there was at least 9 ppl waiting for eggs n the 5 they brought out went with the first 2 ppl in the line!! Paid extra for mushrooms only for them to forget to bring them to the table, while waiting the very long nearly 20mins wait for eggs to hear the cook say to the waitress that's all the bacon there is once its gone that's it!!! There literally was about 10/15 bits n they had only been open 40mins by this time!! Asked for a glass of water for my son at the bar to be told we don't charge for water you can help yourself to it after looking around the drinks area for 10mins trying to find where to get it went back to bar area asked a waitress as she walked by only to be told that yeah that's your water at the end of the bar!! Found a glass of water just sitting at the end of the bar which they clearly couldn't be bothered to either hand to us at the time of ordering or bring to our table shocking customer service!!! Went to make our teas only to find no hot water!! Had to wait for it to be fill up n then wait for it to be heated up the whole thing was an absolutely joke would never recommend this place n would never come back again. should...