The Watermill Beefeater — Restaurant in Basildon

I have been to this beefeater on several occasions and I have only ever had bad experiences. The times we have been for drinks we are made to wait at the bar for 10+ minutes with staff walking past without acknowledging us which I find to be very poor customer service. When we do get served it is rushed by rude members of staff. Many of them seem young and very immature. I have over heard the younger members of staff talking badly about other staff which again, very unprofessional. There is a short blonde lady who swears and speaks abruptly behind the bar. There is young girl with piercings who has the complete wrong attitude to be working in such environment ( only two examples). I have experience in bar and restaurant work and under no circumstance have I ever spoken rudely to a customer the way these guys do. They are clearly under poor management who aren’t worried about the representation of the company.

Despite our bad experience drinking in the pub, I then took my son for some food as we are very local. I ordered him a pizza off the kids menu. When it came out, the pizza slices was stacked on top of each other meaning all the cheese had stuck to the slice on top. Why on earth would any chef stack a pizza? Especially for a child, obviously they were unaware of how fussy my son is with food but I’ve never been somewhere that does this so was shocked when it did come out. I managed to sort this out myself without assistance of staff. We were then asked 4-5 times during our meal if it was okay. I explained I wasn’t particularly happy with my sons meal yet nothing was suggested to resolve this. Whilst eating at a restaurant I do not expect to be approached that many times. I was also referred to as “babe” and “hunny”.. not a way to speak to a customer. We then went on to dessert and ordered Churros. They came out FROZEN. We did complain, again nothing was done to resolve this issue. I’ve never been somewhere with such poor customer service. Some staff look untidy, with hair everywhere. My personal experiences have been awful, but I have spoken to others who have also agreed this is the absolute last pub/ restaurant they would go to.

I can well imagine there are good members of staff there, I just haven’t had a pleasant experience there, ever. Staff need the correct training, a keep gossiping to themselves, especially in front...

I would like explain my recent experience with you, we had booked accommodation with the Premier Inn next door and looked forward to enjoying our evening meal & breakfast at the Beefeater Restaurant. Our table was booked for 7.30pm. we arrived to the restaurant in a prompt and timely manner. It was explained there had been no note received from the Premier Inn at booking that we had wanted our 3 separate table bookings merged together so we could be a party of 7 we were given a table for 5 and a table for 2 next to us albeit with a post in between but we made the best of our seating arrangements. Our server was polite and introduced herself, we later found out this was her first full shift, but no complaints she went up and beyond in her service toward our party. After waiting 2 hours and still no starters, I had approached the shift manager now identified to me as Pete, he told me food was on its way!! 10 mins later mine and my daughters starters were placed on the table, I then questioned the manager on how long the rest of our parties food would be he stated because we wanted your starter first this was what was holding the rest of our food order up, he said the restaurant was busy although there were 6 empty tables in the area we were sitting and I begged to differ with his excuse for poor waiting time, at this he started waving his arms in the air, blaming us for wanting our starters as starters and became exceptionally rude, and extremely unprofessional for a Manager. The new member of staff was more professional than him on her first full shift!! Our girls had been competing at a competition all day, wanted to eat and get an early night and after waiting as long as we had it was a nightmare of an experience. I was very disappointed in the service from the Manager of such a well known and established company like Beefeater which is such a shame especially in this economic climate that going out for a meal now is an expense that is done less frequently. On a positive note the food when we finally received it after 2.5 hour wait was good quality, hot and good value. Breakfast was a better experience and food service was...

Customer service - I would give a zero if I could. The other team members on the day tried to make you feel somewhat welcome but with only 4 staff on site excluding the kitchen of course customer service would be appalling. Lady standing as a welcome to customers told my husband that she was reporting him to her manager because she didn’t like his “tone”. He simply asked why they had run out of roasts when it’s a Sunday and generally come here for a roast. She got upset and said she’s not the one who makes the rules and he would need to speak to the manager. My husband said no it wasn’t an issue just curious. Which is normal considering it markets itself as a great place for grills and a roast.

Food - extremely poor quality. Please do not bother going. The restaurant is mostly empty. We were told there weren’t enough roasts at first. Then another waiter asked the chef and was told there was enough. The roast came and I couldn’t believe it. Veg soggy, roast potatoes not brown and seemed only boiled, the lamb was the best part as it wasn’t over cooked. Everything else was lacking.I had a vegetarian grill which apparently is supposed to be great. We received one small mushroom, one over done sausage, one very dry and black hockey putt type of vegetarian chicken (don’t need it as it tastes horrible), hard peppers that were not grilled through. I could go on. Don’t provide vege options that aren’t up to standard.

We used to go to one in Harlow and Hertfordshire and they are great. This site is lacking and needs a lot of work. Maybe a new chef? Maybe hire more staff to cope with the stress? If not rather close the site as you’re losing business. It is definitely the worst eating experience I have had in a...