The Dukes Beefeater — Restaurant in Bassetlaw

Having stayed overnight in the Premier Inn attached, I thought I would go to the Beefeater for a Sunday roast. Booked a table the previous day for 12pm and on arrival was told the table wasn't ready and to wait in the bar area. At this point the restaurant was empty except for 2 other customers. 10 minutes later I watched the male waitress pick up a table and move it over to a wall and put cutlery on it and told me my table was now ready.

It took a while before I was asked if I wanted a drink, and the couple seated opposite were already frustrated at the disorganisation and left.

Again the drink took quite a while to arrive. The day prior when I booked my table, I enquired if it was possible to have the full Sunday roast minus the meat as I'm vegetarian- they said that wasn't a problem. Once in the restaurant, I asked the same. My food took a significant time to arrive considering only one other couple at this point had their order taken. I watched as their food was sat waiting on the counter for 10 minutes before being handed to them! When mine arrived, it was clear they hadn't prepared all the food for the roasts in time as I watched while eating my meal them bring out additional items which they served on other peoples plates for the Sunday roast!

My meal was therefore consisting of very dry, almost chalky roast potatoes, parsnips, carrots, undercooked peas and undercooked cabbage. I watched as others got plated with brussel sprouts, Yorkshire puddings etc. I didn't feel able to challenge this as the staff never provided a Sunday roast menu, and I watched as another table asked for the Sunday roast menu and the staff told them there was one but then just listed the meats and said that's what it says on the menu so no point bringing it over! It was hard to get any staffs attention as they all seemed to not have a clue what they were doing and avoided eye contact. The kitchen staff were asking waitresses to fill jugs of water from the bar - maybe for gravy?

I got sick of waiting to try and get a staff members attention to ask for the bill, so went up to the station and asked them. They told me to wait as they then entered another tables order, then went back to that table to ask some questions and then do something else on the screen before letting me pay. The card machine then decided to re-load! I was advised to go to the bar to pay.

I went to the bar to pay and the member of staff began inputting it on the screen, and then saw customers walk in and although another staff member was dealing with them, he decided to go over and help her!! Once again, left waiting. In the end I got my bill and they tried to charge me £16.99 for a plate of vegetables!! I asked them where the reduction was as I barely had any food and the staff member agreed that they'd served me just vegetables and instead charged me just under £7. While this was happening, a waitress came over to the guy dealing with me and told him they were going to have to give somebody a free meal as they had 'been moaning multiple times about their food'.

I was really looking forward to a hearty roast before travelling back home. This was actually my first trip away since starting chemotherapy so was meant to be a real treat.

If the owners see this - I really think the staff need training to know what their roles are, customers service training and teaching that if a table is booked, it should be ready for that time. I couldn't believe I had to wait 10 minutes when the restaurant was empty bar a couple of people!!

(The picture attached was taken before I had...

Took my sister here for a birthday meal today, 4 of us dining.

Initially quite happy with the decor of the venue and look of the menu.

Sadly the entire experience was less than lacklustre as the service was particularly inattentive.

We arrived and almost as soon as we had sat down, were asked what our drinks were.

I’d barely looked at the food menu, let alone the drinks. Give us 10 minutes to have a look…

My other guests had cokes and lemonade, I went for a water as I’m not an avid fan of fizzy drinks.

To which the waitress asked; “Are you sure you just want water?” Honestly I wanted more time but it seemed she was short on that.

Yes I want water, that’s what I have asked for. Why are you challenging me?

The starters came out in good time and were well-presented, although my sister had to ask for some lemon Mayo for her calamari (someone had made the mistake of sending it out with sour cream).

This lemon dip never arrived. The tall, bearded gentleman who she had asked was busy clearing down tables…

I should however stress, it was not at all busy.

Even with dirty tables, customers had more seating available that would not have been engulfed in the time it would have taken this gentleman to fetch a dip. (A dip which was listed as being with the dish no less).

The wait for the mains seemed to take a little longer than anticipated. When they did come out, 3 of 4 mains were supposed to be with Skinny Fries, but all dishes came with Chunky Chips.

If they were out of Fries, we’d not been made aware.

My sister requested from our waitress that we had some sauces brought out. She gave us 2 pots of ketchup…

Nobody wanted ketchup and had she stopped to ask what we actually wanted, could have saved herself another trip.

We then requested the sauces we wanted and she did bring them over. (When asking for sauces, always ask the customers what sauces they’d like…Mayo…ketchup…brown…bbq…mustard.etc…)

Rushed into ordering drinks, dishes were served with incorrect chips, still waiting on a lemon dip for our starters…and for a place called “beefeater” I was hugely disappointed with my burger. A very thin patty, akin to that of McDonald’s.

The prawns on my “surf n turf” burger were lovely, but the burger itself…pretty much wasn’t there.

You usually have a bit of salad in your burger? I had a bit of burger in my salad. Most expensive salad of my life.

When 3/4 of us had finished our meals, the waitress came back to ask if we were finished.

She collects 3 plates and then turns to my partner and asks if she was done too!

With a mouthful of food she’s still chewing! How blatantly ignorant does one have to be, to not see that this person is still eating and therefore NOT finished?

And finally, a minor gripe this one; I ordered a rum and lemonade, which was served without a lime wedge.

Rum is served with lime.

Overall the food was okay, nothing to shout about. Flavours are all their and the presentation is great. But the FOH service/knowledge was lacking.

This could be a wonderful venue. If the servers could only make us feel like less of a burden. Then they could have...

Lovely interior shame the food didn't reflect. Ordered 2 adult burgers and one child's. Both adult burgers were £20 after adding a few extras which we did find to be more on the higher price bracket scale for a pub grub chain but we were more than happy to pay. We asked for the child's sided to come with the main it came within 5 minutes of sending our order off ... no biggy it kept the kids quiet. It's a good job it came out as a starter as there was quite a wait on food. We didn't seem to understand why? It wasnt busy and they were only a few burgers ?

When it arrived it didn't look much to say we added onto the burger and opted for the upgrade of cheese fries.

The cheese fries came with random peppers and tomatoes on don't know if they're trying like a salsa Mexican kind of spin off or something I did look on the menu and it didn't state peppers,however it did on the loaded fries menu as a additional side so maybe could be more info on the upgrade as appose to just loaded cheese fries.

The burgers were tasteless and dry. And there was a 50p sized dolop of coleslaw beside the burger ....

Needless to say I was still hungry and craved to be forfilled hence adding additional etc...

The kids meal was well a kids meal however we did have to take the bun off as my 3 year old couldn't bite into it not sure if it was stale or just a hard bun.

The waiting staff were lovely although when asked if we enjoyed and said no it was just a oh ok I'm sorry about that ...

I'm aware the staff can't really do much if you didn't enjoy your meal but I didn't get the reasoning for asking if no feedback was to be given regarding our experience.

£60 down the drain and we ended up spending a further £20 on a maccys over the road 🙃

Other bits on the menu looked lovely and seem to have great reviews on here however won't be burning a hole in our pocket to find...