The Marlborough Tavern Bath — Restaurant in Bath

We came last weekend and had a great time. We ordered some of the small plates and a couple bottles of wine. The food was good and their beer garden is lovely.

I am however slightly irked that I paid for service charge.

I ordered our first drinks at the bar and was told I had to return to make a food order. This was no problem.

I returned to the bar. After ordering our food, I was provided with some cutlery at the bar and so I set our table. That was absolutely fine.

Our food was good and it arrived promptly. I would note that no one came to check in on us after the food had arrived. We had empty plates stacked on our table for some time after we finished. The pub wasn’t particularly busy. To be honest, I’m not too fussed about any of it but I feel these are the most basic steps in service.

I returned to the bar to order a second order of drinks and food. Our first drinks were never cleared. Doesn’t bother me.

Neither of the two members of staff I interacted with made much of an effort to pretend like they were welcoming. That’s okay, I don’t take it personally.

I returned to the bar. I asked for the bill, which included the service, around 100£, and I felt uncomfortable asking them to remove the service. Tronc is not an insignificant part of someone’s paycheck. I work in a pub.

As a business, if you don’t do the bare minimum, you have no right to charge service. You’ll say it’s discretionary, I know, but if you were more honest you’d never have added onto our bill in the...

I have frequented the Marlborough since it was taken over by the current team which must be about 10 year ago and I totally rate this place. Good beers, good food and service. However I think it’s over priced. I live in London and prices are high even at London standards for pub food. Also when I called to reserve a table I was told they had nothing available. I took the chance and turned up anyway and we were given a table straight away. Most tables had reservations on them, but between 1 & 2pm at least half the tables weren’t occupied. Also told they were not serving food in the garden area. Weather was a very mild 12 degrees and sunny. I guess short staff would have stopped them opening service in the garden, but we could have happily sat outside and eaten. On leaving the pub was by no means full and very few people outside. Maybe dropping the prices and being more flexible with bookings would help bring a buzz back as competition is high in the Bath area. What do I know though. I am just the customer. I have been to quite a few pubs though. Come on The TAV! Get your...

Sadly a very poor experience at this gastro pub today. We went because of the good reviews. We sat outside and after waiting 15 minutes for anyone to come to us to serve a drink I used the web facility to order a drink. After another 15 minutes a waitress emerged and told us that the order had not gone through. Another 5 minutes and we got our first drink - so 35 minutes total wait. Giving benefit of doubt we went inside to eat. Ordered grilled prawns, mackerel pate and Greek salad. Prawns were cold, pate tasteless with limp warm bread ( not toasted). The salad was ok. Pretty awful experience and when the pleasant waitress that we asked for our bill from asked us the usual ‘how was it all’ , we told her our experience. She promptly got our bill ( the quickest service we got ) apologized profusely but charged us the full amount and the mandatory 10% tip. Hopefully there must be better places to eat and...