Victoria Pub & Kitchen — Restaurant in Bath

I don't usually leave bad reviews but unfortunately, I've been left with no other choice on this occasion. A friend of mine originally had issues with booking on the day we wanted as even though their advert stated we could book a Christmas meal any day of the week, we were advised the Christmas meal was not available on a Sunday. This was questioned by my friend who had enquired and was resolved relatively quick. This was booked well in advance, back in October and we were all looking forward to finally getting the gang together and looking forward to what was supposed to have been a nice Christmas meal.

The day arrives - one of my friends was struggling to decide what to order to drink and instead of the waiter advising that he would come back when she was ready, he just got frustrated and walked off. If we wanted that kind of service we would have decided to go eat at Karens Diner instead! We then had to wait for the waitress to bring the drinks the rest of us had ordered so my friend could then order her drink.

The starters were brought out which I am glad I went for as unfortunately, the main was below par to all of our expectations. Whilst the Beef I had was cooked to perfection, all the veg was still hard and raw - especially the sprouts which we could barely get a fork in some of them! One of the girls nearly shot a roast potato across the table trying to cut it as they were so hard. Some of us left most of the veg on our plates after eating a few bits and realising they were far from cooked. The only thing that made up for it was the Baileys cheesecake we had for dessert. When it came to paying, we all paid individually at the till and that took longer than necessary as the lady at the till couldn't tell us to begin with why we were being charged more than we were expecting. It was supposed to have been £35 each minus the £10 deposit we had already paid upon booking and plus any drinks we had. We all only had one soft drink each and we were being charged £32 - surely the soft drinks did not cost £7.00 each. We questioned why we were being charged more and the lady at the till seemed just as confused as we were. As we're not the type to cause a scene and we just wanted to get together and have a nice meal, we just paid what we owed. It wasn't until after a few of us had already paid that we were told there was a service charge added on top. If we had known this beforehand we would not have paid considering the service we had and the condition of the vegetables.

To add insult to injury, fast forward a few hours and myself and a few other girls spent the majority of our night/early hours in the bathroom, not knowing which end to face towards the toilet! We suspected food poisoning, so when I had stopped hugging both the toilet and a bucket, I made an appointment with my GP and our suspicions were confirmed. It's been 4 days and I am still not feeling 100% and have only managed to eat one meal.

The friend that arranged the booking contacted Victoria Pub & Kitchen to tell them this and they advised we could go back and have a discount as a gesture of good will. Go back?? No thank you!! My friend obviously refused the offer and whoever she spoke to said she would get the manager to call my friend back. He called back a few hours later and my friend explained the situation. He said that he couldn't get his head around the fact that we had food poisoning even though we had different meals...I'm sorry, but if you know nothing about cross contamination then should you really own an establishment that serves food? He then advised that he would have to call her back. Three days later and she still has not received a call.

We were all served food that was clearly not fit for consumption and we paid £42.00 each for the privelidge as well as loss of earnings from taking time off work due to being ill.

We definitely won't...

Today 18th August, I had a roast beef dinner, with a side of cauliflower cheese. Arrived looking very nice. After a while, I told staff that the roast potatoes had a wierd taste. They asked the kitchen what they do with the potatoes, they told me that it's winter spices that was on the potatoes. Now by this time my stomach was really churning. I said that I needed to know what this winter spice was. I had not eaten much of the dinner and only one out of the three potatoes. Eventually they came back and told me the potatoes were coated with salt, pepper and star anise. I said that I could not see any mention of this coating on the menu and for some people this can cause an illergic reaction. I showed a staff member what Google said about star anise, which was considered generally safe but for some people it can cause a reaction. I don't understand why they are using it in this way. I was offered a discount which I took, but disappointed that it was only 20%. I paid and left, got back to were I was staying and had to go to bed, as by then felt very ill. This place was not my first choice to eat because the reviews had people saying that the potatoes were tasting weird, but the closes to where I was staying. They need to stop putting this coating on, it was not a light...

Lovely place chosen for atmosphere and proximity to park for the kids. However, Sunday roast was so disappointing. We had American visitors and I'm honestly embarrassed and wish I'd just cooked at home instead. The plates only looked half full, we all waited thinking there would be more potatoes and veg coming, be when I asked I was told that was it. There was one stick each of carrot and parsnip, both lovely and cooked well, but that was it for veg for an adults portion, a small spoon of mash sweet potato which was watery and pretty much what I weaned babies on, three small to medium sized pieces of roast potato that didn't seem fresh and weren't warm throughout, a yorkie and meat that was so tough we had to use steak knives. I've never had a roast with no greens on, this was a real shame. We were all still hungry when we got home and ended up filling up on crumpets. The kids eat most things, but not parsnip, so I asked for more carrots for them, they took so long to arrive that 3/4 kids had finished their (tiny) meal. For £17.50 this was appalling. We had ordered a side of cauliflower cheese and this was nice. Maybe the normal menu is better, but I'd avoid the...