The Garden Room — Restaurant in Birmingham

This is my 4th time coming to this restaurant (The Garden Room) in 2 months. Usually everything is average: Food & Service but this time the food was below average & service was simply poor. I raised issue with 3 members of staff and nothing was done other than to make funny faces at me as if I were an idiot for raising the issue, it was both rude and showed how poorly they had been trained in giving good service.

Below average dining experience unfortunately this won't improve without honest feedback reviews like this one. Food both taste and how it looks is below Wetherspoons quality, the thing that makes this place popular is the atmosphere and nice restaurants vibes but that is it.

1st Issue Raised: Watery Mushy Peas. I asked why the mushy peas looked so watery, I tried to give them a stir and it was more water than peas. I raised this with the server who gave me a confused look as if these were normal mushy peas. I eat out 2 times a week and have done for 3 years and I've never seen mushy peas in a pot of water. I googled what mushy peas looked like and asked another server if they thought they looked normal... They looked at me as if I were an imbecile which frustrated me so I showed them the Google pictures of mushy peas and only at this point did they see what was wrong. Then they blamed how the mushy peas came to the restaurant and walked off. I was left with the vibes of they couldn't be bothered to sort it out. I then raised it again with a 3rd member of staff and they laughed it off. Frankly the attitude of this place needs some sort adjustments. I quickly paid for my share and left.

2nd issue: why ask if you want ice and then ignore the answer? If you bother to ask if someone wants ice or not at least follow through on their answer. Shows again how little they care about good service.

I am sorely disappointed in this place and wouldn't recommend it for any food, only hot chocolates which fortunately are hard to mess up.

I don't like to give low star reviews but there's no way a place can get better without honesty. The Garden Room needs to work on training their staff better in service, ensuring there's quality assurance in the kitchen for food going out and improving the quality of the food being prepared.

The time I visited before this I booked in advance (they got the name wrong despite spelling it over the phone)... The Sunday dinner was frankly just not good. The dessert...

EDIT: After reading your response, I would like to point out that, there were no people of colour serving so your claim to be diverse is questionable, and as you stated you're a small family run business, we would have liked to have complained, however we were unable to bring this to the attention of your staff, who were busy ignoring us, I'm sure if you look at your cctv you will clearly see my friend putting her hand up for service on several occasions and blatantly being ignored by your staff who walked past our table, several times and this wasn't when they had any food or drinks in hand for other customers. After reading other people's feedback, I am inclined to agree that your customer service is very poor, to the point of rudeness.

After our experience, we will not be returning to your establishment.

My friends and I visited this establishment this afternoon and to say that as an English woman I was embarrassed is putting it mildly. I sat and watched multiple members of staff ignore my friends who are of colour, my friends tried on several occasions to attract staff members attention and were blatantly ignored and left waiting. When my friends tried to get service, staff members walked past at quite a fast pace without acknowledging my friends. I also watched other customers who came into the establishment after we were seated get served before us. At one point my friend even went to the counter to ask for assistance and was told to take a seat and someone would attend our table, and then she was ignored.

I found the whole experience rather uncomfortable and embarrassing. I have never experienced this before and do not wish to experience this again, and I find the whole situation detestable.

If I could leave zero stars I would as this whole ordeal...

Eat here on a weekly basis. Expensive but the food is always nice. The girls are usually friendly too. Popped in on Christmas Eve to pick up some vouchers as stocking fillers. Rude arrogant cocky assistant - Alison. I have never experienced this in all the time we've eaten in here. Really amateur pieces of tatty blue paper badly printed. Crossed through on the back presented in a curled up white envelope. When I asked if that was it she chose to ignore me and carried on writing them out - its the 21st century and we are in Boldmere! She then asked for the money. On the second occasion I said they are for gifts they look terrible. The response thats all we've got. On reflection I should have said no thanks I'll go elsewhere. Really disappointed and to be perfectly honest I would be embarrassed to give these to anyone and explain that the crossing out was not my doing that they are in fact vouchers although they say something different on the reverse. Off to costa coffee for gift cards!

That's left a very bad feeling...