The Wheatsheaf — Restaurant in Borough of Runnymede

Visited the restaurant with my boyfriend in occasion of this past bank holiday weekend and we couldn't have been more dissatisfied and unhappy with the service received. We were welcomed by a host who asked us where we preferred to be served, if indoors or outdoors and then, when chosen outdoors, simply pointed us to the area rather than walking us to the tables. We sat at one of the empty tables and ordered at the bar, as suggested. My boyfriend had to pay in advance, service charge included BUT had to carry the drinks out himself. Shortly after, a lady who had sat across our table started smoking and her smoke would arrive to our side. As non-smokers, we were quite upset at that and then, noticed, on the other side of the restaurant, behind a kid's head, a very small writing in white, on the wooden fence "No Smok..." that was all I could read from my seat. At the first opportunity, I called the same host who welcomed us and asked if it was okay for us to change our seat and move to the Non smoking area. The member of staff, he didn't have a name tag, very rudely said that if we had already ordered food, we couldn't move as they were very busy and "wouldn't be able to look for us on another table". I responded that the reason for this change would be the lack of proper information, signs and communication of the restaurant and staff around the smoking/non smoking policies of the place. The person, in the most condescending and rude way, took the ash tray on our table and pointed at it saying "didn't you see this?! The non-smoking sign is very visible there". The fact that I had seen the ash tray did not translate into there being two separate areas and unless there's a big sign at the entrance or I am told that you do have this separation, I'm not going to think you do have it.

The starter then arrived, with two small plates and no cutlery and once again, we had to get our own cutlery. The plates were dirty. My boyfriend ordered a side of chips with his main which were instead brought out with the starter, 3 times. Where's the service we paid for?

Finally, the service of this person was absolutely appalling and not satisfactory in the slightest. Would not ever set foot there again, especially considering that the food is extremely overpriced for the quality and service provided. And would urge to train your staff adequately to, at least, show...

AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!! 1 star doesn’t even reflect the awful service we received here 0 stars! We came for Sunday roast asked if we could sit at the tables which were full of mess and asked if they were reserved we were told no they are not reserved and to allow them to clear tables, we ordered drinks and food and towards end of our meal a member of staff asked if we had reserved the table we sat on and the tables next to them to which we replied no however we asked if we could sit here and was told yes by a member of staff...he said nothing more and we Carried on finishing our meals...we were then greeted by a woman who started off the convo with ‘yeh we have a party here and you somehow managed to sneak down here when it’s reserved, you said you asked the manager which is me, so nice try as I didn’t confirm you could sit here, we have a party here at 15:30 (it was currently 14:53) so you’ll need to move’ I was shocked at her behaviour and choice of words I replied we did not say we asked the manager and simply a member of staff she claimed ‘well that’s what my staff member has told me’ I could not believe how rude she was and her choice of disgraceful words. As a manager in hospitality I do not expect her to treat paying customers in this way. She was passive aggressive and patronising to anything we said after that and offered no apology, our table was cleared by the original staff member who snapped ‘finished?’ Before picking up things with no thank you or please or excuse me. Disgusting behaviour, judging by the response the owner gives to negative reviews on their google page I am not holding out hope for any service recovery however would like to warn other prospective customers away from this awful place.

(Reading the ‘owners’ response below highlights just how professional this excuse of an establishment is, learn to treat your customers with respects and accusing us again of things we haven’t done just adds to how disgraceful your attitude was!...

Absolutely disappointing with terrible management! I meant to write this review a few weeks back! My mother, sister and I went to the wheat sheaf for a Sunday roast and before sitting down we asked if there was anything on the menu that they didn’t have…we were told only the roast pork which was great because we didn’t want that! We ordered two veggi roast meals and one steak.

We were then told that there was no vegetarian option so we substituted for a mushroom pie. We were then approached many times again to inform us that many things on each of our orders was not available!

The meal finally came with half the items on the menu missing and raw undercooked watery veg to accompany…the food was also cold. (Oh sorry I forgot to mention, my mum was give orange squash instead of fresh orange juice which she ordered whilst we were waiting!)

We said we were not happy to pay for the main meals as they were not what we ordered (no stuffing, no glazed carrots, no seasonal veg!) and by now it was to late to go anywhere else, plus we were hungry, I’m pregnant and my mum had taken her diabetes medication!

We were approached by a manager named Philip who we thought was coming to apologise for all the unavailability but instead said that he was taking our plates away to take pictures of our food to show his manager as to why we were unsatisfied!

He was rude, aggressive and made no sense at all as to why he was taking the meals away when we suggested he could take pictures at the table…there was no apology or customer service for our inconvenience. He was quite happy for us to leave without having eaten.

At the end of the day you can’t expect customers to pay full price for a meal if they are not getting what you have advertised on the menu! He also spoke to us so rudely in front of other customer which completely embarrassed my OAP mum.

If there was less then one star I would have...