Jenny Wren — Restaurant in Borough of Swale

Came here for lunch today with my partner. We have never been here before, and probably won't be returning unfortunately.

I know this is a bit of a pub / restraunt chain, and I don't expect great things but I was rather disappointed with most aspects of this lunch.

First off, we entered to a quiet, calm, happy place with polite staff. Good start. But that's about where the good ends to be honest. We weren't greeted at the door where we waited to be seated, just hurled at from across the bar and told to sit where we like. We chose the quieter end of the location and took our seats. After a few minutes, small issues were noticeable that really did let this place down and gave us an indication of what we were in for.

There was a spider web in the light above us, which hangs down over the table. The tables are sticky, even after wiped. The chairs in all honesty, are filthy ... And I mean filthy. The menus are sticky, the place has a stale smell about it, and the cutlery we didn't trust so we just used our hands to eat.

30 minutes after ordering, our mozzarella dough balls arrived. They were good. Nice tasting, fresh and served in a small bowl. Good. Happy with them. But then we waited another 30 minutes (a whole hour after ordering) for our burgers and chips to arrive.

This was disappointing as the place was fairly quiet when we arrived, but an hour later, had become quite busy. The food was piping hot from the inside, I'd say too hot in the middle, indicating the food had been warmed in a microwave, but, the burgers ( both mine and my partners ) were burnt. And believe me, it was no "char" or anything seasoned, they were simply burnt. We know this because we had the same burgers at the five bridges on the island, and they were perfect.

I also crunched down on something so hard, I thought my tooth had come out but it hadn't. It was just a chunk of burnt beef.. to top off our lovely burnt burgers, the lettuce was very clearly out of date. As you can see from the photos, they were brown, wilted, and smelt crap. We actually removed the lettuce from our burgers and placed it in a bowl. The chips were ok and the onion rings were nice and crispy.

Overall, the average food, the very slow service, and the janky tables and seats made for a less than average experience today. Just glad we had a discount to use and didn't pay full price.

We swiftly left when someone started hacking up behind us and coughing her lungs up, several mothers waltzed in with buggies and prams, and the lads started to gather in the beer garden...

Overall, you'll get better elsewhere, for less. I did expect more from a place that looks fairly nice from the outside, but very clearly needs some money spent...

We visited the restaurant as part of a large group booking of 20. No wait for a table as we had pre booked. To their credit, the wait time for both food and drinks was reasonable despite the size of our party, which we appreciated. That said, there were a few issues that took away from the overall experience. One drink was missing, we had ordered seven Pepsis but only received six. The staff member giving us the drinks told us that we had only ordered six, even though the receipt clearly showed seven. Once we proved this we then received the missing drink. The food was a mixed bag. Some dishes were okay, but quite a few were overcooked, particularly the meats in the burgers and mixed grills, which were more burnt than grilled. The cheesy garlic bread was especially disappointing: no visible cheese and very dry and burnt. We also ordered wings, 10 piri piri and 5 BBQ, but the order received was incorrect. When we pointed this out and asked for the missing 5 piri piri wings, they agreed and then a couple minutes later they told us that we need to pay for them again which we did, despite the mistake being on their end. While we understand that errors can happen especially with a large booking, it was disappointing how the situation was handled. When it came to dessert, the ice creams were supposed to come with two wafers, but each arrived with only one. It might seem like a minor detail, but when you're paying for a product and don’t receive it as described, it’s fair to mention. It’s the small things that add up to the overall experience. The staff were professional in their communication, although their overall demeanour came across as disinterested and unenthusiastic. There was a noticeable level of sarcasm in some responses, and visible eye rolls when we answered their questions. While we recognise that large group bookings can be challenging, the attitude began before any issues had even occurred, which made the atmosphere feel less welcoming than it could have been. I will say that one member of staff with brunette hair, didn’t catch her name, is not included in the above, she was polite smiling and could not fault her service at all. Overall, while the service was prompt and the basics were covered, the food quality and handling of customer concerns left room for improvement. To be clear, this review isn't written to simply complain or be a “negative Nancy,” but to reflect honestly on the experience we had and to inform others of what they might expect. We hope it helps both potential customers and the restaurant in improving the service...

We moved to Sittingbourne last month and were looking for a good place to visit for the occasional Sunday meal. Finding Jenny Wren, Sittingbourne 7 mins drive from home seemed a good place to start.

Should have know from the greeting on entering what was to come. Staff member seemed disconnected and not at all friendly. Not smiling and was no welcoming tone to his voice. Said we'd like a carvery, to which he replied "we don't do carvery". It was us that instigated that we'd choose something from the menu despite looking forward to a nice roast... then he said "oh we do a Sunday roast"! We were shown to a table and given 1 menu for the 3 of us, which had food inside as we opened it and told to go to the bar to order. One of the cloth chair was stained and grubby and the table sticky with crumbs of food. We should have just left at this point but we were hopeful the food would be worth it.

On ordering at the bar we were told there was no chicken (couldnt server not have told us that on seating us!). We ordered 2 beef roasts instead and sausage & mash.

It was nice we didn't have to wait long for it to arrive but we're disappointed the 3 sausages were burnt and covered in cremated onion, the peas were like bullets and the gravy like water. Our beef roasts consisted of 3 slices of chewy, gristle beef, 4 quarter potatoes barely roasted, paxo stuffing cooked within an inch of its life, blanched cabbage & leek, bullet peas carrots (nothing bad to say about these) and a flat thin "batter". The only thing that gave the food flavour & warmth was the horseradish as the whole meal was tasteless and cold (yes even the water gravy).

Most of the food was left as we considered it uneatible. We did try telling the person who seated us (who turned out to be the manager) but he shrugged his shoulders and returned to playing/watching his phone.

Let's just say it was the worse £33 (we weren't even given a receipt) we have ever spent on a meal and we would never return. A complaint will be sent to Marstons as they certainly need to know the attitude isn't suitable any more...