Broad Oak — Restaurant in Broxtowe

Rude staff and over an hour wait just for dessert. Complete disaster.

Went to the Broad Oak one evening after a walk. Just wanted to quickly nip inside for a dessert and non-alcoholic drink each (so three in total).

We ordered at the bar and nobody said there would be a wait for food (albeit we weren’t even ordering a main meal, just three desserts).

The drinks came quickly. However, one of the desserts was the ‘Mini Pudding & Hot Drink’ deal, so it was a surprise the drink came separately.

After 20 minutes, our food hadn’t come so we asked at the bar and they said it was a 30 to 40 minute wait for food, as they were busy. Of course that’s a bit frustrating but these things happen so we weren’t too fussed. It just would have been good to know of the long wait before ordering. Either way, we hadn’t ordered any main meals; just a slice of dessert with a scoop of ice cream, so this shouldn’t really have taken that long anyway.

After 45 minutes, nothing came so we asked again and the server was very rude but she eventually said they’d look into it. After 1 hour, one server walked past our table with one of our three desserts and tried to give it to the table next to us. The table said they hadn’t ordered it so the server left with the food. I did ask if it was for our table as we had also ordered that same item. She sighed, gave me an extremely dirty look and walked off ignoring me. We asked again if it was for us whilst she was walking off, and once she was out of view, she shouted “No”. 2 minutes later she returned back to our table saying it was actually our dessert - surprise, surprise!

After 10 further mins, the other two deserts hadn’t come so we informed them we were still waiting for two more. The other server literally argued with us saying we only ordered one, which obviously wasn’t true. Eventually, she looked into it and the final two desserts were served. So they’d most likely forgotten about them. Had we not asked about it, we would’ve been waiting all day.

When the final two desserts came, one of them was the completely wrong item. The other one came with strawberries instead of raspberries (hardly a big issue, but another thing to add to the catalogue of disasters). So we just ate them, as we didn’t want to risk having to wait another hour for them to fix it!

So all in all, 3 desserts took almost 90 mins to arrive, 4 reminders and incredibly rude staff. Of course it must have been a busy day and the servers were stressed, but considering we were perfectly polite and not in any way unreasonable to them, it was a shock and also upsetting that they were so rude to us and even argued with us! And no matter how busy they were, a 90 minute wait and 4 reminders isn’t good enough for 3 simple desserts. If orders can’t be fulfilled in a reasonable timeframe, it would be sensible just to inform people of the long wait times before they order, or simply stop accepting orders to avoid disappointment.

Fortunately, the food was very good when it did finally arrive and the server did (finally) give an apology once they’d served all of our food, which was a bit of a shock given their earlier behaviour.

Unfortunately won’t be...

Having travelled the length and breadth of Britain many times I have been in some really bad rank pubs, but wow this place tops the list. First impressions were favourable, as from the outside this looks like a quaint country pub, and it's in quite a nice area. That's where the excitement and expectation ends I'm afraid. First thing I saw on entering was kids bikes? yes kids bikes in the restaurant bit of the pub. Now that tells me either the landlord doesn't care about anyone other than locals going in the pub or the area is rough and it's not safe to leave them outside, either way it doesn't give a great first impression. On entering the bar area we got stared at like we were aliens making us feel uncomfortable. Then the worse bit for me, the smell of stale beer was rancid from the rubber mats on the bar.. in fact the whole place was a bit stale and smelly. Only one of our party used the toilets and advised the rest of us not to! There was food going out that looked undercooked and not very appetising at all, so there was no chance we would eat there. We did wonder why most of the people eating there had their coats on, but I reckon that must be in order to make a speedy escape. The only saving grace was the younger bar maid, she was very pleasant and the beer was quite good too. I read another review that said the place had been taken over and cleaned up, well it must have been REALLY bad if this is the cleaned up version. Sorry Broad Oak, you have to have a good look...

We booked lunch at The Broad oak and had such a fabulous time I felt compelled to share our absolutely 5 star afternoon. The staff were amazing and we (a family party of 4) were made to feel both welcome and valued as customers. We were greeted beautifully by Amber who was very professional and yet as friendly as an old friend. Nothing was toi much and she gave great advice on the food available with her personal recommendations which were spot on! The food was perfectly cooked with 5 star quality it was so moreish. The liver and onions had a home cooked confort feeling and the scampi was so perfect the best I've ever had. The soup was Michelin standard with the exact right spiciness. We were so impressed we thanked the chef in person and she was an amazingly caring person who explained everything we wanted to know, we even asked for her recipes. The manager, Maria gave great advice on the oub and was so knowledgeable about the trade we were so happy to meet her. Matt gave us good advice in the drinks available and service was so quick and friendly we had a great time there. If you want to be treated well, feel safe with excellent social distancing without feeling restricted you should go the Broad Oak, Strelley. You will feel like its a home from home with extras. I highly recommend the Broad Oak for a friendly welcome with 5 star treatment and high...