The Top Brink Inn — Restaurant in Calderdale

Well just home from what can only be described as an awful experience at a place we have loved visiting for years with our family old and new. We were sat at a table that we had booked to celebrate 2 family member birthdays (10 of us) to be challenged by the owner as to why we had sat at a table marked reserved and had we not seen the sign?! The sign was then wafted in the air at us like we were stupid !! We were challenged over who had seated us and we were at this point not prepared to say through fear of said person being in trouble. We could tell they would be due to the tone of his voice to us, paying customers ! We continued to be challenged by the owner regarding our booking name and who had sat us as they were unable to find us on the system. This is all after ordering food and paying over £100 for it with said owner 30 mins before. To be fair as we were put on the spot in a very tense altercation my mum did give her surname as the booking name when in fact she had booked it under her first name, to which the penny finally dropped with him and he realised we weren't lying we hadn't just walked in and sat ourselves down and the mistake was in fact his. In fairness he did acknowledge this, he did apologise and he did ask us not to leave when we tried to do so. Given we had 4 very hungry children with us who had already waited 50 mins for their food we did stay. The food was lovely but the atmosphere and the mood for celebration had passed. As if we didnt feel awkward enough we continued to hear him repeatedly asking staff who had seated us as he was insistent that person had done something wrong. Awkward does not even cover it we just felt mortified throughout our whole meal as he wouldn't let it go...

He did continue to try and make it up to us. We thanked him but politely explained we were too upset over the embarrassing situation we had encountered and just wanted to go home once our main course was done.

(I might add home for all of us is in fact now in Halifax and we had travelled all the way there to enjoy a family meal in a place that holds lots of fond family memories for us).

We cannot say that the owner didn't try and right his wrong as he did but sadly, despite that , the vile way in which we were treated prior to that will lead to us NEVER venture back there again.

Absolutely gutted that what should have been a lovely family meal was completely and utterly ruined and that no more fond family memories will be made there again.

(I might add another family who were also having a problem with a booking commented to us, when they saw we were being challenged, that they too had been spoken to like s**t by a woman working behind the bar ! Seems we weren't the only ones to encounter truly awful...

Am only posting this after my feedback form to the pub was ignored. Top tip- go to the Shepherds Rest instead, just as lovely views, and better food for less money. (Prices gone up steeply here)

Sadly disappointed with the service on Wednesday 12th, the man on the door was incredibly rude and spoke down to us (the waiter was lovely though!). We went as a 3- a couple and a single (who lives alone) in a support bubble. When asked if we were one household we said yes, a support bubble. He then insisted that wasn't allowed (though showed us to our table anyway!),and then said support bubbles were only for for shielding people, then that it was a special rule just for Calderdale! I said I'd look it up as I didn't want to do something illegal, he snappily said 'I AM right, trust me'. Apparently we'd have to book 2 tables 'next time' . I guess that night it was ok to be illegally seated?! Not that it was illegal, because a bubble is one household (I double checked both the government website and Calderdale website). But if he really thought it wasn't allowed he shouldn't have let us in.

I wonder if the several other tables of 4 person parties that were obviously 2 couples also all lived together and got the same treatment? I expect not as they were older, and we were a party of younger looking people who look a bit alternative. It's very tiring as a woman in my late 30s to be spoken to as if I were a child, let alone by someone who doesn't have their facts straight. Even had he been correct, good manners to a paying customer seems like customer service 101. I've worked as bar staff, I get it's hard but no call for rudeness. We had a drink then left for food elsewhere. Such a shame as we were looking forward to an evening in a local...

Well, the food is only just adequate... Basically it's supermarket cafe meals at restaurant prices. Actually we've had better food and nicer service at Tesco or Morrisons. We could have had 3 lots of fish and chips from the chippy in Hebden Bridge for the price of one portion of the same here. Not exactly bad food but not brilliant. Fish was a bit oily. The service on the other hand was downright atrocious. No menus on the table - I asked for one and was told to go and get it from the rack on the wall. No attempt to even help me find where that was. Nobody came to take an order - I had to wait at the kitchen door till someone deigned to ask what I wanted. At the table no places were set for us - there was just a tub there containing cutlery. Food was served fairly quickly - but then we were there very early. No-one came to ask if everything was okay. This is really poor attention to detail. If you are paying forty pounds for a meal for three, the least you should expect is friendly courteous service.

Oh - DON'T let your children play on the amusement machines. They are a shameless rip off.

People who give it 5 stars must be easier to please and have a different idea of what...