Oyster Bed — Restaurant in Canterbury

This is the 3rd time I've visited and this is what I know so far. Their burgers are great, juicy, full of flavour, and comes with crispy fries that are cooked to perfection. The gammon steaks, we were so impressed with as it is hard to find somewhere that does not over cook them. These were juicy, easy to pull apart and tasted great. The sirloin, it really was not good at all. This was not due to the chef not cooking to my specification though, it was just a bad cut full of thick gristle. Our last visit, and probably our last now did not go well at all. The young lady serving us was lovely and did nothing wrong at all. However, the Sunday roast was one of the worst I have ever seen (and I am a former head chef of nearly 10 years in hospitality). The pots were stale, the meat chewy and dry. The veg was under cooked and why do places now insist on pouring your gravy for you? Please take note:- most people prefer to pour their own as they have their own ways of doing things. Even with this, we would have just got on with it. We didn't even complain. However, my partner had asked for pork which came with crackling. When her plate came out, no crackling was there. When we asked, some was brought out. Take a look at the photos to see what was brought out. Even with that, I took it to the bar (this is where the young lady that brought it to us was), there was also another much older waitress over hearing and looking at me, and I said, "thank you for trying but that is just..." I laughed a little and finished "it's ok, we can do without " and went back to my table and sat down. This much older lady, who should have known better, decided to throw a strop. She came over to our table and quite rudely said "first off, I'm not your waitress today, she is (pointing to the young lady). Second, she has gone to get you (and just had to emphasise this part) you're crackling. I suggest you have more respect next time). Even with that, we just ignored it and continued with our meal. When we paid and left, my partner even tried thanking the much older lady and say good bye. The much older lady gave my partner a cold stare and turned away.

Of the 3 times I have visited, of any issues I had, this much older waitress was the one thing that put me off. She is rude, arrogant, and usually looking untidy compared to the rest of the staff. (Thick tights/leggins are not work trousers).

Overall, while she works there, I will not return but the food, for the most part, is very good and...

Eight of us had the misfortune to celebrate my father’s birthday at the Oyster Bed in Whitstable yesterday evening. The service and attitude of the staff were diabolical. The table was booked for 6 pm; admittedly half the party were slightly late but this in no way excuses the fact that our orders were not taken until 6.40 and our main courses did not arrive until 7.50 by which time my diabetic father’s blood sugar levels went so low that he became quite ill.

When we raised the issue with who seemed to be the seemed to be the most senior member on duty (Ruby), she was rude and did not regard there to be a problem at all considering that half the party were not in place at the appointed time and we had not told them that my father was diabetic, as if these excused them of any responsibility to provide reasonable service. Furthermore, she told my niece that we were just being awkward for the sake of it and she wasn’t prepared to argue with her. My niece, a hospital doctor, is perfectly aware of the importance of courtesy when dealing with the public.

When the manager (one Toby Cooper) came over to our table some while later, he was if anything even more ill-mannered. The very first thing he said to us was that it was supposed to be his night off but he had to “come downstairs to deal with this problem” (verbatim) as if the whole thing was all just so much trouble. After trotting out the same lame excuses about late arrivals and not knowing my father being diabetic, he went to say that it was our fault the main courses were late because we had failed to inform the staff when we had finished our starters. I didn’t realise that was our responsibility. By the way, the starters were not brought to us at anything like the same time; consequently, some people had finished theirs before others even arrived at the table. Mr Cooper’s parting comment was (again verbatim) “what do you want me to do about it? “. Perish the thought that we could be offered some form of discount or round of complimentary drinks. In fact, he couldn’t even bring himself to offer an apology.

On returning to our table after using the toilet (which was of course, filthy), I overheard some other customers talking about the wretched service. Only one member of staff (Amy) was courteous. In fact she, and the ignorant Ruby, were the only waiting staff to be seen.

In short, the whole miserable episode was a masterclass in how not to run a...

We had a party of 24 people, which had been booked well in advance. We had been asked that everyone pick what food they would like,which was handed in 3 weeks before our date of arrival. We had table booked for 6pm. We had 6 starters brought out at 7pm. At 7.30pm one of our party asked what time the mains would be out. Was told another 40 to 50 minutes. Even though we'd pre ordered I was seeing people who ordered on the night getting there mains before we need. At 8.09pm I spoke to the lady in charge, who was so ran off her feet, and said if our mains aren't out by 8.30 we will have to leave, we are 2 hours into our meal. Then literally the mains started coming out, some missing food, a server saying to someone it's another pie, and not the pie she ordered, it was someone else's pie, to have a 3rd pie brought out, said it was a steak and ale pie. Turned out it was a potato, cheese and leek pie. The food wasn't hot. Its like it had been sat under heaters waiting to be taken out. No one wanted to stay for the desserts, so I asked for them to be taken off. However the shift leader said these had been plated up so we could have them for free. However it still took another 15 minutes, even though they were plated up. One of our group was taking home they pudding. They had the gluten free brownie, her partner had the crumble to take home. But on the takeaway box, the crumble had gluten free wrote on it and not the brownie. The server was not understanding how a mistake like this could be quite serious. Why ask if people have food intolerance if your kitchen/serving staff don't understand. The lady who was running the shift was so under pressure. She had minimal staff. She tried her very best to make sure we came away with a good experience. The restaurant wasn't even that busy. However the young/inexperienced staff couldn't even cope. Your shift leader from Saturday 23rd March needs a pay rise, I can't praise her enough, she is a credit to your team.

The response from manager. There was in fact 22 people who arrived, no more and no less. If you like, I can come in and count the people out for you.

Also, you've had 2 other reviews from 2 other parties from Saturday night. We must...