The Village Pub — Restaurant in Cotswold District

I gave them some feedback via email to which I never heard back so can only assume they really don't care, which is a real shame. Food is generally excellent, but the service is woefully bad.

Hi XXXXXX,

Trust you had a great weekend? I wanted to pass along some feedback that maybe you could forward into the relevant parties, rather than me write an awful review online.

As you know we came in a few weeks for Sunday lunch for a party of 9. We pre-ordered as requested and then waited for over an hour to receive our starters. The service was really quite poor, but we appreciative of you accommodating 9 of us. The food, as always was excellent.

We returned today as a party of 4, thinking the wait times wouldn’t be as bad again, but we experienced over an hour wait for the starters (parfait, mackerel pate, and bread) all of which I assume are prepared ahead of time. While waiting other tables (who arrived & ordered after us) were served their main courses. We were also informed that no cocktails were available which included the Sunday Bloody Mary. We watched as another table got up and left because they to had been waiting for over an hour.

Our main courses eventually showed up, but they weren’t great, felt they’d been sitting around under heat lights for a while.

I understand businesses are struggling with staff, but it’s unfair on those staff members working and to your customers to continue lunch services if you cannot maintain your standards. It literally left us with a pretty bad taste in our mouths. I did attempt to speak to someone who looked to be a manager, but he rather sheepishly shrugged his shoulders and claimed he was just passing through…

We’ve ranted and raved about how great The Boot has been since it’s relaunch, but think you really need to consider either not opening or culling your menus (beyond just the bloody Mary’s), possibly just serve a main course and bread if it’s too much for your staff to manage? We’ve eaten several times midweek for dinner and never had any issue with either the service or food.

I trust my feedback will be taken on board, it’s meant to be constructive and hope it’s received that way.

Regards, David

XXXXXXXX Mon, Sep 18, 10:20 AM (8 days ago) to me

Good Morning Mr P,

Thank you ever so much for your feedback!

I am so disappointed to hear that this was your experience and have passed this along to the general manager and our head of food and beverage who will be back to you shortly.

Your insight is very helpful so...

Overpriced and disappointing

Visited here recently for a special meal out for my father’s birthday. He lived above the pub many years ago as a student and we decided to return for a special occasion and relive the fond memories of his time there many decades later.

Despite our high hopes and excitement, sadly The Village Pub did not live up to them at all and we left very disappointed with our visit.

The majority of the dishes served were not of a very high standard and represented very poor value for money. The crab cocktail starter (£12) was almost all lettuce and mayonnaise and needed forensic examination to find any crab, the cheese soufflé (£10) lacked any flavour and was overcooked, the menu topping lamb chop (£26) was mostly gristle and bone and the dauphinoise potato to accompany it was just a small square of stacked sliced potato almost devoid of any cheese or cream.

Aside from this, the cutlery provided for all courses included old-fashioned bone handled knives that were un-serrated and entirely blunt.

At this price point, there is a suggestion that the dishes are prepared to a high standard. Unfortunately they have have set them up for failure by then under-delivering on this expectation.

During our time there we saw several tables around had troubles too with mistakes and errors requiring apologies. One table was told the Rosé wine they had chosen had only just been delivered (8:15pm) and was not chilled. Another table was served wine by the glass despite having requested it by bottle. The same sable asked the waitress if the flat-iron steak on the menu was served with vegetables. The waitress did not know and advised them that she would have to ask the chef in order to find out. 10 minutes after having taken their order the waitress then returned as she had forgotten (having taken their order) if the table had ordered starters or not. These are basic errors that any venue should not be making, let alone a venue that sets itself up as, and prices itself as a premium venue.

The only saving grace was our waitress Liv. What a marvel she was! Polite, friendly, charming and extremely helpful indeed. Nothing we asked of her seemed to phase her at all. She was really on the ball and efficient with service but we didn’t feel hurried by her at all. She...

A meal to celebrate two birthdays was a real disappointment here.

Having heard great things about 'The Pig' we thought we'd give their newly-opened pub a go and now wish that we hadn't bothered....

I'm the first to celebrate great food, service, ambience or produce but sadly none of those were on offer here and it really does pain me to say that. With the brand and investment access that the chain has, I can only imagine that the limitation here is the staff).

Despite booking 6 months out, we were ushered through a half empty front section to a back room where the two of us occupied a table for four next to the kitchen door and a dog bowl. No ambience, open fires or comfortable seating like the main space. When we asked if other options were available we were told that there weren't any, yet when the next table to come in refused to sit in the back section, a table in the front section was found for them. This happened twice and is offensive.

Service was slow and delivered by inexperienced staff with little knowledge of the menu and in some cases a rather rude and curt approach. The menu was simple and didn't offer a good food or drink selection. When we ordered the plaice dish, we were told that they were out and that it had been substituted for 'ray wing' which is a substantially cheaper cut of fish and proved to be a poor decision.

The image attached to my review is the mince pie and cheese (£12) dessert. Nothing was supplied to accompany the cheese, other than the mince pie and when I asked for a few crackers, some oat biscuits arrived but no chutney or anything else to accompany all the dryness (figs, grapes, quince jelly).

In summary, we had a really disappointing evening at The Village Pub which seemed to be reflected in the experiences of those around us who were also visibly having issues. Sadly, it was also consistent with feedback from a family member's experience.

I wouldn't recommend The...