Smith & Western | Tilgate Park — Restaurant in Crawley

Smith & Weston Crawley Management, if there is any ? or to whom it may concern as it's non existent.

I am writing to formally express my disappointment with the service my family and I received during our recent visit to your establishment.

From the moment we were seated, it was clear that service was not a priority. Despite waiting for 30 minutes, our drink orders were taken immediately, we assumed the food order would follow shortly, but this was not the case. —even though we were sitting with two children.

Additionally, I specifically ordered a half pint but was served a full pint. When I pointed this out, the server responded dismissively, saying, "This is what I was told" without making any effort to correct the mistake. I later addressed this with a female staff member, who casually informed me that I would only be charged for a half pint. However, when my drink was returned, it was clear that the beer had simply been poured from one glass to another rather than being freshly poured from the tap.

Meanwhile, the table behind us—who arrived after us—had already received their meals. My wife observed that the service seemed to be based on a "buddy system," where certain customers received preferential treatment. Frustrated with the situation, she promptly booked us a table at TGIF Crawley within that time wasted booked a table elsewhere (well received with a harmonic atmosphere to construct my review for S&W and a great meal efficiency and respectful ,given them a great review on how they've reversed our experience ..) , as we refuse to tolerate such poor service.

To make matters worse, when I raised my concerns with the manager, they dismissed me by saying they couldn't hear me over the loud music. Shortly after, the same female staff member who had seated us smirked as she handed over the card machine. This level of unprofessionalism and lack of customer care is appalling.

Customers expect to be treated with respect and efficiency.

Unacceptable waiting time Incorrect order & dismissive attitude.

Frankly, I doubt you’ll do anything meaningful, but at the very least, you should be made aware of. Will no longer support your business...

We ate here on a Sunday afternoon and brought our dog with us too so we sat outside under the covered area. First off, there was 4 adults and a large Husky, so they sat us on quite a small table right by the servers station where people were constantly walking past with trays of food and drinks, and also it was in the walk way of people going in and out of the main restaurant. So it was very hard to try and tuck a 26kg dog out of the foot path of the servers and customers and fit 4 adults on the table aswell. The service was incredibly slow, it took well over an hour after we were seated before we received our food! We were unaware that if it’s someone’s birthday, the servers will come out ringing incredibly loud cattle bells, yelling and screaming. They rang the bells right over the top of my dogs head who had just settled down and started to fall asleep, and she leapt up and was scared out of her mind, and it took ages for her to relax and settle down again. Also one of our party has Autism and found the loud clanging on the bells very difficult to cope with. After a while we noticed they were about to ring the bells again, and so we simply asked one of the servers if they could not ring them directly over our dog again as it’s very loud and scary for dogs, to which he argued with us that it’s what they do every day and that they customers enjoy it, and basically completely disregarded everything that we said. And again rang the bells very loudly and my dog again jumped up, and the family member with autism had to leave because he was very stressed. I would say don’t bring your dogs here unless they aren’t fazed by noise or are deaf! It’s very unhelpful for the staff to argue with customers when we simply asked if they wouldn’t mind not terrifying my dog! The food was fine but the whole atmosphere was uncomfortable and stressful, and they really shouldn’t have sat us at a table in the direct walkway from the restaurant when we have a large dog! We definitely won’t be coming again as it’s not worth the hassle especially if the staff don’t care about the comfort of their customers,...

Booked a table for me and my daughter Saturday late lunch time, as a treat before heading back to school. Restaurant was about 50% full when we sat down. Waitress started off fairly enthusiastically, but the service went down hill from there. We waited 40 minutes for our meal to arrive, no apology, and by the time it did had finished our drinks. No one asked if we wanted another or how our meal was? I also had to ask for cutlery and napkins as none on the table. Food was good, but could of been hotter. We noticed other people asking too how long their food would be? I had to find someone to get me another drink, they obviously forgot as I had finished my meal and had to look for staff to ask where it was? They did apologise but by the time it arrived another ten minutes had gone, I would of preferred it with my meal. Our waitress never visited our table once during the meal, preferring to visit larger groups, no doubt for a bigger tip. There was plenty of staff walking around, but I noticed lots of uncleared tables with plates piling up. People sitting down with drinks we’re having to clear tables themselves to make room. I had to get up to find the waitress to pay, I refused to tip due to the bad service. We normally enjoys S & W, but considering the cost and lack of any decent service I would rather dine elsewhere. Perhaps a little more training of staff in basic customer service...