Cumberland — Restaurant in Doncaster

Visited here one evening at 8pm with friends for a meal an to watch the football while away on a trip, parked in the car park they mention on the website as having (no mention of a fee on the website though funnily), exiting the car a member of staff collecting glasses nearby said hello as we passed her (saw us get out of the car and walk into the pub beer garden but never mentioned charges despite clearly seeing we had not paid anywhere) and no clear signage suggesting there was a parking charge is visible, went to the bar an ordered food an drink while doing so got talking to the very chatty and friendly staff an mentioned we were from away the barmaid even picked up one of us was drinking coke an asked who was driving we even told her who and no mention was made to parking charges, twice more we went to the bar and again no mention of parking charges or no clear signs showing this was the case. This is nothing more than an intentional ploy to dupe people into getting a ticket. The food was nice, the staff very friendly but now costing the 4 of us an extra £25 each for the food an drink I'd be lying if I said it was worth over £50 each for a meal an 4 drinks in a pub. Really sour end to what had been a very pleasant evening in a very nice pub. Last time I use a Hungry Horse pub again that's for sure. They say its to stop hospital staff abusing it but we were there 815pm til 11pm hardly a hospital workers shift is it. Why not put it on the menu, the website where you list car parking available, a sign behind the bar, signs on the doors asking if you've paid. I mean literally any attempt to make people aware at all . I have never heard of a pub charging to park for customers before EVER. Absolutely disgusted by this tactic to fine people, the parking fee will be the last time this brewery sees any of my money...

Prebooked table. Arrived n it was quite busy being a Friday. Told barmaid we'd booked a table to be told I think your tables over there somewhere...pointing to a side area. Think it's number 27 she said. I had to ask to be shown to the table as it was busy ...I'm disabled...and didn't want to be trying to get through seated people looking for an empty tablet that may/may not have been ours. We eventually saw an empty table after she was confused as to where we were actually going to sit and asked if we could sit at that one as I needed to sit after being stood waiting at the bar for 10 minutes before the hassle of trying to locate a table. Once seated ...I had to go back to the bar to queue for another 10mins to order food. I ordered 2 12oz steaks to be told they had no steaks. I explained I had prebooked and enquired as to why we hadn't been informed previously that there was no steak and expressed my unhappiness regarding this as it was too late to book elsewhere. She did speak with whoever came back and said they would do us 2 4oz steaks.

I explained it was the 12 oz we wanted and off she went again. Came back with some fella who had real attitude....immediately kicking off saying they weren't doing us 3 4oz steaks as they wouldn't have enough for the other customers. I cut in and said wow hang on....that wasn't my suggestion at all and repeated that I was very annoyed that noone bothered to tell us the steak was off menu.

Upshot.... Long waiting times as there isnt a seperate bit for bookings You have to find ya table with the table number provided they actually know it N they might not have what you order after returning to the bar to queue again and finally be treated as if youre out of order.

Go...

We ordered from the Christmas day menu, our booking was for 11.45am. We arrived and was told we had 2 hours which was fine, we received our starters which was very nice, the waitress removed our plates and then served our Christmas Dinner...which was rubbish! The carrots were cold, the sprouts were cold, the cauliflower cheese was cold, the turkey was cold, the stuffing was burnt, we received 2 Yorkshire puddings each apart from one of our party who only received one Yorkshire pudding, there was no pigs in blankets on the plates plus we had order extra pigs in blankets for each meal (5 of us) at an extra £1 each and was given 9 pigs in blankets for all 5 of us! We all returned our main courses along with almost all the other diners in there!! We was not given a replacement or money off the meals...the desserts were lovely but after the waiter had taken our plates away we sat waiting for the coffee and mince pies that was said we would receive on the menu when we booked...at 13.55pm we was asked to leave and on explaining that we was waiting for the mince pies and coffee was told we hadn't ordered them so had to leave! So after spending £250 (not including the alcohol that we purchased at £100) we ended up coming home and ordering a takeaway. Worst Christmas Dinner experience we've ever had and certainly will not be returning or recommending to anyone to go there for Christmas! We did speak to the manager about the main courses who was unaware of any complaints either from ourselves or other people in the restaurant he apologised and asked to give him 10 minutes for him to go sort out the situation and he never came...