Slug & Lettuce - Doncaster — Restaurant in Doncaster

On skimming through some of the recent reviews I was so confused why our experience was so different to the ones reported... but it looks like a lot of the other reviews had booked experiences here whilst we were just regular walk in customers.

We visited Saturday 27th January as a group of 11; we'd been for a nice meal nearby and thought Slug & Lettuce would be a good shout for a drink afterwards. The only time I'd been in previous was during the week for a quick lunch in my work break. The food wasn't great and the floor was super sticky. But that was a couple of years ago so figured why not give it a shot.

Went in... my feet didn't stick to the floor this time and I clocked the photo booth so much better start! Then we get to the bar... where we wait and wait and wait. There were a few members of staff and the bar is only half full of customers but it takes ages and ages to be served.

Now to say that it is a big floor plan the tables are very sparse so there's barely anywhere to sit. We managed to get a table with four chairs. There were some empty tables but these were reserved. Both our table and the reserved ones were full of empties and they were left there a while. Staff started clearing the reserved ones up but left the empties on ours. A while later I politely asked a member of staff (a woman wearing all black, dark hair with a butterfly clip in it) if she minded taking the empties away and she wagged a finger in my face and told me we would have to wait. Needless to say being told no with her hand in my face was a bit of a surprise.

A member of staff (a woman wearing a light colour striped casual jumper) was prepping some tables near us for a booking. She decided she didn't like where our table was, which was where it had been when we got there, so she told us that WE needed to move our table, like the whole table etc. After already been spoken to rudely by another member of staff my response at this point was "feel free to move it" (it should have been staff moving furniture around not asking customers to). However some of my friends were more gracious than me and moved it along.

After borrowing chairs around the place we nearly had enough and were gathered around the table of four. A bigger table became empty only for us to move over to it and then get moved out of it as they had another reservation. This other member of staff was good about it to be fair but we ended up sat where we started.

The ladies toilets were not nice. By the time I used them it was probably only about 4pm on a Saturday. There were empty glassed dotted around. There was broken glass on the floor. Toilet roll everywhere. Black toilet seats that are so old they have faded to white in places which made them look really dirty. Toilet seats hanging off in pretty much every cubicle. The sheet that is outside the toilet where they sign to say it's been checked had not been completed at all that day.

Some of us went back to the bar once more and again waited ages. I can only guess that staff are bogged down making drinks for the brunches etc they have booked in; which have table service. By the time the drinks were being poured our group has decided to ditch the place and drinks were actually abandoned to do so.

The upsides...the music was decent... some 90s pop. The bouncer seemed nice enough. The photo booth was cool. Liked the full length mirror in the ladies loos.

To summarise... this place relies on its brand and is all about the aesthetic but there's not much more to it than a photo opprtunity. Though I'm still confused why they have one of those ace backdrops (grass type wall with neon wings or something) then put tables in front so you can't actually use it 🤔. If you have a booking there e.g. for a brunch you would probably have a great time as they seemed to be prioritised. The service we received was rubbish in terms of time to get served and also two members of staff who were downright rude... I'm sorry but if you can't be polite to people then don't work in customer...

Worst bottomless brunch experience ever!! Was taken to our “table” which was a small circular table pushed up against the corner of the Photo Booth and two chairs shoved up to it. Shown there and the waitress (or possible manager) walked straight off before we could even say anything. We couldn’t even get our feet under the table, had to sit at an angle with the table at the side of us. And we were expected to eat at this table! Yes, we could have, if we’d had a tray and sat with it on our laps. Sat there in disbelief and waited for another waitress to come over. We asked her to be moved and were told no, that’s the only table they’ve got as they’re fully booked for the bottomless brunch. I said well we’ve made a booking and paid a deposit so that’s what we’re here for and if it was too busy they shouldn’t have taken the booking. The waitress scolded “we didn’t take your booking!”. Ok, well the online system did. Gobsmacked at the rudeness she then had the audacity to say to me she didn’t like my attitude right now and flounced off!! Again sat there speechless! Sorry for booking an event in your establishment that you advertise! She was then seen arguing with the manager. Someone then eventually came and moved us to another table. Booked for 4.30pm and finally relocated to another table at 4.45pm. Ordered 2 Aperol Spritz and they tasted like soda water. Barely any Aperol in. After that, to try and get another drink, we had to keep trying to catch the waitresses eye who were all zooming past us at 100mph (desperately trying not to make eye contact with us as they were rushed off their feet and didn’t want us adding to their workload) or we had to walk up to the order point and order it ourselves. It was like we were invisible. Shocking service. Only one time in 2 hours did a lovely girl come to our table and ask us if we wanted a drink. We even had to flag someone down to try and order our food and that was messed up. Only one of the meals arrived. Several other tables like this around us. Drinks that did arrive, very little alcohol or sometimes wrong mixer, but you had it because you didn’t want to wait another 20 -30 minutes for a drink. Not a nice experience at all! Bad start with the attitude of staff. No apology for any of that. Very stressful. Staff arguing all over the place in front of customers. Not good. £66 for the privilege of this!! Will never return. This branch puts other Slug’s to shame. Had wonderful experiences at the Slug in York and Leeds....

Terrible service!

I booked an area for a baby shower immediately to the left of the entrance for 3.30pm while 5.30pm. When I arrived the table reserved was 1 table in the cocktail area, when I approached a lady member of staff about this she asked her response was people may have ordered food in that area, she asked the people to leave by 3pm leaving me half hour to set up the area! I had to ask people myself if they'd kindly move earlier as I was having to set the whole area up including moving tables on my own which thankfully they did. Twice I had to ask for the tables to be wiped and even had to ask for the area to be shut off as more people were sitting down! Next to no help from the staff I did everything myself apart from wipe tables. The baby shower was delayed due to me having to completely set it up once people had left the area. The whole thing was rushed, service was terrible we had to ask for drinks at the bar which were supposed to be included with the experience so youd think they would come to the table? We werent even given more allocated time for the delay and when 5.30 hit the ropes were lifted and people started sitting down in the reserved area. We didnt even have time to play games we'd bought. The manager Ben was very apologetic and the only help and offered us 2 bottles of prosecco for the inconvenience. although after rushing so much we didnt have 6 of the drinks we'd paid for I kind of expected something knocking off the bill as we paid £114 but was told no. All in all this was a very VERY bad experience and I'd never book an...