The Fellows Pub — Restaurant in Dudley

We planned a meal here for 11adults and 1 child on a Saturday evening. We were taken to a table upstairs in the restaurant and put in a corner which looks like the decorators forgot when looking at the rest of the pub and the tables were two fold away pasting tables with a wipe clean tablecloth on the top of. We ordered our meals and drinks and the service was great to begin with, however the first two meals which were brought to our table had issues. Two of us had ordered burgers which the menu states comes with cheese and bbq sauce on top of with a couple of onion rings on the side, however these were missing from both dishes leaving a burger with just the burger, bacon and bun. When the next couple of dishes were brought over to us the two members of our party took up the issue with the two waitresses who were serving us. As soon as the complaint was made one of the waitresses (she had blonde hair just to clarify as we do not have an issue with the other brunette waitress) shook her head in disbelief and huffed as she looked at the other waitress. They picked up the two dishes and said they would be back with the correct items that were supposed to be in the meal. When both the dishes were brought back to the table, the burgers were checked and grated cheese (not melted in anyway) and bbq sauce had been added to both burgers, however the onion rings were still missing and one of the burger buns were ripped on top. Again one friend complained that it was not of the standard you would expect, and the waitress (brunette) looked at the burger, agreed and couldn't be more apologetic as she took it back. The third time it was brought back it was in a new bun and the cheese had then been melted on top of the burger, but whatever had happened in the kitchen on that last trip, the bottom of the burger was soaked and inedible which meant that our friend couldn't eat it (microwaved?) After having complained about the meal twice already he gave up trying to eat the burger, and just settled for the chips and salad around it. We were asked if everything was ok with the meal which our friend did answer no to but we believe the waitress didn't hear him (through no fault of hers or the venues). As we were finishing our meals, the blonde waitress came over and asked us if we had finished eating, but she concentrated this question to our one friend who clearly was still eating and couldn't answer her question as she had a mouth full of food. She came back a little while later to clear the plates and our friend whose meal had been taken back to the kitchen twice had said to the waitress that he would not be paying for that burger (but that he would pay for the chips and salad that he had eaten) as it was unsatisfactory and had asked her to relay that message to the manager. Her reply was 'no' which then turned in to 'i will tell the manager but no'. She then said she'll give us a full bill and if we have an issue with paying for the meal we would have to go downstairs to speak to the manager ourselves. Not long later the bill arrived without asking if we wanted desserts. As we did have a child i find this a bit odd but can only assume they wanted to get rid of us. It was explained to us that we would have to go downstairs to pay for our meals if we were paying by card, so a few of us had gotten up to pay for our separate meals. Whilst there, it was explained to the manager that we were unhappy with one of the meals and the reply was if there was an issue you should have mentioned it to your waitress, and i would have come to talk to you. We did say that we had and the awful attitude of the waitress and we were again asked in disbelief if we had actually reported an issue to which we told him about the meals going back to the kitchen. Having spent £125 between us, i would have expected a better service. There isn't many options on the menu to get wrong and we all felt that the attitude of the one waitress was disgusting and she shouldn't be in customer service. Most of our food was nice but the evening was spoilt...

Sadly, we didn't get chance to experience the atmosphere and service we have read about! Came into the bar for a drink, it was pretty packed, with a Tom Jones tribute for entertainment (sounded great by the way)... Unfortunately, after standing at the bar for almost 15 minutes, watching people coming up the bar being served before us (which is quite understandable when busy), also they were short on pint glasses behind the bar, but when the bloke standing next to me, who had a full pint when we arrived, raised his by then empty glass in the air and a barmaid promptly took it and began to pull his pint, that was VERY frustrating!!! First of all this bloke knew we were waiting and could've quite easily said "These people were here first" but didn't, but there was no hesitation from the bar staff to pull his pint, even though it was obvious we were waiting to be served!! We left, it was quite humiliating...... As a member of bar staff, surely you should be able to keep your eyes open and see who's waiting! Like I said, it was very busy, but eye contact was made with us, so they knew we were waiting. Just feel very...

Very very disappointing, although I usually give venues the benefit of the doubt for an off day or a couple of mistakes. Also i accept sometimes venues can busy but on this occassion there a no such reasons as the restaurant wasn't busy and both the kitchen and waiting staff were numerous. Although some of the staff seemed keen to help (others were not so good and quite uninterested if not stroppy) and they seemed very badly organised. The restaurant is clearly not set up to accommodate a group of more than 4/5 for a family meal, with those being sat in a bleak area away from the main restaurant on fold away camping tables and disposable tablecloths. Some of the food is ok but some of the dishes are very basic and overpriced for what they are. The only conclusion I can make for the contradictory reviews is that these are for the bar and bar food which seemed busy and the bar staff pretty efficient. Will definitely not be returning for a Sunday meal, and although not perfect there are better and more value for money...