Hereward Ely — Restaurant in East Cambridgeshire

Had to change to 3 stars recently which is relatively generous. Food has gotten worse and I have had to send back food on multiple occasions (obviously pre-cooked and microwaved roast dinner with soggy potatoes and very, very dry meat that's almost inedible). Other meals have been good as per usual but I feel as though the standards are slipping. Staff seem dependant on their mood. I have had a lovely experience with some members of staff (there's a new girl on bar thats very friendly and helpful), but the next day have had the football volume whacked up to almost a deafening volume, all just to appeal to a table of 2 fans who were sitting around multiple family tables sharing a Sunday dinner together. All of the family tables were struggling to communicate (mine included) and were basically shouting to each other to talk. The staff then refused to lower the volume telling us a tabke had asked then to turn it up. Clearly these 2 fans couldn't move anywhere else and had total priority which is unacceptable in a restaurant/pub that tries to pride itself on being the perfect place for a family meal in the afternoon.

The place is generally clean and well presented and service is very quick and well priced which is a big benefit.

Going back to staff, there is a male bartender who is incredibly rude and abrupt. Several people I know have give in complaints and he is happy to challenge and raise his voice to argue at every opportunity. He seems as if he really doesn't care about anyone or his job and it definitely impacts whether I choose to come here or not. I can't seem to get any further with management about talking to him about his attitude which shows managerial immaturity. This is probably one of the biggest issues here and even on the rare occasion when everything is perfect, it gets ruined by this member of staff. If you've been there, you know who I'm talking about and I know a few people who see him behind the bar and decide to eat/drink elsewhere.

Personally I don't choose Hereward as first choice any more but I used to for a cheap, tasty lunch or dinner before. Quality of food and staff seems to put it a lot lower on my list recently and having gone almost weekly before, it's now a place I visit maybe once a month. Hopefully they will improve and build on their positives to bring more...

What an absolute shambles. Here's a list of what went wrong; -Staff argued with my friend that the option for vegan cheese on a jacket didn't exist and that it could only come as vegan cheese with mushrooms, despite vegan cheese being listed as an option by itself literally below the mushroom option on the menu. -Two diet cokes served with barely any syrup, but this was corrected. -Wrong food was brought out, sent back as it wasn't what was ordered, staff then brought the same plate of food back out and insisted it was correct, it was sent away again and we had to ask for a manager to come and fix it. The manager took ages to come over and then kept trying to make excuses saying thar he's been arguing with the kitchen all day rather than just simply saying sorry and fixing the issue. -Wrong baguette served, was meant to be cheese and red onion, was served cheese and tomato which wasn't even listed as an option on the menu so god knows why it was a till option. When the party member who bought this went up to talk to the staff to get it fixed they actively avoided her and she had to flag down a blonde older waitress to help her as the staff behind the bar were ignoring her. -All of the food was served without cutlery. We asked for it twice and then a group member went up to ask for it again only to be told there was no cutlery and we had to wait until it was collected and washed. So easily 8 minutes with our hot food getting cold as we waited for cutlery. -The food the manager was meant to have fixed came out, wrong, for the third time. -Asked for the ice cream for the kids meal, waited 10 minutes, gave up and left. Honestly cannot believe the poor service, except for one blonde older waitress who was so apologetic and generally lovely. The acting manager (man in a pink shirt) seemed completely overwhelmed and incompetent. I appreciate that it was a) a market day and b) the Alice in Wonderland experience day as well, so a mistake or two would have been overlooked, especially as some of our party also work in food/hospitality but to have so many mistakes one after the other paired with such a bad attitude really makes me think that upper management need to check in and do some retraining as this was a truly...

I used to really like the Hereward a lot, I would come there often and never have any complaints, but a couple of weeks ago, I visited the Hereward with my family and I didn’t really have a good experience , I didn’t like the service we received from the waitress, it seemed like she barely even wanted to be there, and she kept making mistakes, for example: forgetting my curry sauce for my fish and chips and forgetting my brothers seasonal veg for his sausages and mash. My main fish and chip meal wasn’t too bad, but then I ordered a honeycomb cheesecake for dessert which I was very disappointed with because there were barely any honeycomb pieces on it, it was virtually just like a plain cheesecake! And everyone else wasn’t too happy with their meals either, my younger brother who ordered the sausages and mash wasn’t happy at all with the seasonal veg that he received, it just appeared like the sort of boring mixed veg that you get with your school dinners. My other brother ordered a club sandwich for his main course which he wasn’t very satisfied with, he said that it was maple grilled or something and it was far too sweet. So to summarise, we didn’t like the food, and we didn’t like the service, and we won’t be dining here again...