The Grandison — Restaurant in East Hertfordshire

My wife and I visited today for a Sunday meal, upon arrival a customer was having a heated debate with a staff member about finding bacon in a veg dish! The customer was clearly upset, however the very young employee didn’t seem to know enough to deal with it and looked out of his depth! Perhaps it was a veggi replacement product, who knows but not a great arrival for us. We were seated and our waiter was pleasant. We ordered drinks, a bottle of white wine, however, a part filled bottle was delivered to our table in an ice bucket that had been used to serve glasses at the bar (a first for me)! Without hassle it was changed for a sealed new bottle and apologies made. Food started to arrive all was good, the food was delicious and to a high standard, I ordered a 2nd pint of Guinness that didn’t arrive so I needed to ask again! It then came (its the little things, and they added up). The staff generally seemed nice but clearly no direction from an experienced manager! they where all young and inexperienced but where doing there best and worked hard under the circumstances. I didn’t like the fact at the end before we paid our waiter was behind the bar swallowing from a pint of beer like he had a thirst to quench in full view of the seating area, non alcohol or not that just didn’t look right to me, bad form!

The bill came and had 10% added for service, I asked for it to be reduced to 5% for obvious reasons! Not unfair considering, it’s too pricey so we expected better.

We got a treat at the end by realising that Kim Wilde was on a table at the end of the bar with other people!! Nice surprise.

Overall the food is excellent but the running of the place appears a shambles! Not sure we’d visit ...

My son booked a table for 6 at The Grandison to celebrate my 64th birthday. We'd eaten there before and enjoyed the meal. Unfortunately, I was struck down with a gastric virus along with two others of the party leaving my son no alternative but to call the restaurant with the intention of re-booking when everyone was better again.

Sadly the response he received over the phone was very disappointing. The manager (James) decided to impose a £60 cancellation charge. My son protested and attempted to reason with James but he would not entertain dropping this over-priced and in my view totally unjustified penalty for a situation over which we had no control.

I tried to speak to James myself once I was up and about again but he was 'unavailable'.

My son is far from wealthy. This was in fact his Christmas present to the invited guests all of whom were close family. The intransigence and lack of awareness of good will and public relations by James is quite staggering. He could have had our money when we re-booked and more every time we returned as satisfied customers in the future.

As it is , we will never return there. I'm not the sort of person to threaten to tell all my friends not to go to The Grandison, but the intransigence of the response by the manager has prompted me to do something I've never considered before - to write a negative review.

I'm sorry James ... you got it badly wrong this time. I hope that £60 you took from my son was worth it. Don't bother to respond to this by stating the small print in your terms and conditions, it will only make you look even more petty...

I am writing this review on behalf of my mother and step-father who visited The Grandison on the 15th October for lunch. Unfortunately, mum went down with gastroenteritis approx 48 hours later (as diagnosed by her GP). She was very ill for well over a week and is only just starting to make a proper recovery. The meals consisted of a beef burger, which was very hard and my step-father had a steak which he described as grisly and running with blood as he cut into it. Furthermore, we have been advised that the Manager of the establishment has also been absent with gastroenteritis and also the person that does the cleaning there. It's a real shame, as this is not the first time that we have noticed a drop in standard of the food and management quality. The Grandison is a very special place for my Mother and she has had many years of happy memories there, it's unfortunate that this experience wasn't...