The Waterfront — Restaurant in East Staffordshire

Watch out for hidden up-selling!

I no longer recommend or endorse The Waterfront for dining, for several reasons noted further below. Casual drinks ordered directly from the bar and enjoyed outside of the restaurant are beyond the scope of this review.

Date of visit: 13 September 2024 Purpose: Birthday meal in the main restaurant (4-persons)

TL;DR: An expensive, premium vodka brand was added to our dining bill by default, without being given a choice of brands, unlike the wine/other drinks at the time of table-service order. The three double Black Cow vodka measures (total 150ml) came to £22 on its own. For context, a 70cl bottle of Black Cow vodka retails at £29.50 (15x doubles @ 50ml each). Total restaurant bill for 4-persons was £153 including the meals.

This issue was addressed at the time, directly with the staff member, and with the duty manager, who advised that the staff member was known to be great at up-selling, but agreed they should have asked which vodka brand was preferred. We followed up the next day with an email to The Waterfront, yet no response had been received by 24 Sep*.

I will not name any staff in this review; however, I will strongly recommend that you ask for the drink options from your table server if none are given at the time.

Review: A long-standing relationship between us and The Waterfront has sadly been ruined by a seasoned member of staff who up-sold a drinks order.

Being sat down at our reserved table on time, the four of us were there to celebrate my birthday. The Waterfront venue was chosen as it holds special meaning, I won’t go in to here. As an all-adult family, we don’t often come here, but as a couple, we are [were!]. A lot. It wasn’t busy, and after a few minutes a drinks order was taken; The usual medley of wine, soft drinks and a spirited drink. The double vodka and diet cola drink did not arrive with the others, so after a few more minutes watching staff zipping by with drinks for other patrons, we asked our server if it was on its way. They returned after checking and apologised as it hadn’t been put through. At the original time of order, we were given a choice of wine, but not the vodka. A choice still wasn’t offered with this follow up request, but we naively weren’t expecting to pay for a premium branded spirit that was going to be used with a mixer either.

The food arrived, looked lovely and well-presented, however it was noted that the portion sizes seemed to have been dramatically reduced in size over the past 6 months, especially as some dishes were repeat offenders on our table. Two double chocolate brownies with honeycomb ice cream (£7.25 each at the time of visit) were ordered for dessert, but when they arrived the whole table was taken aback. Simply the smallest slice of chocolate brownie, accompanied by a small ball of ice cream.

It was at the point of receiving the table bill, it was realised the up-sell of three double Black Cow vodka measures (total 150ml) came to £22 on its own. This issue was addressed at the time, directly with the staff member, and with the duty manager. Total restaurant bill for 4-persons was £153.

The food is well seasoned, vibrant, and presented well. However, it’s certainly not value for money in today's high expectations of any respectable hospitality establishment, so simply not worth the pretentious prices The Waterfront are charging.

Of course, all of this is subjective, but it’s very much objective for us, and why we will no longer dine at The Waterfront, or endorse it as a great value for money eatery. The atmosphere and location are great, but for us it will be just for drinks outside of the restaurant area now, thanks to one member of staff that chose to up-sell drinks without our knowledge.

*Update 26-09-2024: The Waterfront Team requested 24 hours to fully respond to me directly (25-09), then simply thanked me for my feedback. A subsequent call to the duty manager thereafter didn’t highlight if the staff have been made aware our next steps could be to Trading Standards if this has not...

I was here this August Bank Holiday (26/08/19) my wife and I have always eyed up the bar as a potential lunch spot when we're up visiting my family; so this time we decided to lunch there with my parents before our trip back home to the south coast.

The front and inside of the bar looks stunning, there is a good array of drinks and food and with the view overlooking the marina, on a sunny day it appears idyllic. On the way in we noticed several permanent signs declaring children under 5 aren't welcome inside... fine, that's acceptable for a bar to do this, in my younger days I'd probably not want my dining/drinking interfered by a screaming child... we therefore took up a seat on the balcony overlooking the lake; it's still pretty picturesque and with the sunshine it was stunning and nicely shaded...

Once my wife was settled with baby in lap and our child on a chair I went in search of the menus and a highchair; the 1st lady I spoke to was friendly and showed me the menu, she ran through what was on and off, but then explained that although there is a specific children's menu they've had none printed off, but that the servers will all know what is available when I came to order... she then turned frosty on asking about the highchair... she informed me "We don't have them..." she then turned and walked off without a further word... fine I guess if you don't welcome children you might not cater for their seating requirements. Now. bearing in mind this took place around 11.20 and although I had to go fetch our pushchair from the car, I was at the bar around 11.40 to order food and drinks and check what children's food is on... The barman reliably informed me "No one takes food orders before 12 noon" he then turned to serve the person next to me without another word to me... he didn't offer to take a drinks order, he didn't offer to take the food order and put it through at 12... he didn't even explain to me what is on the children's menu, even the lady next to me who he turned to look shocked.

Needless to say we didn't stay, we left as soon after we'd finished feeding the baby which my wife had started feeding as she sat down...

The feeling I got is it's very "anti children" all the staff seemed very friendly and polite until they realised young children are part of your party and at that point you are dropped quicker than a hot potato and very visibly. I appreciate for some people this will be great, not everyone wants children around, however if you cater food at a family friendly area you'd think you'd be a bit more tolerant and accepting. All in all a very disappointing visit and we won't be bothering to visit again...

We visited this pub today and I have to say we left extremely disappointed. We were with our dog, and on approaching the pub there were no signs to state that they did not allow dogs. However, just to make sure we asked a member of staff who was just inside the entrance when we arrived (we remained outside) whether they allowed dogs. He stated that he needed to check, and went away. He came back a few minutes later and said that it was fine to come in with the dog. We went up to the bar and ordered drinks. The Manager was also serving at the bar when we ordered our drinks.

We got our drinks and sat outside. However, a little while after we had been sitting outside it started to rain and we went inside just in time before the heavens really opened! We stood just inside the pub, and 2 members of staff were eating at a high table next to us. Around 2 minutes later 3 other members of staff arrived as a cat had come into the pub and they were trying to remove it. So at this point there were 5 members of staff next to us. Not one of these members of staff spoke to us about our dog being in the pub. We were standing in the same place just inside the door for around 15 - 20 minutes, with the 2 members of staff eating before the Manager came marching over and told us to our surprise that dogs weren’t allowed in the pub! We told her that we had asked, before we even entered the pub as to whether dogs were allowed in but she wasn’t interested in anything we had to say, merely turned around and walked off. We still had drinks, and found out that there was a covered outside area (we didn’t know this previously as it is the other side of the pub) so we headed out in the pouring rain and a managed to get a seat.

Whilst we were outside I saw the member of staff who had originally told us that we could bring our dog in. I asked him who he had spoken to about us bringing the dog in, and he said the Manager. I described the Manager who had told us that dogs weren’t allowed inside, and he said yes that was who he had asked! So the Manager who had told us that dogs were not allowed inside had told her member of staff, when we initially asked that we were ok to bring the dog in!!

Confused?! Yep we were. Needless to say we won’t be...