Ego Woodbridge — Restaurant in East Suffolk

This used to a nice place to have a drink and a meal and we used to use it quite often. However, after not visiting for about a year, we decided to have a Sunday meal and family get together there. How the place has changed. Firstly and most importantly, I need to say that the staff were very friendly and this is no burn on them. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be enough of them as when we arrived we waited a good few minutes waiting to be shown to our table. Then, I went to get a drink from the bar, which seemed to have no-one behind it. Again after a few minutes, a waitress turned up and started serving a rather large group. 5 mins gone and still not served, eventually, another waitress appeared and proceeded to serve me. She got a glass out and went to get a bottle of drink, when I noticed that the glass was completely filthy with lip marks and fingerprints all over it. When she returned I asked if I could have my drink in a clean glass. She seemed to query my statement at first, but then duly pulled out another, much cleaner glass. Later, when it came to ordering food, remember this is Sunday lunchtime, from the set menu, the waitress returned to say they had run out of beef! On a Sunday? Really? So adjustments were made and everyone was happy. When the meals arrived however, everyone (there were 6 of us) noted how dirty the plates seemed, with lots of greasy fingerprints and smears around the edges. I had a vegetarian spinach & ricotta tart with red pepper. I must say at this point, that being a veggie I was a little disappointed in the one vegetarian option on the menu, but that's another issue. The meal came up and I asked if there was any vegetarian gravy that I could have with the meal as it looked quite dry. The waitress said she would go and see, I never saw her again! Everyone on the table commented how small the size of the portions were considering the price. They used to be quite reasonably priced before, but seemed quite expensive now for what we were getting and this was also reflected in the portions when it came to dessert, which some of us had to re-order as they had run out of certain things again! I used to like this place, but don't feel as we would be making a return trip. This day an age, there are plenty of good restaurants out there, that charge reasonable prices and give better service. Again, I do feel the staff were understaffed, despite the place not being rammed...

After 48 hours I still haven't received a response so I have written my complaint here

We arrived on time to be told of the unavailable dishes which is fine and set the expectation.

We were shown to our table and left with no request to ask if we would like a drink.

After some time the waitress came to us and we ordered drinks, the whole time the order was being taken she was leaning on the back of one of our chairs (not wanting to make others in the group uncomfortable I didn't pass comment)

When approached again for our food order we were told that she has given time for the kitchen to catch up and can now take our order which she did, again whilst leaning on the same chair back.

Following the clearing of the table from our starters (side plates would have been a good addition for sharing platters) we were given, rather clumsily I must say, new cutlery rolled in a paper napkins. They were heavily placed down and not as I would have expected given to each of us in some sort of attentive manner.

The main meals in particular the wagyu burger was poorly presented with squashed chips and a charred burger certainly something that didn't live up to expectation or the cost.

At no time during our visit did anyone ask if the meals were OK, nor if we would like another drink. Both I'm sure you'll agree are prerequisites from waiting staff and an important component of the overall sales / upsell requirement of a dining establishment.

We would have had additional drinks dessert and coffees if the service and communication had been better.

The dining area was almost empty and we, all 4 of us, felt that we were in the way and of no value to the Duke of York, in fact we could be as we are local and eat out every Saturday.

The Duke of York was chosen as a mid-way point between us and our guests (Shottisham and Felixstowe) allied to a good experience some months ago.

Saturdays experience was extremely poor with regard to both food and service, that in turn makes it poor value too.

I didn't raise the issue on Saturday as it would have made my guests uncomfortable and the evening finishing negatively. Instead we went elsewhere to complete the evening where we were treated as paying and...

I do really like the Duke of York but I can't give a higher rating which is a shame but our last visit we arrived to dirty cutlery which is a bit of a stomach turner when you are looking forward to a nice meal. The waitress apologised and said she would return with clean forks but she didn't turn up so we had to take some from another table along with a salt and pepper which were missing. We had looked on the website to choose what we would be having prior to arrival as we had our two children with us and it saved on time but once at the restaurant, neither of the dishes were on the menu so the website needs updating. We had the beef bourguignon but it just didn't taste anything like the description implied. The 'parsley' mash was just plain mash and quite dry and congealed. The 'cheddar and thyme' dumpling was just a plain dumpling and seemed quite stale. The beef itself was okay but it was dry and was only remedied by the the gravy but even that was quite flavourless. The carrots were described as roasted but they appeared and tasted more boiled and reheated. My son had a grilled chicken burger but he couldn't eat the chicken as it was desperately overdone and dry, even hard and inedible at the edges so he just ate the roll!! . My daughter had a pizza which was just fine. The desserts were priced at £7.50 ish each but they really were not worth that price at all I'm afraid. The best part of it all was the pleasant venue itself and the triple cooked chips. I also had to fetch the waitress to bebale to order dessert as we were a bit forgotten which I don't mind too much normally but when you have children a long wait for service isn't a wonderful thing. We still tipped the waitress however as she was friendly and we do appreciate staff in this industry and at christmas time but it's our money being spent that we've also worked for so we would have liked a much better quality meal for it. So not the best time really and feel quite disappointed. We have had previous better times here however so I think I'd CHANCE one more visit before writing it off completely or not but this might not be for a while to...