Loaded Southwold Ltd — Restaurant in East Suffolk

Very disappointing experience! We visited here 2 days ago and was not impressed. First of all, the waffles (and quite likely the fries too) come topped with salad garnish/leaves which is not stated in the menu description. I only found this out through looking at photos that other customers have uploaded prior to my visit, so before ordering I asked the waitress if they come with salad garnish on the top and she said yes. So why is this not stated? Me and my partner both ordered 2 of the pulled pork waffles and asked for them not to come with any salad garnish (not stated on the menu description) or any spring onion (which was stated on the menu description) which was a pretty simple request really! We waited 40 minutes for our food and when it did finally come, we were gutted to see that they had both came out wrong as they had the salad garnish and spring onion on them! I understand they were quite busy and this was a bank holiday weekend, so if the food had arrived correctly then I wouldn't have been as bothered about the long wait, but to wait such as long time for 2 waffles combined with the order being wrong was incredibly frustrating. What then makes it worse is I mentioned the issue to the young waitress in there straight away and she said 'yes, I did realise when they were plated up that they were wrong' but she still proceeded to bring them out to us despite knowing this.... She didn't say anything to the kitchen staff before bringing them over which I don't understand... She offered to take them back for us, but we were so hungry by this point and did not want to wait for however long it may have taken for them to redo our order! So we had to pick off ALL the spring onion and garnish which was very time consuming and effected the enjoyment. This lack of attention to detail for something which is quite a simple request is particularly concerning considering people could have allergies.... Luckily for us we do not have allergies and this was a dislike/preference, but I personally would not feel very confident going there now if I did have an allergy. There was not really any proper apology and no offer of a discount as a gesture of goodwill for the mistake made. They could have offered to give us one of our £3 drinks for free but nope, nothing. They might have if I had asked, but I feel a good business would have done this without asking. The food itself was mediocre, it wasn't very warm at all and was drenched in tons of sauce which took away from the taste of the waffle and the whole meal was quite bland. The waffle meals were £16 each which was incredibly overpriced considering you only get 1 waffle and most of what is on the top is sauce! In addition to all of this, the menu on their website and facebook page is not accurate/up to date; on the menus online there is a meatball marinara one which my partner was planning on having, but when we got there this was no longer on the menu! For all of the reasons stated this was unfortunately memorable all for the wrong reasons and it feels like the staff don't care about...

The dish I had was nice enough. BUT ALLERGEN warning. The experience was severely marred by the fact that their catering for our allergy was literally dangerous. Anyone with a life threatening allergy will know this is a worrying oversight regarding food and anaphylaxis. The excuse of being ‘very busy’ is not a justified excuse.

We told the staff clearly at Loaded fries when ordering that we have a severe fish allergy in our group, and also asked if the chips were cooked separately. When the dish was made the chicken was fried in the FISH fryer then placed in the dish with the chips!!! Surely staff should mention ‘oh the chicken is cooked in fish oil though’

Had my daughter not spotted this we would have had a severe and life threatening anaphylactic allergic reaction occur. We returned shortly after to inform the owner of this mistake.

In 2012 natasha’s allergen law came into place after a Pret a Manger incident resulted in an allergen caused death. This law requires full ingredient and allergen labelling on all food made on premises…

We are more than aware when ordering food to state our allergens in advance. All restaurant or takeaway staff we have used before have considered this allergen and said what dishes can and cannot be served, many had an allergen menu and trained staff member or some told us they can’t guarantee it.

If a junior staff member made this mistake just admit it and move on, learn from this.

Yes we were shocked and upset by this risk, and the owners defensive reaction was that is was down to us to tell them… which we had done. This was potentially a life threatening allergic reaction, not a cold coffee complaint. We just want them to learn from this and have a better allergy response.

But we got a heated very defensive reply. We just need the owner to acknowledge how serious this could have been, and remind staff that allergies should be considered across all ingredients and are to be taken seriously as they are life threatening. We stayed polite throughout and all we ask is that they can learn and better their safety to allergen sufferers. Sorry if this upsets you as the manager but a anaphylactic caused death on your hands would be vastly more devastating —— In answer to your reply. Your allergen policy was not in place clearly when we ordered, as you mixed up foods. This was potentially a serious problem. I hope it is...

Bit of a mixed bag here. Visited on 20th Aug. When we arrived we were told there was an issue with the tills and this would mean a delay, so we had the heads up from the get go. However a 30min delay in taking a drinks order, not really acceptable IMHO. Food was good and the chef was working as hard as she could, and apparently had lost her voice, although both my wife and 11 YO could hear her frustration and beautiful use of a limited selection of English swear words!! Food was good, although after waiting almost an hour we were told there was no batter mixture for the waffles and therefore my 11 YO couldn’t have waffles and had to have chips. I would’ve thought this could’ve been discussed earlier (as we were the last diners). The atmosphere was a little strained, having said that the waitress was polite throughout. What would’ve been nice is offered a complimentary drink as a form of apology. I feel the food was fairly well priced and presented, but a few factors meant 4 stars was the best I could give on this occasion. Restaurants survived before electronic tills and a small establishment such as this with only a few tables should easily manage without the need for computerised ordering. Toilets could also do with a little ‘monitoring’ as could the condition of the menu!s which were very well used and a little dog eared and sticky. The frame on our table (number 4) was also filthy and had good debris stuck on the glass section. Sorry guys, but if this was a chain I’d have scored you a 2 so TBH a 4 is very generous. And everyone deserves a little more, especially independents striving in a harsh and cut...