The Royal George — Restaurant in Elmbridge

Very poor. My friend called up to reserve a table last night and we were told that there was no need to book and that there were plenty of tables. We arrived 20 minutes after calling and were then told there were no tables after just having paid for an Uber to get there. The location of the pub meant that we couldn’t just walk to another pub in hopes of a table, so this left us feeling pretty annoyed. Fortunately after 10 mins of waiting, a couple of chaps waved us down and gave us their table as they were leaving. The young lad on the door said that it was okay for us to sit there. Water under the bridge, we didn’t wait too long for a table and we were happy to drink there so happy days... or so we thought. We were then approached by an older women with short blond hair who worked there, who was extremely rude to me and my friends. She told us that we had upset her colleague, that it wasn’t on and that we were very rude when all we did was explain what had happened. Let me tell you. We all have experience in customer service, we know how these things go, we were not rude in the slightest. I’m 24 years old and I manage a pub myself. We then went back up to the young lad to apologise if we came across as rude and asked if we had upset him to which he replied “no”. So this woman, whoever she is, rather than coming over and apologising for the table mix-up and perhaps offering the first round on them, as you probably should do as a manager. Came over to our table to cause a problem out of nothing and somehow we ended up apologising to them!! Needless to say, we left without having ordered any drinks after we were spoken to so rudely. This woman is not fit to work in hospitality at all, and should be working in the kitchen as a KP or something far, far away from customers. Absolutely clueless. Would score less 1...

Note that the Royal George is now a Big Smoke pub and no longer has a Thai food restaurant within. Visited end of May Bank Holiday Monday to see what the pub is like after several months of being shut for the much anticipated revamp and refurb. It's pretty much the same pub layout, with a lick of paint and some more beers on offer. Unfortunately, 1830 for dinner was evidently a little too late to have what we wanted from the already fairly limited menu. Around 10-15mins after ordering, we were then told two of the dishes we ordered were no longer available. Disappointing, but not the end of the world. I won't comment on the food as it's not what I wanted, and ended up with something that simply filled a hole. All ordering must be done at the bar, and you have to get your own cutlery etc which was cumbersome as I had to get the desired cutlery from several table 'baskets'. There was quite a few staff on and a couple of them - including the girl who gave us the bad news about the food order - were really friendly and attentive. One of the chaps (clearly experienced, but with a too-cool-for-school air) was sub-par; served me a pint that was a fair bit short and seemed put out when I asked him to top it up. That was after I was stood at the bar for a minute or so waiting whilst the only two bar staff at the time stood idly chatting to someone. Overall, first impressions are that the place has actually taken a step backwards, but perhaps a lot of this is simply teething issues whilst certain issues are ironed out. I won't be rushing back though and will stick to the other pubs in the area. All the Big Smoke hype has been a tad...

I have waited weeks before leaving a negative review but my experience has sadly been appalling.

I made a Christmas Day Booking through their online booking form at the end of October and paid a £30 deposit. I then received multiple confirmation emails.

A week later I received a call informing me that this booking shouldn’t have been accepted as the Pub was full on Christmas Day for some time. Given the inconvenience this caused and the delay in informing me, the apology was fairly minimal. I was told my deposit would be refunded.

A couple of weeks past and I still hadn’t had my deposit refunded. I sent an email which was ignored. I called multiple times, once being told to ring back when they’re less busy which is encouraging to know that returning deposits for unfulfilled bookings, after several weeks, is not seen as a priority.

I then called up again today, over 3 weeks since the promise of my refunded deposit, to be greeted by a disinterested staff member who said the manager won’t be in for several days and that she’ll get them to phone me when they return.

Hopefully this review will finally see my refund processed before having to take further action.

*Deposit has now...