Arch & Anchor — Restaurant in England

Having attended this place (the observatory) frequently since it opened I feel many of the recent negative comments are now sadly warranted. I am never one to complain or leave negative reviews but I feel this is now a necessary action. On Wednesday the 2nd of November 2022 myself and a friend of mine attended the observatory for drinks. While sat in the bar side of the pub having a personal conversation my friend who also frequented this place prior to this evening. Due to this frequency we have developed good relationships with staff there. My friend was simply being friendly to a young female member of staff who was collecting glasses at the time. However a male member of the kitchen staff (with a dark beard) took a massive dislike to this simply conversation (He was now sat bar side with this female) and stated that this female staff member was in fact his girlfriend. Which in itself is highly inappropriate when dealing with customers & the general public. So following this we continued to enjoy our drinks and "personal" conversation. However now this was not at all possible with this male staff member listening in & constantly interrupting us. He also made a public reference to my current employment status which I would rather not have disclosed in public as it posses a risk to myself, friends & family. So at this point we'd had enough and decided to leave. As we was leaving we were rudely advised for no reason at all by this kitchen technician that we were now barred ? As myself a public servant in a highly specialised & confidential role I have NEVER been bared / removed from anywhere in my life. With this in mind, I then phoned the observatory to speak with Kirsty who has always been professional, friendly & approachable. The phone was answered by the young female staff member who said "it's me who you was talking too" when I advised her that I wished to make an official complaint she said "there's no manager here now" When I politely asked her name (as the complaint was about her & her partner) She responded with "you don't need to know my name" which I understand, however now I am unable to make an official complaint about the two not knowing either name. So unfortunately I am now forced to forward a copy of this complaint to Green King / Hungry Horse Head Office also an official written complaint is to follow. I invite you / management to review any CCTV / audio footage of these incidents to clarify or contact myself & associate to discuss this matter. Our person contact details will be sent to your head office requesting contact regarding...

I've visited twice now since it's been rebranded. I'll say first off, the good points. They've done a great job on the fit out. It looks great, looks refreshed and given how busy it was in the first couple of weeks, the area was clearly crying out for a good place to drink and eat.

Now to the bad points, first visit, waited nearly an hour for food. When it come, we had the mixed grill steak that was meant to be medium, came out well done. Couldn't eat it, the burger we ordered, like rubber and inedible. There was a woman there who apologised for the delay and food, took off the mixed grill, burger and got us a drink. Great, no issues with that, we appreciated it was busy so decided we'd give it another visit before reviewing and when it wasn't busy.

So we visited again last night, it really wasn't that busy at all. However, the staff seem incredibly slow, this was one of the issues with the observatory. I ordered steak flatbread, 2 people at our table of 4 ordered gammon on the sizzling skillet. My steak was stone cold. I returned it straight away, I suspected they took the steak off, microwaved it and brought it back but I can't prove it. However, I also noticed the people who had the gammon, their food was hot but their "sizzling" plate was not sizzling. Which means it's been sat there for ages waiting for staff to collect. I didn't return the platters as the food was hot but it pointed as to why mine was cold.

We ordered desert on the app, 2x apple pies, again, waiting for staff to deliver. I mean I waited 25 minutes for this from ordering to hitting the table. 25 minutes for for 2 apple pies, the place was quiet! The staff seemed to be unable to read the screen properly (I witnessed the manager point out how to read it to someone). When they came to the table, microwaved to death, mine was more or less collapsed. My ice cream, half melted across the plate which points out again, they'd been sat there waiting for staff to bring.

Disappointed that even on a quiet night they can't get things right. I live closer to another flaming grill (butchers arms) I'll return there as even on a busy night they seem to smash it. This place has potential but needs to just sort their stuff out properly, get the staff aligned and the kitchen working faster or it'll head for the exact same problem the obby had before them.

EDIT - Reached out 21st October as the restaurant asked via email. I got zero response as of today, emailed again today. I'd rather they try and improve but it turns out they take as much attention to detail on food as...

Arrived at the pub at about 17:15 today. We eat here often. I was with my wife and two kids, the pub was busy but there was a booth that was available but needed cleaning up from previous guest. I asked a woman staff member if we could have that table, she said "No we are too busy" and walked off.

Someone else then came out of the kitchen and there was a family behind me, they asked if that table was free and the staff member said yes she'd clean it up - they just walked in front of me and sat at the table.

So one staff member is very rude and says they're too busy, wouldn't entertain the idea of cleaning the table but another staff member gives the table to someone else, even though I'm stood right there. I said that I had just asked someone else if I could have that table and she said she didn't realise and that was it basically.

So no tables left, my four year old starts crying because we could not get a table. Considering we eat there a lot, I had never came across this before and was shocked at how rude the staff were. I get that people get stressed when things are busy but there is a way to treat people, I was polite. I went to the bar to ask for a manager to speak to but my youngest daughter was upset so we just left.

There were also several cars using the disabled spaces without badges, I get that the public do not seem to have any morals any longer but the owners need to put fines in place to stop this happening.

We are frequent visitors to the pub - I actually had a voucher for dessert from the previous weekend to use, I don't think we will be returning after this incident, I can deal with anything but rude staff? It's just basic decency which I found severely lacking. It's a shame as the kids did enjoy...