Arkell's Strawberry Thief, Swindon — Restaurant in England

Great that we now have a pub on Tadpole, great that overall the design and decor is head and shoulders above almost everything else locally, great that the team worked hard to get the place open for the Jubilee weekend. But other than that, really poor first impression.

Considering this is part of Arkells, a business that should be versed at managing pubs (they have over 100 still I believe), it became clear immediately that the whole team was woefully under prepared and, most importantly, not trained to run the place. The management couple were clearly out of their depth, there was no activity in dealing with the issues that were arising - they just seemed to ignore them and keep reliving the same issues all through the weekend. And equally didn't see them mucking in to help get their team through it.

I would like to point out here that all of the issues fall on the management of the pub, the floor team themselves were clearly doing their best with the training and tools they had be provided.

Some great examples: Food delivery to tables: there were no table numbers on the tables or to give the customer with their order, so most of the staff were sending their time walking around with food, allowing it to chill nicely, while asking anyone who would listen if the food was theirs! Bar services: all weekend there were huge lines at the bar, this was solely down to utter lack of training/experience in the bar team and the sheer lack of supervision from the management team. Furniture layout: first of all, you can see what they were trying to achieve, and a skilled designer would have nailed it. But clearly this is someone less skilled taking a stab at it - and they simply took their company card and went wild on Wayfair! Main issues are that they have tried to cram far too much in, so coming i the front door, and then making your way to the outdoor patio area with a buggy (or without) was impossible without going out the side fire exit and around - the tables were laid out in a way to basically block the flow of people from the front to the back of the building. Baby changing: only one in such a huge pub?! Also, no nappy disposal bin . . . Kids: I don't think they really want them in the building - no kids play area (most of the kids seemed to be running around the edge of the lake . . ) and no kids drinks offered unless you want to give your fizzy drinks or adult juice drinks - just remember that this is a community pub thats located on a family orientated housing development. Food: we intended to eat, and fully appreciate there is a limited menu for these initial weeks of service, but even with this reduced pressure (very basic menu of burgers, pizza and taco's, everyone around us was waiting at least 30 minutes for even bowls of chips, and everything was turning up cold (see earlier point ref Food Delivery!)

In summary, this will for sure become a great pub for the community, but Arkells have made a huge error in not having brought in a truly experienced management team with success in launching flagship type locations and enough time served to be the calm, collected, hands on leaders that are really needed to train up and support an inexperienced floor team and ensuring their success out the gate. Hopefully the management learn from this past weekend, and Arkells do too, the floor team were excellent but simply let down by their management and owners.

Onwards and upwards for the Strawberry Thief, and I very much look forward to it, and the team, becoming the thriving hub that we have waited years...

EDIT:

I have returned over a year later! What can I say? All of the below points have been addressed, the staff at the bar are super attentive and the overall operation of the pub has really tightened up.

A few extra outdoor heaters, or even extra shelter, would be ideal now that we’re coming into the colder months. Very well done to the owners, you’ve earned these 5 stars!

Original:

This pub is gorgeous to look at and feeds the entirety of North Swindon/Tadpole area. With The Blunsdon Arms being temporarily closed for refurbishment, this is the place to be.

I will list some areas of constructive feedback, these will not be the first you’ve read:

Date/Time of visit: Friday 10th June, after 7pm

The long bar queue times exceeds 30 minutes. I entered and was immediately greeted with akimbo streams queues of no less than 20-30 people in each. This interrupts the movement throughout the pub and spoils the internal atmosphere. How customers in there thought “yep, that’s me, I’m going to join this mess” is beyond me.

The supply:demand is not equalled, or even closely met. The bar output is too limited for the number of people wanting their needs met.

Staff, or lack thereof. I could see only a few junior floor staff mulling about, with no conviction to clear glasses or ease the demand at the bar.

Zero QR codes or drinks menus at tables. A dispensing area to serve orders from customers at tables would have eased the extensive queues seen. Again, I’m baffled that so many people chose to wait in those queues, knowing they’d weighed up their fate in doing so. But, needs must when you’re out with your kids and another family - uprooting and changing pub last-minute is difficult in bigger groups, so I get it.

No kids’ play area. This isn’t a major issue given the nice interior and layout of the pub. There’s a lot of surrounding grassland, too, which gives the kids space to play whilst the parents try and relax.

I understand Friday evenings post-work are when other hawkers, like me, are pining for the best spots to deflate the week’s tensions. It’s going to be busy, and I accept the expectation of queuing/waiting for good things. However, there’s a noticeable imbalance in this recently-opened pub.

The reason I gave this place one star is for the sole purpose of it having one great quality out of five: the well-decorated interior and great location.

I think the above changes would improve the dynamic of the pub’s operations and overall atmosphere. I would have stayed longer than 30 minutes had these things been fixed, as I’m sure many that night would have too.

I’ll give this place another go in a couple of months once the teething...

I would love to write a great review as I think they have great potential, the location is lovely, the pub itself is beautiful and I think it's just what was needed in Tadpole! However, this weekend was probably my 4th or 5th visit and I came away disappointed (as I have done every time I've been). Firstly, we went for the Sunday roast, to then be told it had been stopped last week (this hasn't been communicated anywhere on social media or their website) - we have been on 2 other separate occasions for the pizza & a pint deal to be told both times that they are closing the pub early and won't be serving food (again, not communicated on social media or their website anywhere). The times we have been able to sit down for a meal the service has been beyond slow - the first time I went I put it down to it being a new establishment and new, young staff, but it has since not improved. Every occasion I have visited I have had to either go and ask for a menu after waiting for 20+ minutes to be served or had to ask for a member of staff to clear our table to make room for dessert, or on this weekends occasion we asked for the bill, only to have to wait 20+ minutes at the table for someone to come and take our payment, so we went to the bar. It looks as though there are lots of young members of staff (there were many dotted around yesterday!) but their awareness of customers needing service is severely lacking. The food itself is ok, I think there could be more variety for vegetarians/gluten free etc., however for the price it's not too bad. In all honesty, I think I will only be returning for drinks in the future and not food. If I could advise anything though, it would be to communicate more on social media/website regarding what food is currently being served and whether there are any closures coming up, it doesn't take two minutes to pop a post up and it'll save a lot of effort for the people travelling to your establishment to have to turn around and...