Base Restaurant — Restaurant in England

Truly horrendous experience and treatment at Base Restaurant from the owner & chef who called the police on us and refused to let us leave. Please see details below…

Last night my family visited Base Restaurant for my sisters birthday. When we arrived, the 5 of us were attempted to be seated on a table for 4. This was not a suitable seating arrangement, with my 70 year old Dad squashed in the middle of my Mum and sister. When we asked if my Dad could move to sit at the end of the table instead, we were told this would not be possible due to the waitresses needing access to another table. The owner/chef came over and made no attempt to offer a solution or provide an alternative seating arrangement. My Dad said if there was not a suitable seat for him to sit in he would have to leave. The chef agreed and my Dad left the restaurant.

When we came to pay for the meal, we had been charged for 5 people rather than 4. Assuming this was an error, I went to pay and informed them we had been incorrectly charge for 5 people.

The owner/chef then informed me we would still have to pay full price for my Dad (£54.95) even though he had to leave due to not having a suitable seat and not having eaten a thing (he left approx 30-45mins before the first course being cooked). When I told him I was not going to pay for my Dad, he said that he would not let us leave until we had paid and that he would call the police as it was theft. I agreed he should call the police as it was clear to me we needed some form of mediation. I waited 10-15mins while he called the police, who informed him no theft had been occurred as no food had been served or eaten. He then continued to insist I pay him for a deposit of ~£20, again I refused as my Dad was unable to eat anything and he had not taken a deposit on booking. We then proceeded to argue the case for approximately 30mins with neither side backing down. This was in front of a table of 4 who were still in the restaurant, which was highly unprofessional.

The owner/chef continually refused to take a payment for the 4 of us who actually ate, so I said you have left me no option than to leave. He then moved to stand in front of the exit in an attempt to block us leaving. It was at this point I got my phone out to start to record the audio as I was concerned what was going to happen next. He eventually took the payment after calling us childish and saying we were not welcome back (trust me, we would no be going back anyway..) The experience left me shaken and anxious.

This man has an absolute inability to take any for of accountability or critique. This will be evident in his response to this feedback, where he will attempt to explain away the issue and put it all onto my family. This was a truly terrible experience caused by a man who has the worst customer service skills I have ever...

I was quite underwhelmed sadly. We turned up for our reserved table and the waitress shouted something to us at the door, but as she was shouting it across to us she had turned her back so we didn't make out what she was saying at first but it turned out she was saying basically sit where you want! We could see our names on the reserved table so was slightly confused by the situation. The food was OK but not to the standard wed hoped based on reviews we'd read. The reviews unfortunately didn't match the experience and we were hoping to try the evening menu with some friends but based on the lunch experience won't bother now. The lack of experience of the waiting staff is definitely letting the restaurant down, it didn't feel genuine. We were asked if our food was OK a few minutes after it was served but the waitress had her back to us and was half way back on the restaurant by the time she'd finished asking us so felt it was insincere and she was just asking for the sake of asking. We'd hoped that it was going to be really good but unfortunately it was just average and over hyped. The final point to note was that we'd made a reservation at 1:30pm for a relaxing afternoon lunch on a special occasion, and an hour later the staff were locking up and we still had half a bottle of...

Me and my husband booked a table the other night (Saturday 5th March 2022) for an anniversary meal, having heard amazing things about BASE previously, and I’m so glad we did! We knew it was a set menu at the time & date we was booking but as we both love trying new foods we couldn’t wait to see what we thought of the foods. We were greeted at the door by a lovey brunette girl, who showed us to our table and took a drinks order for us. We then we’re able to sit and watch openly the chefs at work & see everything they were doing which was amazing to see the concerntration and detail that went into their work. I cannot reccomend BASE enough! I absolutely Loved the soup & the pigs cheek dishes. My partner loved the lobster as his favourite but we both loved it all it was just so full of flavour.

Thankyou to Abbie for being extremely helpful & going above and beyond to make sure we had everything we needed too

You can see the awards that Mark & the team & BASE have gotten and they are extremely well deserved. It’s definitely somewhere we will be returning to and I look...