BEAR - Derbion — Restaurant in England

We have frequented Bear a number of times and had 2 poor experiences at Bear Derbion as opposed to Bear on Iron where we can not fault.

Our latest experience at Bear Derbion was today when we decided to have lunch here. We waited to be seated as the sign instructs, but staff came and went by us without as much as eye contact. It took us to go to the bar area to ask if we can be seated only to get the reply "site where you want" we sat on a table recently vacated and started to look through the menu. Again, staff walked past knowing we had just sat there, but no attempt was made to clear the previous customer's dishes and wipe the table. I eventually had to ask staff to do this who came and removed the dishes but never returned to clear the crumbs and surplus food off the table. When the same member of staff returned with our drinks, we asked if the table could be wiped. She then returned with a cloth and wiped the table in a way that meant the crumbs all fell into our laps !!!.. my sparkling water never turned up so I asked staff where this was only to be told I have to get it myself from the fridge "which no one told us when we ordered" (plus we had to ask for a glass) Onto the food orders, I wanted to order flatbreads with chicken shawarma, but when we went to order at the bar,we were told there was no chicken which is disappointing to here when you have spent 15 mins looking at the menu, why didn't they tell you this when you are seated? My alternative was the Turkish eggs which says is 2 "rich yolk" eggs, the eggs I received resembled hard boiled eggs and the food was luke warm so no doubt had been sitting about for a while. My wife ordered the brioche chilli and cheese with Fries. The fries didn't turn up with the order, and we had to ask for these. They were promptly brought to us, but we're luke warm, so again, they they must have been hanging around for a while. All in all, the food was substandard, and the customer experience was very poor and unsatisfactory. I would consider alternative meal options when visiting Derbion...

More of a thanks to the front of house lady that served us, fixing issues she didn’t create all the while her colleague being hard work

Returned to bear yesterday to have some food and a cocktail I’d really enjoyed 2-3 weeks back. I’ve attached a photo of what I was served last time and naturally expected the same thing. A strawberry & lime margarita, cubed ice, lime & strawberries & salt on the rim.

What I got yesterday was crushed ice, no strawberries, no lime and no salt on the rim - strawberries & lime I could maybe forgive if it’s a stock issue but not doing the salt on the rim seemed.. sloppy and rushed? It wasn’t busy when we were there. this is when I realised I had the photo from last time, so I went over and spoke to the front of house lady - brown hair, she was so so nice. I could see the bartender was listening in so didn’t want to exclude him and showed him the photo , he was quite abrupt which surprised me as I was really quite chill about it with them, he said the strawberries are not in the spec but he can put them in if that’s what I want (making me feel like I was requesting additional stuff ?), he said they were out of limes - I could literally see them in the fruit basket.. he said something about crushed ice too but I can’t remember exactly what but the salt rim was just missed off . But i was made to feel like I can’t walk in expecting the same cocktail as I don’t know who has or hasn’t followed the spec? so the lady offered to make new ones, I asked if it would be a faff she said no it’s fine - I found it quite interesting that it’s her who ended up making them and not him, he just stood there - it wasn’t busy so it’s not like he was doing other orders. And I can confirm the new cocktails came with lime 😂

Listen it’s just a cocktail but it wouldn’t have played up on my mind if I wasn’t made to feel like the odd one out for assuming I’d get the same...

I will NEVER spend a penny of my hard earned money here again! Absolutely disgusting customer service - I walked in today with my baby and 5 year old to treat him to a hot chocolate and pastry. The sign at entrance indicates wait to be seated but the people in front of us were so fed up with waiting to be seated they promptly left the queue and walked out leaving myself and two young children next in line. We waited for nearly 10 minutes with all three staff members at the till looking over and ignoring us before I walked up to them and asked when and where can we be seated only to be told, “sit wherever you like”. I then asked where would be best to sit with a pram - I wasn’t planning on using a high chair as my baby wasn’t going to be eating. Two staff members made a HUGE deal about where I would fit in with the pram when there were a couple of tables free and mentioned how I would be taking up space with the pram (when there would have been enough space to comfortably walk past) the table I suggested. I would never dream of being so entitled as to block someone’s path because of my pram. I was so upset with how we were being discussed and treated like an absolute burden and with other customers staring at us that I told the staff members forget it we’ll go somewhere else to which they replied, “thank you.” I have been here plenty of times and have seen many prams in there before without any issue yet somehow today was a problem but to discuss a customer like that especially in front of a young child was horrible. Sort your customer service out if you want to keep...