Blue Cap — Restaurant in England

We felt like we were just an inconvenience from the moment we walked through the door. My Mum has always chosen the blue cap as a meeting place as it is pretty much equal distance between our properties, but I think after the now 5th disappointing visit we shall find somewhere else. The lady who always seems to serve us when we visit is so rude, she is impatient when taking your order, and tries to ignore you as much as she possibly can when you try to order any extras after the initial food order has been taken ( we have frequently ended up having to go to the bar to order drinks and puddings, and even to pay the bill, usually alongside other guests having to do the same). This last visit was possibly the worst. I was served tea with the milk jug shoved in the cup so that she could carry the pot and cup/milk without bothering with a tray. This was plonked unceremoniously without a word on the table in front of my mum ( I had ordered the tea), and when I tried to get a new cup ( because the grubby milk jug had left a gritty mark) she blatantly ignored me until the tea was cold. My daughter asked for mayonnaise with her chips which was served in a small ramekin with a thick 'skin' formed on the mayo. When she dipped her chips in it and took a bite we discovered it had gone off ( or wasn't mayonnaise - it tasted awful). She decided not to ask for more as we were being ignored and she thought her chips would probably go cold before we received a new one, and that we would probably be offered a new pot of the same mayonnaise. I ordered a lemonade for my son which was served gripped by the rim of the glass ( where you drink from) rather than held around the middle of the glass which is the usual and hygienic way of doing so, which was really off putting. We eventually had to go to the bar to pay as nobody came over to the table after our mains were served. We were never offered menus for pudding. We are not troublesome customers, we didn't even complain about our treatment ( I know we should have, and perhaps some of the issues are our fault for not doing so), so I really have no idea why we were treated so badly. The food can be ok, but for the price you pay for main meals you can get a far superior meal a few minutes down the road at the fishpool or abbey arms, and much, much better service.

A meal out is meant to be a treat, the service at this pub makes it feel anything but. We shall not...

We visited here for the first time on Saturday 2/8/25 in the afternoon about 3pm. We had our little dog with us with is allowed in which I am thankful for. The two areas inside which dogs are allowed mostly consisted of high tables with stools which is not a good thing when you have a dog with you to keep control of it and also to try and sit on a high stool when your 5ft, 61 yrs old and have sciatica so thankfully when we first arrived it was not full and we could find a low table but maybe this is something to consider when you are catering for dog owners. We stood inline to order drinks and get a menu with only two people in front of us and when the server became free she totally ignored us and went straight to the group of 4 that had just walked in even though she had seen us for the past ten minutes stood there and I was actually stood at the bar.(keep calm). We ordered food and one of us actually ordered a starter to be her main meal which was the special. A ploughman’s sharing platter for 2. When it arrived all I could see was bread and crackers. On closer inspection there was a cm thick triangle of Stilton and one of I think cheddar. 1 small sausage roll cut in half, 2 dill pickles cut in half, 3 small pots of butter, pickle and picalili, some thin celery sticks (bendy) and extremely hard crackers and 4 triangles of bread and some crisps scattered all over it. Something is missing I said!. The chicken terrine had been missed off. Oh said the server when asked about it, I don’t know as it’s new on the menu I will ask. About 5 mins later another server brought the terrine saying sorry chef forgot it. On the plate was a cm thick slice of it with wilted greenery scattered on top. Not a ploughman’s and not worth £20 yes £20. By this time the place was getting crowded so we left before our table was cleared so unfortunately we did not say anything, but really common sense tells you that no way did that platter even reach that...

We first went during covid, food was cold and I found stickers in lasagne the type of stickers you put on food to know when to throw it out. We didn’t go for a while after that as it was terrible, we then went with my partners family and this time it was very good food was brill we had a roast dinner. We then carried on going we’ve been about 5 times since and food has been amazing but service is horrendous every time. we’ve just left and staff really didn’t seem to have a clue what they were doing and didn’t seem to have much common sense. Food took so long to come out we finished our drinks so we ordered more, we saw them get poured and placed on the bar but staff were busy talking at the bar and didn’t bring drinks over for another 30 mins when we had finished food, at this point we were dying for a drink. Even after they were finished talking they took other tables plates away etc surely common sense would say bring our drinks over then clear tables close to us? We then waited a good while for them to bring us the bill. Just wouldent bother again. Can’t blame it on no staff as there seemed plenty of staff but they just didn’t tend to the tables very well at all.

Oh and never enough gravy they only put Gravy on the meat! Dry veg and potatoes are not for me so had to ask for 4 small jugs of gravy til our food was...