Crown Tavern — Restaurant in England

Food: Ordered two mains from the regular menu. The sausage and mash was not at all tasty, and the steak and ale pie comprised mainly of overly-thick pastry. Entertainment value of the "hunt the filling game" was the best part!

Drinks: Ordered a pint of Guinness and a glass of water. The water was good, but the Guinness tasted off and lost its head. I drew this to the attention of a member of bar staff who served a replacement pint. This was only marginally better, and more than half was left in the glass when we left.

Cleanliness: On opening the first menu card bits of food were stuck to the pages and some dropped out. The condiments were grubby. Is it beyond the abilities of the staff to give the salt and pepper pots a wipe to remove the debris stuck to them? It could be that they are too busy vaping in the pub! Yes, at least one was seen.

Toilets: Why no lock on the cubicle door in the gents?

Overall, a very poor experience. NOT one I would care to repeat.

ADDITIONAL COMMENT IN RESPONSE TO OWNER'S INVITATION TO CONTACT HIM:

I tried to make contact via the phone number given in the owner's response to my original review, at various times throughout the afternoon and evening, but most of the dozen-plus calls went unanswered.

One call was answered in the afternoon and I was told that the landlord was attending a medical appointment and that he would be back in about an hour. I accepted that at face value and indicated that I would call again later.

An hour and a half later two more calls went to answering machine, a third call was picked up but no-one spoke to me. A further call was answered by a female, but again the landlord was absent. I was told that he would be back at 7 o'clock.

Shortly after 8 o'clock I redialed at least ten times before getting an answer, but, guess what, the landlord was yet again not available! The female with whom I tried to have a conversation appeared to be finding something amusing, as she giggled constantly as I outlined the reason for my call. I asked her to let the landlord know that I had responded to his request to make contact. Her response to that was to hang up on me!

If that person was entrusted to represent my company, I would be horrified by such a response to a customer. Who's was the male voice chipping in in the background, I wonder?

If the owner was not genuine in asking me to contact him, why request me to do so? No response at all from him would have been better than this farce. Was it just...

My party (10 people inc. 2 kids), admittedly, was booked on short notice. We were put on a table which wasn't big enough for 10 people. I went to the bar with my son to order drinks for 8 of us. The bar person seemed annoyed with our order, more so because as we ordered, more people from our party came and gave their orders. She kept saying "Is that it?" in an annoyed fashion. We did get to our last drink order, and she said "Really, is that it?", like our custom was a disservice to her. The other customers in the establishment, which I can only assume were regulars, were rather boisterous, which I have no problem with usually. However, a female in the pub approached our table in an aggresive manner and accused a member of our party of staring at her and asked him "What are you looking at?". He wasn't looking at this person, or thier group. It was unwarranted. After that, the same person and her family threw a toy above our heads and it hit the wall behind us. We assumed that this might have been an accident as they were with their child, and returned the toy. Shortly after the toy was thrown again, in the same direction, with more force. This upset a member of our party who has recently received surgery and was in pain still. She was concerned that she might end up getting hurt where she received surgery. The food came out quick, which was explained by the fact that the chips were undercooked. Not just for myself, but most of the group. The two steaks that were ordered were both over cooked, which I understand is hit and miss from restaurant to restaurant, so I don't usually mention it. What didn't seem right though was I ordered an 8oz surf and turf, and my wife ordered an 8oz rump. My steak was clearly 1/3 smaller than my wife's (i understand how raw vs cooked steak weight and size works, there was a clear difference). It was a completely uncomfortable experience, and none of the party will be returning again. We left as soon as we had finished the food. I've never really had a bad experience at a Marstons pub before, but this will make me think twice...

Absolutely appalling customer service. We had booked a table for 6:30 for a group of 6,upon arrival we got an abrupt greeting, continued to mention we had book a table for 6, the man just looked surprised and said oh let's just make sure we have space. Didn't even check our booking. Showed us to a seating area right next to the kitchen door, sauces, cutlery and napkins all spread over the table next to us with paperwork all next to it. We proceeded to sit down and the table was sticky/dirty from drinks previously. We asked for the table to be wiped and the young girl came with a peice of paper hand towels and some spray. She literally gave it a 2 second wipe and believed for this to be sufficient. There was a fork left on the arm rest of the seating area. In the end I went to the car and grabbed a packet of baby wipes. We proceed to wipe the tables and the baby wipes which we used were black with filth. We recieved cutlery which was dirty inside a metal basket with sauces that had exploded. Despite wiping our tables with baby wips the tables were still sticky and you could see people's finger print marks within the table. There were people shouting and vaping within the premises. We had no customer service when the food arrived just put on the table, not asked if the food was all ok. One mega mixed grill the chicken was barley warm, on the vegetarian option the salad within the bun wad slimes. The steaks on the mega mixed grills which were ordered was cooked incorrectly one barley cooked the other was over cooked. The toilet facilities were absolutely appalling urine all over the floor in the men's toilets not to mention the uncleanness of the sinks. We didn't even get a goodbye or a thank you.

Honestly, the worst establishment I have...