Gordon Arms — Restaurant in England

I don't normally complain however the meal we've just eaten has been the worst experience we've had. Made worse by the manager on duty of your venue using the line "you'll understand Sunday is our busiest day and we've had a busy lunch" our meal was at 6pm so why is my experience any less important than those who dined at lunch?

We arrived to be told there were no seats in the restaurant, despite a table being cleared for the next people in so we were sent to the bar.

I ordered at the bar and the staff member who took our order (early 20s male with dark curly hair) was pleasant and efficient. I ordered halloumi fries and nachos to start followed by our mains. All the food came together, I explained we had ordered started and mains but was told "We'll they've sent them all together" the halloumi fires had an obviously wilted garnish, the hunters chicken had no coleslaw and the nachos didn't come out. After a few minutes I asked at the bar for the nachos and when then arrived pointed out the garnish and shortly after the coleslaw arrived.

Once we finished our mains we spent 15 minutes 4 foot away from 2 staff having a casual chat not noticing our table needed clearing so I eventually went to the bar to ask for the children's desserts to be sent out, they came shortly after but all the other dirty plates were left on our table.

The 2 chocolate brownies are the real big concern I have. Both were that hit they'd burnt. My 5 year old cried when she went to eat it as it was that hot.

I then took this to the bar and asked for the manager, who it turns out had served our mains in the first place.

Granted she offered to replace the burnt dessert but by the point I wasn't prepared to wait around.

I mentioned the substandard level of customer care I received, explained the above and made it clear it was the worst experience I had. Mentioning also I work in contract catering and am used to providing a level of customer care. Her reply was that I should understand how busy Sundays are and that they had been swamped all day. That is not my problem.

We selected your venue as we have used it many times, it had been our wedding anniversary the day before and we thought it'd be a nice child friendly place. It's £50 I've worked for spent and been shown no thanks for.

I was also given the following email address by the manager to express my concerns too its: m6323@Greene king.co.uk

I would like confirmation that if I had chosen to email that address it would have gone to head office as I requested.

It's such a shame to see money being spent on a venue to get it looking great but then have this appalling management, food quality and service from staff all of whom had mobiles sticking out their...

We are late to review but having came on here I am appalled by the lack of credit given to the staff and the very young MOD on Boxing Day. We came in at 1ish and immediately could tell how busy it was. The restraunt was completely full as well as a large party of 26 in the function room. Yet despite this we were seated sharpish, after it had been checked that we had booked in (we had), by a young looking girl who despite her age seemed to be in charge and in control of the shift (she introduced herself as Molly) she explained with maturity beyond her years that due to staff illnesses they were understaffed so there would be a little bit of a wait time regarding food and service. Which though there was perhaps a 45 minute wait before we received our food didn’t diminish the experience we had as both our waiters Molly and (I think his name was Tom) did incredible with the situation they were given despite her having to make ours (and everyone else’s) drinks due to an inexperienced bar man being the only other member of staff. We have a daughter in this industry and have seen first hand how stressful this period is on hospitality staff so believe that credit should be given where credit is due as a completely full restraunt and bar would’ve been hard to handle with a full team never mind 3 staff members. My only criticism of the day is that the higher ups in Greene King should think twice before offering a sinking ship to such a young girl regardless of the fact she was capable of handling it. 5 stars to Molly and the team for doing such a good job trying to make the day work and to the management please take this review as a more accurate representation of how Molly and the team conducted themselves then the entitled people below me whom clearly have no understanding of what it takes to work...

Popped in because the Botolph was closed and had a pleasant surprise.

We don't trust places that offer two meals for £8.99 usually but we initially just went for a drink. Plus, it was Mother's Day so we assumed there would be no tables available.

Immediately, the lady behind the bar was warm & friendly, recommending a particular Gin for my wife and my Abbott's was perfect. After smelling the lovely roasts coming out of the kitchen, we decided to ask the restaurant lady if there was a table and she said she'd try to organise something. Only 5 minutes later we were shown to a table.

Kylie was great as our waitress, she had a bubbly, confident air and left us to choose. When we ordered, my wife had been tempted by the lovely aroma of the roast and I chose to treat myself to a fillet steak. I was wary because it wasn't likely that many fillets were sold so I asked for rare as I expected it to be overcooked and love a juicy steak.

We were again very pleasantly surprised by the speed with which we were served and the colossal size of the plateful of delicious roast dinner...my wife even left some and that NEVER happens!😂

My whole plateful looked lovely as I'd decided on ALL the extras, calamari was tasty and not chewy, prawn & scampi were piping hot and succulent & the steak was cooked to perfection...ALAS the cut was more like a braising than fillet steak and was interminably chewy. Such a sad thing to happen because it just shows the penny pinching meat buyers ruined it for the chef and the customer.

Can't praise the staff more, especially young Kylie, but their management let them down BIG STYLE and, even though we will definitely go again I will never eat the steaks... HOWEVER, the shredded beef ends are TO DIE...