Halfway House Beefeater — Restaurant in England

If you wish to have a nice meal out, I wouldn't recommend coming here. Firstly, I want to point out that the waitresses were lovely. We had a couple of issues, and sadly, I can't remember our first waitress, but Ruth was amazing, kind compassionate, and a real asset to this restaurant, so thank you for your advice.

Where do I start...so if you go onto the beefeater website, it will say they do unlimited chips, which the manager CHLOE denied and corrected us, but as a 'gesture of good will' would honour this deal.

So our food came out, another bowl of unlimited chips was ordered, making that 3 bowls of 'unlimited chips' We then ordered cookie dough, which ended up just being a standard cookie broken in half and a dollop of ice cream on top...which we sent back because its not what we expected to be classed as cookie dough, maybe they could call it 'chocolate chip cookie with icecream'

So once the bill was asked for, we noticed that a bowl of chips had been added to our bill. Again, we were under the understanding that all chips were unlimited as that was what CHLOE said.

CHLOE then came over (already with attitude because of our conversations earlier on in the meal) proceeded to tell us that we had obviously ordered chips and we just couldn't get our head round what she was saying, she then back tracked on her words saying she only okayed one extra bowl each for our unlimited fries, which apparently half way through our meal then became limited. After a few moments of arguing and refusing to remove the chips, she then told us we didn't have to pay, and we were free to leave. Leaving us a bit confused, because our intentions were not to leave without paying, but she was goading us on to leave...with that she walked off. Our second waitress, Ruth, then advised us to pay and raise a dispute with the complaints office. Ruth explained to us that the police would have been informed if we'd have got up and left without paying, so glad someone had some sense to explain the cons of leaving without paying, deep down i expect CHLOE was just being petty and this was her way of trying to get one up on us.

My advice to you is don't come here unless you want CHLOE to insult and embarrass you. She might be better off at working at a...

When we visit my sister in her care home in Dunstable we often stay here. The meals are never great tbh but it’s handy. The premier inn would get a 5 as it is consistently good but the beefeater would get 0 after last night. The Christmas dinner menu is out. I wouldn’t recommend ordering. The starters were ok. The main came, we were upsold pigs in blankets and paid £3.50. Three small sausages arrived on a dinner plate. The dinners actually had them on so poor upselling. The turkey was not just dry but so hard it would have been impossible to chew. The supervisor Owen said it was because they were buying cheap meat, I suspect probably not English. He said not like the meat last year which was Bernard Mathews . Maybe a good thing I didn’t eat it. He offered us a free pudding which was £6 total as we had the meal deal. But said ok. I ordered cheese. It’s frozen. It must have been too close to the chiller wall. Owen had his argumentative pants on and said nothing wrong with it! He took it away and offered nothing else. The bill came and had included a £4 supplement for the turkey dinners we didn’t eat. I said I didn’t eat my main I’m not paying for the extras. He said I had to pay. I was staying in the hotel so as the manager was not in I said I would sort in the morning. As I left Owen was shouting she will make you pay!!! Like a child! When I went back at breakfast I spoke to the second rudest member of staff the manager Finn Murphy who stood me next to the camera at the bar and tried to provoke a reaction. She said I am lucky to not be in trouble as I walked out without paying so shouldn’t be asking for money off. I was in room 11 and gave my room number the night before. Remember that £51 of the bill was pre paid anyway and the rest was £28. In the end I paid the £51 and £19 for wine. So £70 for a starter each and one pudding with 2 beers and wine. I asked for the area managers number and she said find it yourself. Rude and incompetent and not up to the job. I will be phoning head office on Monday. Finn Murphy you would be more suited in a role where you didn’t have to deal with customers. Go find...

Update to previous review: We still book regularly for breakfast here on Saturday mornings but walked out without eating today as the coffee machine is still out of action. We last ate here on 5th October when it was out of action and another regular I spoke to said it had not been working the Saturday before that either...so at least 4 weeks without a coffee machine is, in my view, unacceptable - demand a courtesy one or buy a new one! Staff were apologetic but said there was instant coffee available - there is nothing wrong with decent instant coffee, but it is not what we expect when we are paying good money for breakfast...what annoyed me even more was the sign posted on the machine saying 'Oops!!!'. Anyway, we popped round to our local regular Costa for a thoroughly enjoyable (and cheaper) breakfast with fabulous coffee - which we shall probably do for a while now.

Previous review: We have been regulars here at breakfast on Saturday mornings for some months now - we find it really sets us up for the day to get loads done. The food is good value for money - we like that orders for cooked food are taken and served at the table whenever you are ready after helping ourselves to coffee and cereal/toast/fruit - unlike some buffets where you take pot luck as to how long the food has been sitting there. We are recognised and feel welcomed by the staff and usually served by Jennifer who is always chirpy and takes time for a quick chat and generally remembers our order better than we do!

Only downside at breakfast is the slow speed of the one coffee machine (great quality coffee though) and the inevitable jostling and frequent snipes around the toasters with other customers!

We also used to come here for lunch regularly about once a week but find the quality not worth the price lately so tend to now frequent another local, much better quality and value, restaurant. Would highly recommend...