JJs Bar & Kitchen — Restaurant in England

Our initial waitress Ellie was fantastic, couldn’t have asked for more, really friendly service, kind, and she gave our dog a lovely fuss too. She’s a credit to your restaurant. The woman however with the brown hair and black and white jumper - who I think may have been the manager (we were advised her name is Amy) was vile. Came over to our table and gave us the most disgusted down her nose look ever and said “excuse me do not let your dog eat at the dinner table”, pulled a face at us and made another snide comment half under her breath, then said “it needs to be on the floor”. Our dog was sat on my sisters knee with a chew that we purchased from the venue, he wasn't chewing it on the table, and he was hardly sat eating with a knife and fork off a plate the way she made out. If dogs disgust you that much, just don’t have a dog “friendly” restaurant? She then walked over to the waitress station and pointed at our table while talking to them - clearly about us, at which the other two waitresses proceeded to stare over at us. Talk about making feel unwelcome - do you realise how incredibly uncomfortable that interaction made us feel?

If the request had been made in a friendly manner without pulling faces at us and speaking to us like we were something off the bottom of your shoe, we really wouldn’t have minded at all. I fully appreciate that is your policy, not all your visitors will be dog fans, and obviously you have hygiene standards to maintain - but all you had to do was advise - not pull faces and sneer at us. Instead if we hadn’t already placed a large order for our food (and thought it would be unfair on the kitchen who hadn’t done anything wrong) we would just have walked out there and then. It completely tainted our Easter break away, and to be honest I wish we had never chosen to eat there in the first place.

The food was okay, the scotch egg starter was undercooked (pictured) and the pork belly starter was literally swimming in oil (again pictured - removed the meat to show the extent of the oil). These issues however wouldn’t have even been raised by us if we didn’t experience such an awful interaction, so you can thank your lovely manager for that. We weren’t asked once if everything was okay, and our mains were brought out with no cutlery, and without the starters being cleared. Again, not something that would usually warrant a negative tripadvisor review, however on this occasion this was because not a single person bothered with us after the rude interaction with your manager. Again, talk about being made to feel welcome.

Pre empting the question why didn’t we raise it at the time, we attempted to with the waitress who was taking our payment (not someone we had interacted with before) but she flounced off rolling her eyes and didn’t return. Professional! I also note a reply to one reviewer where you state that reviews are utilised to damage businesses - I think some of your employees are managing that all by themselves.

Reading the extremely immature, passive aggressive, and incoherent responses to other reviews, I’m not expecting a constructive response. The restaurant seems to see itself as a victim of every single negative review, and likes to point out that it has hundreds of other customers. Well when you are the only restaurant in the whole area, people don’t really have a choice… I’d advise others to have a look at what’s on offer in the surrounding villages and where possible take the extra five or ten minutes to travel, you’ll likely have a more...

Unfortunately I am unable to leave 0 stars or I would, I can’t comment on the food as unfortunately we did not get to that stage. I am commenting solely on their inclusivity of people with disabilities. My daughter who is 3 has autism/non-verbal and daily only eats chicken nuggets from McDonald’s and certain pre packed snacks. We arrived and ordered food and drinks. We then give our daughter her snacks, a waitress then came over to state she could not eat food not purchased from the establishment (I understand this of course for neurotypical children) I then as I always went on to explain how she has Autism and has a very limited diet and this is usually understood). However I was told she would have to speak with the manager and when returned was told she could not eat her nuggets but could eat her pre-packed food this once and if we were to return she couldn’t despite them being now well aware of her additional needs. My daughter was enjoying her nuggets so if I was to stop her when she has limited to non understanding would result in her becoming extremely distressed. We then had to cancel our food order and pay for our drinks before we quickly left to ensure my daughter was not distressed. We did not feel this establishment was understanding or adaptable at all and left feeling very upset. At one point the waitress went on to say they serve nuggets there leading to us feeling the need to have to explain in detail how she will only eat nuggets from McDonald’s in that exact packaging.

I sincerely hope that this review is is taken into consideration for any other further family’s or children with additional needs who visit your...

Great food, drinks, and staff, but an uncomfortable experience with management

I've visited JJ's Bar and Restaurant a few times before, especially since we love staying in the lodges nearby, and it’s always been a solid experience. The food is fantastic, the drinks are top-notch, and the staff are always friendly and welcoming. On this occasion, however, things were slightly overshadowed by an unfortunate interaction with who I can assume was the manager on Saturday night.

While we were dining, he loudly reprimanded a staff member right in front of several tables, which created a tense atmosphere. It made my table, along with a few others around us, feel really uncomfortable. In fact, one group chose to sit outside (in January!) just to get away from the situation. Another comment from the same man, after we mentioned we hadn’t been served yet, was “I’ll slap whoever it is.” This only added to the uneasy feeling.

I understand that managing a busy restaurant can be stressful, having worked as a bistro manager myself. But I’m not sure if this particular individual could use some additional training in handling staff and maintaining a positive atmosphere, especially in front of customers. Despite this, I have to give props to the rest of the team — the chefs, the servers, and everyone else — for their excellent service and food.

Overall, I’ll definitely return, as this experience was more of an isolated incident. Hopefully, the management team can take a step back and reassess how to better handle pressure situations...