Jolly Sailor Saltford Bristol — Restaurant in England

The worst customer service of my life. Man behind the bar verbally abused me. I went with my partner for a Sunday roast today. We ordered 2 beef roasts and water. We saw 3 separate customers complain about their pints being wrong and having them swapped. The couple behind us- one of them had their main and their plate cleared and the other person got their main 40 minutes later. After a 45 minutes wait we asked the waitress about the food, she was very polite and said the kitchen said it will be 2 minutes. After an hour and 10 minutes wait I went to the bar to ask how long the food will be, I was told it’s coming right now. It didn’t. I asked about the possibility of some sort of refund. The young man behind the bar was polite, apologised for the wait and said I could have a refund. He had trouble with the card refund so I waited with him for about 5 minutes. In this time the food came so my food got cold as they couldn’t figure out the refund but he said I’d get the refund so I could go eat and somebody will come to us. The food was fine, the veg and Yorkshire was nice, but the beef was dry and tough. I also had string on my plate(as seen in picture), I’m hoping that it was from the beef and was not removed. The food alone forgetting the service was not worth £17. Nobody came to speak about the refund so we waited at the bar, where a middle aged man was rudely staring at me. When it was my turn he said “I’ll speak to you” abruptly in front of around 7 other customers. Before I spoke he said that I was “rude” and “desperate” that I can’t “ask for food and for a refund” and that I needed to “look around it is busy”- there was a booked party in the inside, the outside was more than half empty and most tables just having drinks. He wouldn’t let me speak, so I just let him shout at me. This was humiliating being shouted at and was very uncomfortable for everyone. I tried explaining that I was told I was going to get a refund and he continued shouting at me saying that “this is a lesson” and whilst he was serving other customers and I was crying to my partner he kept shouting that I was “rude” and that I needed to “learn”. The young man looked terrified of this middle aged man but did agree with me that I was not being rude. The young waitresses were lovely and came to apologise for this man’s behaviour after. Unfortunately they said that this is a common occurrence. I understand he was stressed due to the number of complaints but the manner that he attacked me was belittling and horrible. I understand this has been escalated to the manager and I hope if they have any doubts on this situation to please watch...

Having endured the worst dining experience ever, I am only being generous enough to rate this pub 1 Star because there is no zero stars option. There is absolutely no point in booking a table here, as all bookings are totally ignored, and customers arrive at the time of their booking to find they have to search for a table, if one is available. From then on, no member of staff will come anywhere near your table, and the art of avoiding eye contact with customers and dodging serving them has been mastered to an excellent standard by the surly staff. You will need to join a long queue at the bar to order and pay for your drinks and food up front, and the reason for this will soon become apparent, as once you've handed over the money there is zero chance of your food arriving within the next 2 hours. Be prepared to seek out a staff member every 30 minutes or so to enquire where your food is. You will be assured it's being plated up 'now', but an hour and a half later, you will still be awaiting its arrival. Obviously, there is no drinks service at the table, so a member of your party hoping to fend off hunger with a 2nd round of drinks will have to leave your table to spend 30 minutes in a painfully slow-moving queue, extending well outside of the pub, to be eventually served by 1 of the only 2 bar staff available. If you have children in your party, be prepared to leave your table with them several times to walk up and down the river bank to distract them from their hunger pangs. When your food eventually arrives over 2 hours late, you will receive no apology from your server, and only a few members of your party will be served food. You will have to complain again in order for any food to appear for the rest of your party. The quality of the food was beyond disappointing. I had ordered beef, and was relieved there was only one slice of it, as it was almost impossible to chew. I don't believe anyone must ever order a dessert at this pub, having experienced such misery waiting for a main course to be served. Absolutely no one working here could care less about your dining experience. If they didn't take your money immediately, no one would ever hang around for 2 hours before walking out. This was the most unpleasant, infuriating experience imaginable, completely ruining what should have been a family celebration, and everywhere we looked, people were complaining about having the same dire...

I booked a table for 9 people for my birthday at the Jolly Sailor, we arrived to immediately discover booking means essentially nothing, as there is no table set aside and no record of it, we were dismissively told to sit wherever we can find space and all orders for drinks and food were done through the bar with only two staff on, this meant there was a long line leading outside for absolutely everything.

Our so called "booking" was for 12.30 and we received our abjectly awful, straight out of a packet, food 2 hours later, after chasing up and complaining 3 times to staff who were frankly untrained and unfriendly, nobody in the establishment seemed to care less that food simply was not coming to tables, or that the three young children at our table were going demented with hunger, staff as far as I could tell were limited only to dropping off plates every so often and glass collecting as nobody in the several hours we were there even spoke to us or acknowledged our existence, the ridiculous system in place meant a half an hour queue if you wanted more drinks with your meal or to even speak to anyone about the problem. The adjacent table in the conservatory with us had the exact same experience, having booked for a birthday, waited several hours for food and been arrogantly dismissed whenever they tried to address this with staff.

Sadly this pub is now clearly being run as a money grabbing tourist trap given their stunning riverside location, who having had your money off you as you order, simply could not care less about the rest of your experience, the quality of the food or service. It is frankly an insult and exploitative that they take "bookings" and do absolutely nothing to honour them.

A birthday meal with family ruined, not only would I avoid ever coming back to this once decent pub I would also advise everyone I know in the local area never to bother. I left feeling as if I'd...