Juniper Farm - Dining & Carvery — Restaurant in England

Birthday meal out.. Ordered from the grill menu rump steak , pepper corn sauce, jacket potatoes, onion rings, peas, mushroom and half a tomatoes. Presentation ok but the meal actually smelt really fishy. I did not complain as we were out on a birthday meal and did not want to make a fuss especially after it taking nearly 50 minutes for it to arrive. I was violently sick when i returned home. My Husband also had the same meal , his didnt smell fishy and said his was ok but his did arrive 15 minutes after I had finished some of mine and that's after they had offered him somebody else's order 1st and we pointed out that it was not the correct order.. There was also another wrong order on our table, member of our party ordered sirloin steak only to be told that there was no sirloin steak left and would he have rump instead, he accepted this and was also offered a free sweet which was nice. However when the rump meal came it was still not the other things on the plate that the guest had ordered. In the mean time after the guest had eaten what he was given yet another waitress came over with the actual sirloin meal which the guest ordered in the first place with the correct extra foods on the plate as requested. (So much for being no sirloin) we also found this place very dissapointing as we were a party of 10 on a birthday meal out and this was prebooked well in advance and requested to be near the play area as we had 3 active children in the party and have been to this pub on several times and love your play area. However this was not honoured and we were right near to the main entrance of the pub where children could easily get through the door. The children were getting quite anxious and upset as they could not go to the play area as they would not have been visible from our seating area in which people were eating. It was very hustle and bustley and although children do need supervising in the play area , had the original agreement Been honoured then this could have easily been sorted as we would have been close enough to supervise continuously. This Continuous supervision was a necessity as there were children in our party with dangerous allergies that may have needed urgent epi pen...

Absolutely shocking service Bank Holiday Monday. We had booked a table for 6 people at 6pm as it was my Grandsons birthday and he wanted a carvery. We arrived and ordered drinks at the bar, sat down with our family and my daughter said I overheard the bar staff say to another customer there was no meats left for the carvery! I asked a member of the staff to verify this and he said no there isn’t, I asked why and he said because there is no meat left!! We then ordered food at the bar after considering going to another restaurant! The food that came was ok. We then asked the food waiter could we order drinks with him and he replied no, just at the bar or on the app We ordered drinks on the app, where after 20 minutes these had not arrived, so I went to the bar and asked where the order was, I was told it was on its way, and it came immediately. My daughter then ordered puddings at the bar and we again waited 30 minutes for 3 puddings! By this time the restaurant was virtually empty. I must stress that I appreciate it was a bank holiday Monday and that the restaurant had been busy all weekend, but we would have appreciated as we checked in we should have been told there was no carvery available!! We spent £120, and what should have been an enjoyable evening was spoilt with very poor service and no communication from the staff! Unfortunately we will not be coming to the restaurant again, which is unfortunate as we have previously always enjoyed it. The young lad who served our drinks, seemed to have had very little training in dealing with the public!! There was no eye contact and when he brought the drinks he just left them at the end...

Main gripe (ongoing) is about the Carvery. The bar and waiting staff are always excellent, they are polite and attentive, and menu food is usually good (although occasionally cold food, or parts of dishes arrive cold). Sadly, the whole place is badly let down by the Carvery which, since Nick left (ex kitchen manager), is a poor show. More often than not, the vegetables are very limited, and what's there is allowed to dry up and look very unappealing. I didn't realise crispy green beans were a thing🧐. All it takes is a bit of delegation to get things stirred / re-glazed/oiled etc. The Beef is poor these days (stringy & tough, definitely not Rib like they used to serve - I realise this is down to the chain, and NOT specifically juniper). And the majority of Carvers are very mean with the meat portions served. They also regularly run out of meats early, I realise it's a very difficult juggling/planning act, but why do other carveries seem to cope fine? We regularly visit several Farmhouse Inns (Chapelford, Barley and Juniper), but I have to say the Juniper Farm needs some serious improvement on the Carvery side, and has done for some time now. Such a shame as it used to be excellent. I'm not in the habit of leaving bad reviews as I know the impact they can have, but this is far from a one-off. We decided not to have the Carvery tonight (again, dried up veg., And no Turkey left (6 :30 pm)), so we drove over to The Toby - what a difference, 3 staff constantly looking after the Carvery counter cleaning, stirring, topping up etc, and 4 meats on offer as always. We won't be returning to Juniper for a while, as these issues are too...