Live & Let Live — Restaurant in England

Last night me and 5 guests visited the live and let live in Harpole. We had good reviews from family,so thought it would be great to go there with family that had come to town. We booked a table for 6 people for 7.30pm,To begin with we approached the bar and was told someone would seat us, when shown our table we were going to be sat on bar stools so opted to sit on a larger table by the bar. We all sat down and waited and no one brought us any menus, I went to the bar which then the lady behind the bar told Me they don't use menus it was only on a chalk board around the corner from our table (annoying when there are 6 people) I decided the easy option was to take a picture on my phone to show everyone instead of us all having to get up and down, after deciding what we would like we waited and waited and no one come to take our order, I went up to the bar and asked if any one could take our order which the waiter behind the bar said he would come and take it, I took a seat and we waited another 5 mins until he approached our table. Once he had taken our order my step father asked how long our food would take as we sat down at 7:30 our order was taken at 8, he said he would check with the kitchen, he came back and told us that it would be a 30 min wait which we all accepted was adequate for a Saturday night. So again we waited and waited until it got to 8:45 and we still had no food. The waiter which had been serving us came to our table to collect glasses and my step dad asked him how long it will be until we receive our food, he said he would check with the kitchen and came back and told us it would Be another 15 to 20 mins and claimed that it wasn't his fault, there were no apologises, and said there was only one chef working. At 9.05 a dish came out which was given to another table I could see them looking confused at the dish the waitress then went back to the table picked up the dish and brought it to our table it was our food (my father in law had chosen pheasant casserole, which was clearly burnt) there was a 5 min wait between each meal coming out so by the time the last dish come out 15 mins had passed... all off the steaks were over cooked and clearly burnt, the vegetable were brown and inedible we were all starving by this point as it was 9:30 so dealt with what was put in front of us. When our table was cleared after eating by the waiter my father in law made it clear that he was unhappy with his dish he claimed that he would tell the chef, when he came back out he simply said "I told him" which my father in law replied "so what is he going to do about it" so back into the kitchen he went, he came back out and said "nothing can be done now" and shrugged his shoulders, I then asked to see the manager which he said the chef is the manager. We were offered no explanation of why we had to wait and had to pay for the most inadequate service I have ever endured. I would never recommended this place to eat to anyone, the atmosphere is nice but that's where it ends. Clearly no training is given to the staff on how to deal with guests. The waiter that had served us clearly had no idea about the hospitality industry and had no...

This experience lasted nearly 3 hours ,booked in for 1830hrs a few adjustments and we was ready to go, menu for the children and drinks menu was asked for and eventually a children's menu arrived but the the drink menu didn't , barman /waiter said he would look for them eventually he came over and said he couldn't find them and asked for our orders for drinks and food . We ordered and said not Cajun chicken as it was too spicy for the grandchildren as they don't like spicy food, low and behold food came out with two of the menu's being Cajun chicken ,the waiter/barman who had more hair on his chin than brain cells took this order , fortunately a lady sorted Barman out ,got the children's meals sorted however adults now have there food grandchildren with none, we're now a meal behind thinking it couldn't get worse . I went to the bar to find out why?. Asking why the meal was not what we asked for with spicy chicken he said we had nothing else . so I said" why didn't you say you had nothing else so we could have ordered different because we now have children with no food and adults with food ".this was left with a blank expression .Now thinking life and supporting local businesses gets better, I went to order a jack Daniel's and coke full fat for a good mate ,The single shot of Jack danials went in then to my horror an open can of coke was poured in then bearded barman went to the left ,as I was looking and came back with an other open coke and poured that in . I asked him about the open tins of coke and he said it was from his drink earlier . 🤔The drink cost £4.00 so have I paid for a shot of JD for that amount ?.with someone else's flat coke ? . Overall it was overcooked and over priced food. I like to leave on a positive and really it was the rear view mirror as...

I have been here on my travels in the Northampton area and remember it as a great place to visit as well as the village and surrounding areas.

It is very sad to read of spiralling costs associated with maintaining high standards, which makes it impossible for many businesses to survive, especially when someone has put so much effort in and this has been undermined by costs.

I hope some business group (or community trust) takes over to keep it going like what has happened during the pandemic with some pubs which would have otherwise closed for good.

A great village...