Old Engine House — Restaurant in England

Booked with family to have our Christmas Day lunch here and unfortunately we were left very disappointed and regretting our choice.

Starters were OK but took a while to come out and, because the service was slow, some people finished their starters before others even got their plates.

The main (carvery) is where the major issues started - the man at the meat deck refused to give us pigs in blankets despite these being part of the menu which we had paid for. I tried to show him their Christmas Day menu on my phone to show that everyone should get 2x pigs in blankets but instead he just shouted and argued saying that we could only get them if we had paid extra. In the end another staff member had to come over and remind him of their own menu which is what I tried to explain. Was also only given 1 yorkshire pudding (despite the menu offering 2) but after the pigs in blankets saga I didn't fancy another argument.

The gammon was tasty, but the beef was really overdone and tough and the sides were pretty much all stale from how long they had been sat there. The beef dripping roast potatoes were particularly bad as they had been cooked to hell and tasted like burnt oil. Not sure the sprouts were "maple and bacon sprouts" like the menu said as they were a watery mush.

Desserts were fine but again took a while to be served.

The fourth course (mince pies/coffee) was lacklustre - we were offered some mince pies from a tray that had been sat at the bar for hours right after our dessert but were not offered any drinks and ended up going home shortly after this point.

There were long waits at the bar to get drinks and on multiple occasions we were not even acknowledged for 5-10 minutes with no apology for the wait when we did finally get served.

The atmosphere was fine but there wasn't any Christmas music (just music blaring out from the sports bar) and the toilets were filthy.

The service overall was pretty poor and not really what you'd expect on Christmas Day given that you pay triple for what is essentially their day to day food and drink you'd normally get for less than 20 quid. We seemed to be quite lucky we were a later booking as we overhead staff members saying to other customers who were waiting to be seated that people there already were taking ages (probably down to the slow service) and that they were going to rush them to finish.

We didn't expect a lot, but at the least we did expect a decent quality meal/experience and not to have to argue with members of staff on the day to get the food we had paid triple the standard price for. The shambles we experienced put a massive downer on our day and doesn't inspire any of us to come back, especially not for any special occasion or future...

I don't particularly like leaving negative reviews, but maybe all the previous amazing reviews for this place made me have expectations higher than they should be.

So, on entry to the front of the pub it appears there is a host stand. This was not manned, after waiting several minutes we joined the queue at the bar and waited again - as we did not have reservations we were told to pick any table without a reserved sign.

Well, it seems the only place spare was the far back corner. Table tops are clean, but its clear a deep clean is needed. We perused the menu, made our decisions and off I went back to the till.

Very polite chap, but he forgot to ring in the Yorkies (you pay £1 for 3) this then led to several minutes of him trying to operate the till, searching for help and generally not being able to process it. I wish he hadn't bothered being able to ring them in, they were drier than the Sahara, no lovely soft fluffy bottoms here.

Whilst all this was going on, I could see the post mix pumps advertising Lemon Fanta - WONDERFUL, alas, I was quickly disappointed. It is orange Fanta, maybe its my eyesite or maybe it needs updating.

Now, onto the food. The mac n cheese was lovely as was the dressed side salad. 10/10.

The main event, the Carvery. Sadly, failed to meet expectations, previous reviews or the liking of myself. So many elements were terrible. Rock and I do mean rock hard roast potatoes. Parsnips still raw, very very bland stuffing. I shortage of sauces combined with a lot of dirt by them. Meat wasnt bad, but not great either.

Whilst attempting to eat some of my meal the quiet corner we had was taken over by everyone else who had entered and been through the same palaver, which we overheard was caused by the day shift not removing reserved signs from all the tables.

Didn't finish my meal or my drink and left - currently munching on a bag of quavers.

I'm guessing I got unlucky during my visit, but looking around at the amount of unfinished food on carvery plates told me the story I needed. It was a bad day, on possibly an unorganised/understaffed shift.

What i will say, if the food had been better it would have provided amazing value. If I were to return I'd order from the main menu as the food from that I could see...

I’ve never seen anyone work so slowly behind a bar in my life than the young girl today. 8th Jan at lunch time. I understand not everyone is quick and maybe new and inexperienced so allowances are made for that, but an apathetic attitude to the job is off putting to see and experience as a customer and a bad representation of this usually amazing place, that I often visit. Unfriendly, unsmiling and blatantly served someone else before me as I was standing right in front of her at one side of the bar. Gazed around blankly before asking “you ok” to me. ‘What can I get for you’ is the usual term. I’m really patient ( I was just standing and smiling generally so no angst from me) so I’m really not bothered about waiting the normal time, and in turn, but to have someone else served first for no other reason than ‘she felt like it’ is a bad attitude, patronising, and leaves an ugly impression overall. Front line is everything. Only a handful of people in at that time so not rushed off her feet at all, and only me waiting, except for the other customer that stepped up to the bar and got served immediately and while she was still serving the people before me. I will say all the other staff (guys) were extremely pleasant helpful and came to the table a few times to see if everything was in order with the food. But my review was for her as she set the discordant scene and left the extremely bad impression. I should have asked for the manager immediately with hind sight and expressed my feelings there and then. First thing I will do if it happens again. Plenty of people looking for work that would be delighted to have a lovely job in there and take a pride in engaging with the guests in a polite and respectful manner, as all the others did, which was really nice and much appreciated, as always. Really lovely to see them enjoying their employment and taking the initiative to create the right and caring ambience and a pleasant experience for guests. A shame that one person can potentially spoil the whole dynamic. Give the job to someone that appreciates it and and is a front line asset that leaves the...