Papa's Fish & Chips — Restaurant in England

Went today with my husband and for starters we’re not treated greatly we both work in customer service so understand the struggle but when our drink arrived (Pepsi and carling) the Pepsi had a single piece of shaven ice that quite frankly looks so unappealing and the calling was flat warm no head and was obvious no one’s done a line clean in a while again we understood and kept our mouths shut food took 36 minutes to arrive and when it did after openly sitting under the heat lamps for five minutes as staff talked infront of it it was finally brought to us the dishes (a large fish and chips and a stake and ale pie) the chips were stale and either pure batter and chewy hard to the bite almost inedible and freezing cold the pie was dry and the gravy resembled jelly and must have been microwaved for less than ten seconds with it barely being warm the fish was tiny (a Wetherspoons kids size for comparison) and was brought missing the sauce we had to ask for cutlery and didn’t receive napkins from the waiters who dumped them on the table before not even stopping to run of. It took us five minutes to work up the courage to go and ask for some service on all this and when we did the manager very politely came straight away when he looked at the dishes he picked them up and even mistook the fish for a “medium or a small” when we told him it was meant to be a large he looked slightly confused at this point we didn’t want to stay as it was just not worth the time or money so I asked for a refund wich I was told wasn’t an option but we could have a recoil as I didn’t want to be out the money we stayed. When the food came back the chips were a lot better but the size of the fish was the exact same being slightly longer but ten times thinner it only took twenty five minutes to receive the recook we were given a couple free drinks the Pepsis while still flat and with a horrid ratio of soda to premix did have ice but weirdly was in a Guinea glass (doesn’t matter but strange) and a peroni was actually cold had the right head and tasted how peroni should taste (honestly shocked at this but no complaints there obviously) the pie wasn’t over cooked and bone dry this time but was still doughy tough to chew and just honestly not worth it but again didn’t want to be out the money I don’t understand why a refund wasn’t possible as any cheap beachside fish and chip shop would have been a more pleasurable lighting even if we had of been attacked by seagulls I would have had a smile on my face to have been out of there we once again had to ask for the missing sauces that were meant to come with the dishes (tartar sauce) and had to ask for cutlery again but again we didn’t get the chance to ask for napkins as the delivery of throwing down the cutlery was a literal drive by. Having worked in hospitality we both found it kinda odd and frankly rude when every single table in the resteraunt got a check back and constant smiles didn’t appreciate the waitress walking round with her cape in her hand either honestly didn’t find it cleanly no one came back to check if the food wasn’t ineadible once again wich is odd with the amount of attention every other table got but when I politely told them about the situation being the person that complained got us neglected and all together avoided while I do appreciate the attention to detail the re cook go having seen the manager in the kitchen and making sure the food didn’t loose all moistness under the heat lamp was very nice and what’s expected in this industry very obviously wouldn’t recommend was a horrible atmosphere very unwelcoming but when I’m paying for a service and food and you take a service charge I quite honestly expect some level of service not a menus made out of paper (which although looked nice) had yellow stains from god knows what and a unclean unset up table and to be blatantly...

It's not an exaggeration to say that this was the worst experience I've ever had at a restaurant.

Intro - Kind But Slow We were welcomed kindly and sat down. When we sat, the table was dirty, sticky and clearly rundown. On the floor, there were scraps of fish that had not been cleaned. Nonetheless we were starving. The waiter told us he'd be with us in a few minutes. After 15 minutes, another waiter sat down another group, and explained they needed to order at the till. So, I went to the till to order.

Ordering Process - Terrible and Slow I ordered two grilled seafood platters at the till. It took a while for the payment to process but no real problem there. Or so I thought. Because these little, small delays began to mount. I ordered two beers at the till. They delivered one beer, then the next, instead of just delivering them together.

Food - WRONG and Dirty When food arrived, it was the wrong food, and it had multiple huge hairs in it (see photo attached, which doesn't do justice to how much was hiding under the chips). We advised the waiter of the wrong order and the hair. I can see from other reviews I am not the only one with the hair problem. He said the waiter was at fault for entering the order wrong and we had to pay the difference. Fine. Paid. We waited another 10 minutes, and when the food came, it was the exact same plate as before!

Not What We Ordered We said, "this is not what we ordered!" They then came back in 5 minutes with ONE plate of what we ordered. The 'grilled seafood platter': haddock, prawn and salmon skewers. The prawn was completely cold to the touch, and the chips looked like they were fried in dirty oil. The curry sauce which was ordered had not been replaced, either. We waited 5 minutes more, and the little old lady came with a plate of bread and mushy peas! We said, we have told you three times now that we ordered seafood platters!

Waiting We waited ten more minutes, so it had been well over an hour at this point, and there was no sign of anything coming from the waiters. We decided to leave. So, I went to the till and asked for a full refund. The manager did this. My friend was sat at the table, and as they were sitting, the waiter came round with the wrong plates of food, AGAIN! The same food they gave us initially!!

Conclusion What a terrible restaurant. Dirty, and the order process is terrible and overly complex. You have to order yourselves, and that process is not explained to you, and it results in people ordering to the wrong tables, meaning we were not the only table to receive the wrong orders. The menus are also outdated, overly full of information, and wrong. The beers on offer on the menu do not match the actual beers on offer: you can buy Peroni at the bar, but it is not listed on the menu -- on the menu is Peroni Zero, only.

TL;DR Shambles. Something Gordon Ramsay...

Absolutely disgusting. We have eaten at Papas multiple times, at your sites in different parts of the country including the blackpool one. We waited 35 minutes in a not very busy restaurant for our food. I ordered gluten free, My partner ordered a normal fish and chips. When it arrived the chips on the normal were covered in black burnt bits, but the fish is fine. The gluten free fish arrived a dark brown colour and tasted burnt. It’s never been like this before. I told the waitress who just smirked at me and took it away. A young waiter brought it back a minute after with the fish all broken up trying to put it back down telling me thats how the gluten free should be.

I asked for a refund, and was told no but I could have a voucher to come back another time. I said thats not good enough as I am not able to eat something that I have paid for. The young man walked off and I was stood waiting a while at the bar for another member of staff. He was reluctant to give a refund, initially saying thats how it should be. He then said it was because they have old oil that needs to be used, and then blamed the chef for being new and not knowing how long to cook things for. He said they would remake it and that it wouldn’t be burnt like what had just been served. A minute later he came back and said could I have grilled fish instead, I said no I wanted what I had ordered or a refund.

After sitting for another 20 minutes, another fish was brought out equally as burnt. The batter has such a bitter aftertaste and is dark brown and I had my partner try some who agreed. It’s clear the problem is the oil is old, which is causing the burnt taste and oily texture. For some reason the food was served in a bowl and had a large amount of oil sat in the bottom of the bowl. Again, on complaining I could this time hear the kitchen shouting about it when the waiter took it back.

So now, we have been sat in the restaurant over an hour and have had no food. Eventually they agreed to give me a refund - minus the drinks! So we had to sit and wait 15 minutes for our drinks to be brought over, we didn’t even drink half of them and we have to leave because the food is unacceptable and the man refused to refund the drinks! We then had to sit and finish our drinks before we could leave. Its New Years day and now we need to go somewhere else to actually...