The Library — Restaurant in England

We were a table of 11 booked in at 7pm for dinner for our friends hen do. So it was a special occasion. We had pre ordered our meals and arrived a little ahead of our time. Unfortunately the table wasn't ready as it was occupied by another group so we had to wait for them to move on and the table to be cleaned. This wasn't a problem for us at all. So we decided to order drinks at the bar. This took probably 25 mins. I wouldn't say it was particularly busy, but seemed to take a very long time.

Having pre ordered the meals, I had expected them to come out quite close to our arrival time, but we were asked at 7.40 if we wanted the kitchen to start our meals. This baffled me a little as we only had the table booked until 8.30 and I thought the reason for pre ordering was so that it could be prepped ready.

Our meals did not arrive to us until 8.45 in the end. Which unfortunately was really late as 2 of the party were 8 and 9 months pregnant and this was quite a late time to start eating. The food was, however, tasty but a little on the cold side. Not wanting to wait any longer fornmore food, we just ate it. All except from 1 lot of dry, hard hummus.

We were given 2 bottles of complimentary prosecco and an orange juice as a gesture, but sadly it had tainted the start of our friend's hen do. After talking with one of the floor staff, we were given a 20% discount off of our meals, but given most meals were about £10, it wasn't an awful lot and we had been paying for the drinks at the bar as there was no table service apparently.

When the staff member came to collect payment, she did not know about the discount so had to go back and change that again which further delayed the process.

We eventually paid and left at about 9.45ish.

It was my first time here, and sadly, its put a bit of a downer on it and it did put a lot of the party in a bad mood.......

Popped into The Library in Taunton on sat night , the place was relatively quiet, 4 staff behind the bar , few people waiting to be served. We stepped up to the bar to be served when another couple had moved. We waited 10 mins, no acknowledgment, then a chap in a waistcoat with a poirot moustache served someone, didn’t scan the bar and got himself a drink. I leaned over the bar a little to indicate we were waiting and he very reluctantly dragged himself down to our side of the bar. He could not have looked more disinterested if he tried. I explained why I had beckoned him to come over, waiting for longer than necessary in a not so busy pub, and he quickly tried to defend himself by telling us he had been on duty since 2pm that day, had not had any break, was exhausted….. now normally I’m quite empathetic but I thought there’s 4 of you behind a not so busy bar , perhaps you need to organise yourselves more effectively. I didn’t say that , I did however say that we were on a night out and as the customer I really did not need to hear his plight . Well, the good poirot gathered as much arrogance as he could muster whilst sipping his drink and said “I am taking the executive decision not to serve you “ and walked off ! We just went next door to the cosy club where staff were efficient and pleasant. Why do such miserable staff choose to work in...

On arrival we were greeted by a guy who after telling us to sit wherever we wanted since it was so quiet, went and joined his mates at a table, who we think also worked there, and continued drinking a pint. We were then greeted again by someone else who said the exact same thing. We sat down and ordered drinks, we were told that the kitchen was closing in 25 minutes but since we booked we’d be served regardless.. seemed obvious but anyway. Waiter came back to take our food order and said he forgot to make our drinks (baring in mind, there was only 3 tables in the whole restaurant). We ordered 5 small plates, one of which he forgot to put through, which he admitted, so followed a few minutes later. The food was incredibly bland, cauliflower wings were cold, mac and cheese tasted of absolutely nothing, overall super dissapointing, considering we are new to the area and booked as a birthday meal. We’re not usually ones to complain to staff but we did on this occasion because the food is pretty overpriced and felt it wasn’t worth the money at all. The waiter spoke to the supervisor and offered us 50% which was more than we expected to be fair to them. Nice place for drinks but I wouldn’t eat...