Plonkers — Restaurant in England

A lovely family meal, ruined by the atmosphere…

We’ve never been to York and found Plonkers online from rave reviews, good looking food photos and in a handy location.

We arrived at 7pm for our table and got seated pretty quickly.

The atmosphere was lovely, nice dim lighting and a rustic feel, not too loud and not too quiet.

We sat down with the menus and browsed, I already knew I wanted the 6oz steak ciabatta though from looking at the online menu.

The guy came over to take our order and we got told that the sandwiches menu ends at 5pm, in fairness it does say that on the physical menu - it just doesn’t on the online menu, there’s also dishes that aren’t on the online menu that are on the physical menu.

I ended up ordering the 8oz sirloin steak - again, this isn’t on the online menu so that needs updated asap! - I also had to tell the guy how I wanted it cooked before he left (medium rare) because he never asked when I ordered it.

The place started filling up which is great to see in today’s climate, everyone seemed in good spirits and friendly… until this one woman came in, literally a gob on a stick, shouting and swearing constantly, yelling aggressive things about how she’s going to “give her a smack” etc. - totally ruined the vibes in the pub but nobody told her to quieten down or anything, I was surprised she never ended up getting kicked out considering there was a security guard sat at the top of the stairs.

Our food arrived after around 40 minutes, a little bit of a delay considering there wasn’t many people eating but that’s ok, we weren’t in a rush.

My steak was maybe a tiny bit over cooked but it was still delicious and the Cafe De Paris, wow! That was lovely especially when dipping those delectable chips in!

My partner went to the toilet upstairs and discovered another dining room which seemed lovely and quiet, I wish we were offered to eat upstairs instead.

We left a bit earlier than we would have simply due to that woman totally overshadowing the whole place, we would’ve stayed for more drinks and to listen to the entertainment that were setting up as we...

Sorry this looks more like a rant and I rarely complain but felt on this occasion I needed to speak out Also Id like to add I never swore or raised my voice once, we sat and ate our food which I found inadequate compared to previous visits I never once said it was bad or inedible but I’ve been described as having a tantrum, we were all polite to our waitress who did her job as well as she could. Maybe your mixing our party up with another disappointed family that same day. My party was me & my husband, a nurse, a pub licensee and a policeman, pretty sure we wouldn’t stoop so low as to treat any member of staff or manager badly, I had a quiet word with the manager before leaving simple as that But your welcome to visit Plonkers and make up your own minds NOT the family pub and atmosphere we have been used too the last 20 years on our visits to Plonkers wine bar, no longer a pub now you have to be eating and your greeted by an abrupt man asking ‘have you booked? As if not we can’t accommodate you’ As it happens I had booked in September of this year, a specific table for sentimental reasons only to be told on arrival by the the pen pushing tablet welding manager (I presume he’s the manager anyway) that he had moved us up stairs as he needed the table I had booked for a party of 8 he then moved us to a table upstairs with seating for for 8 people !!!! He had my contact number and if he had bothered to contact me I could have decided if this was what I’d wanted but he took that choice away by not contacting me. Who is he to decide to give the table I’d specifically booked to another party ?? Rude if you ask me, this was then followed by a meagre menu, and compared to our previous visits inadequate food and inadequate service The lovely young waitress did her best but clearly being held back by the new regime I did approach the manager to explain my upset, he’s just fobbed me off with the booking systems on his beloved tablet, no personal interaction what so ever So our family won’t be...

I really don’t know what has happened to this place, we have been coming here for years every time we visit York.

We visited last week on what was the best day weather wise for the week.

We were greeted at the entrance to the riverside by a man I’ve never seen before, mid 40’s shaved head, it’s was almost like he was trying to usher us in instead of inviting us in which I found extremely off putting.

We sat and ordered drinks, the young chap looked board and had no enthusiasm in what he was doing at all, we waited nearly 20 minutes for drinks and over 45 minutes for food and it wasn’t that busy to justify the time wait, our food arrived and you could tell it had been sat before we received it, On hindsight, we noticed a large tray of food come down several times but it was sent backwards and forwards to the pub before eventually coming to us, I was appalled how the staff were spoken to by the older gentleman who ushered us in at the beginning, bolshy, aggressive and no people skills at all.

Something has seriously gone wrong with this place since our last visits last year, we have always remembered it having vibrant staff who look like they are pleased to be there, who could never do enough for you, instead the whole experience seemed tense, strange and very awkward, even the table next to us agreed when my wife made a comment about how the staff were spoken to by the older guy with a shaved head.

If this is how it’s going to be we will most definitely not...