Royal Pub — Restaurant in England

First time staying here.|Very friendly check in. The lad on reception asked if we needed help with luggage but no help was needed.|We made our way to our room which was a very long walk. I didn't realise the hotel was so big.|I did like the little notices on the wall saying not far now / just a little further / just up here / nearly there etc. Very funny.|On entering the room could quickly see it was quite small. The layout wasn't the best. No room for bedside cabinets which is a miss when watching TV in bed ( nowhere to put your drinks ). TV was tiny as well. I think If the bed was on the larger wall there would be ample room for bedside cabinets and larger TV on the wall that backs on to the bathroom. The wardrobe could go in the corner and the tea table next to it. ( just a suggestion).|The bathroom in our room has had its day. Quite appalling that the room was let out with the bathroom in such a poor condition. Such a shame because even though our room was a bit on the small side it was clean and the bed was cumfy. Just being honest. Tiles were falling off the wall at the tap end of the bath and massive gap between the bath and the sealent so pretty sure water will be getting behind causing further damage. Also the toilet seat was wonky and needs replacing or tightened up.|Anyway I'm only pointing this out because it should really be addressed If continuing to let this room out. Room 27 by the way.|The food in the restaurant was fabulous. We ate in here every night. We had one minor complaint and that was on our final evening. We both ordered the chip shop plater and one of our meals was served with freezing cold curry sauce. So don't know what happened there. The lassy that brought the meals over asked if everything was alright and we mentioned it but didn't make an issue of it and she was very apologetic saying she would mention it to the kitchen staff to make sure it doesn't happen again.|Other than that the food was awesome and very reasonably priced as we're the drinks.|Hats off to all the staff who were very friendly and always smiling which is nice to see.|Location wise it's on a very busy main road and the rooms can be noisy if the windows are open which has and adverse affect when closing as the room became very hot and stifling in the current weather. But that can't be helped I suppose.|I do also hate windows that can't be opened fully. Our windows only opened a couple of inches. I know this is a safety issue but it's so annoying so maybe a fan should be provided.|Overall we really enjoyed our stay. I would stay again but not in the same room unless the issues mentioned had been...

This 3 star review is a review of the place on the whole. I'll separate the different elements of my experience to give a better idea of the Royal:

Drinks: 4 stars. Could be cheaper, could be cleaner glasses but overall this place matches up to any bar in the area.

Food: 1 star. By far the worst element of the experience. The menu looks nice, but the kids menu is one where they can pick different parts to make their meal and it is rather hard to follow especially for a child. That is a minor issue really, because then the food you ordered (or an approximation) arrives and it falls far below the expectations set by the pictures on the menu. You see a photograph of a large oval shaped plate with a metal bowl of curry brimming with pieces of chicken in a thick sauce, and on the side there is a good sized portion of rice... you get about half the size of portion that the photograph suggests and there is hardly any chicken (in my case there were two medium sized pieces of chicken where I expected at least 4 from the picture). The food quality is less than i would expect from an Iceland ready meal. I'm not pretentious about food and Iceland ready meals have a place in my freezer at home but I'm sure any reader will agree that a professional kitchen achieving a lower standard is quite an achievement. I don't blame the cook(s) as I will concede that the food has always been timely and cooked well enough, but it's the quality of the ingredients that really sets this place apart from the rest. Consider the other options of the likes of giants plate and this food just cant compete.

Staff: the staff and management are competent, kind and friendly. 5 stars without a doubt.

Accommodation: I am not qualified to review this aspect of the hotel as I've never stayed there. I will say that I have observed guests coming and going and they seem to have easy access and are well catered-for by the excellent staff.

Sports bar: 4 stars. the bar area has at least 3 viewing areas with large TV's and they show football matches and other sports. The views are good from most vantage points and the seating is laid out in such a way that there is good visibility of the screens even if the table in front of you is in use. Its obviously been designed with this in mind. Sound quality is good too

Summary: my 3 star review is really not fair on the staff, the hospitality and the bar. It's the food that is really dragging the place down and I have a hunch that this is a case of the main company (I think its greene king but I haven't paid too much attention) supplying inferior product to people who are making...

In regards to the hired function room. Shocking! Firstly, the room was so cold every single guest had a coat on, including the dj. Complaint after complaint the heating was fiddled with again and again but certainly didn't get any warmer. The ceiling looks like it's falling down. The room should not be hired out in that condition. Secondly, was asked by staff when the buffet wanted putting out, the answer was now, almost an hour later there was still no buffet out! I paid alot of money for the buffet that definetley served less than the amount it should of, although it tasted okay, it was a very very limited amount of hot and cold food, wraps that until you bit into it you didn't know what was inside! Two trays of the same sandwiches, bowl of salad and coleslaw, a tray of more salad, some hot sausage rolls and chips. There was no serving spoons for coleslaw or salads. That was about it. I appreciate it was all made fresh but come on, a miminal spread like it was shouldn't take that long. The plates then ran out and apparently they were the only ones. For a hotel that serves food all day, how can you run out of plates. In future I'd suggest paper if there's a limited amount as the cutlery was plastic and there was loads of them. Thirdly, 2 large birthday cakes were taken away to be cut up, 40 minutes later they still hadn't been brought back out. These 2 cakes, that could potentially serve 100 people if they're cut up properly, were cut up into so thick that half of one cake served 7 people. It should of served at least 25! As there isn't an option to leave 0 stars, the 1 star is purely for the DJ who played some ok music and the barmaid who despite being freezing cold too and on her own still had a smile on her face. Very dissapointed with the entire thing and will not be recommending. And definitely will never be visiting the royal again. There's no point in making an official complaint as there was literally 4 members of staff in the entire building. Finally, why charge £50 for bar hire if you're not actually going to stock the bar up? Absolutely disgusting, thankyou very much for ruining what should of been a very...