Skymaster — Restaurant in England

To be fair, I’ve always liked Skymaster — the food is excellent, especially compared to other pubs in the area. I’ve visited multiple times with different groups and always had good experiences. But this time was different. I brought my family for a farewell lunch, and while the food and most of the staff were great as usual, one staff member made the entire experience uncomfortable and upsetting.

We were a group of 17, including 5 young children — 2 under the age of 2 and 3 under 4. Most of the staff were friendly, helpful, and professional. However, one old guy with white and black hair — who I’ve seen on previous visits — behaved in a completely disrespectful way. In the past, he seemed fine, even when I came with a group of 20 coworkers. But this time, his attitude toward us was unacceptable.

Even before we ordered, he was giving our group side glances that made several of us feel uncomfortable. Then, when we were ordering drinks, the waitress asked him to help with the coffee order. She made a small mistake, which I corrected immediately in front of both of them. Instead of acknowledging us, he looked annoyed, turned only to the waitress, and said, “What do they want?” — completely ignoring us, as if we weren’t even there.

We tried to give him the benefit of the doubt — everyone has bad days — but it didn’t stop there. Later, when we asked for a few small plates so we could share food (since not everyone was having a full meal), he loudly shouted across the pub, “What? Now you need plates?” in a sarcastic and dismissive tone that drew the attention of other diners and left us feeling humiliated.

What made it even worse was what happened next. After shouting at us, he walked over to a group of people sitting at a table next to ours and started chatting with them casually. A few minutes later, that same group began looking over at our table repeatedly, laughing and giving us uncomfortable, sometimes disgusted looks. It made us feel even more unwelcome, as if something had been said about us.

To be clear, we ordered 7 mains, 2 starters, and 12 drinks — a perfectly reasonable amount for our group, considering some had already eaten or weren’t very hungry (especially the young kids). If there’s a policy requiring one main meal per person, it should be clearly stated on the menu. But there’s absolutely no reason to treat us like a problem for asking for small plates or correcting a drink order.

Also worth mentioning — we were the only group in the venue with a different skin colour tone, and we were also the only table treated this way. The old guy seemed completely relaxed and friendly with all the other tables. It’s hard not to feel like we were treated differently because of how we look, and if that’s the case, it’s not only unprofessional, it’s discriminatory — and incredibly disappointing.

I do want to make it clear that the rest of the staff were fantastic — polite, helpful, and clearly working hard. But the behaviour and attitude of this one staff member ruined what was supposed to be a meaningful family lunch. I really hope management takes this seriously. Skymaster has been one of my favourite places to eat, but this experience has left us feeling disrespected...

I booked the Santa experience for my twin girls (one of whom has ADHD) the day before my in-laws from London surprised my daughters with a Christmas visit, I went into the pub on the morning of the experience to ask if they could sit on the table with us as they were staying, I was told by a young man that it was busy and he didn’t think there would be room. I explained that they didn’t want to eat and the situation about me not knowing they were coming previously, then a woman came over (I assumed it was an acting manager?) she was extremely rude and said they couldn’t sit with us or have a chair added to our table, also when we saw the table as it was a bench seat we could have all sat together, I appreciate you were busy but she was so very rude I felt like walking out and she spoke to us all appallingly in front of other guests, my in-laws left and we sat down and then a lovely member of staff called David came over and offered us a larger table that but by this point my in-laws said they didn’t want to come back in as they had found it so embarrassing. My daughter was so upset that she didn’t want to stay, so we left. I paid £50 for the whole thing and left without seeing Santa as it was terrible treatment from the one ‘manager’ no smile, no greeting, just rude and upbrupt and obviously unable to cope in her position when the pub was busy. We are regulars and my father in law ate there 2 nights before spending £100 and also the night before as they stay at the travel lodge when they visit. We have been eating and visiting that pub for years since we lived there and I myself took the whole family the week before for a carvery. The usual manager Anne-Marie who I booked the Santa breakfast with is absolutely lovely and cannot do enough to help but unfortunately she wasn’t there as I feel if she had been the whole situation would have been completely different. My twin girls were upset they didn’t see Santa but they both understood how rude and uncaring that particular member of staff was. We will never return to the Skymaster after that...

After entering the pub we waited by the podium to be seated. We'd booked a table only 10 minutes before arriving and didn't want to just sit anywhere in case we'd been allocated a table when we booked. We waited approximately 5 minutes before someone came over even though there was staff milling around behind the bar (not serving as no customers) and walking past the door. We were allocated an area to sit and chose a table. My husband went to the bar to order and was ignored by 2 members of staff behind the bar. He waited approximately 8 minutes to finally be served and that's only because he called a member of staff over who was about to dissappear back into the kitchen. The first member of staff to ignore him walked past him to another till further round the bar, no acknowledgement to my husband. He then proceeded to serve a woman who literally just walked up to his till. The second staff member came through to the bar saw my husband and another woman waiting next to him then disappeared back into the kitchen. On the second appearance of this staff member my husband called him over. My husband made it quite clear that to be ignored like this since we'd stepped in the door is poor customer service. We are aware the staff were busy (although the pub wasn't full)but not even to be acknowledged was poor service. We were offered complimentary drinks as compensation and the meal I had was served in a timely manner and was delicious and perfectly cooked (rump steak, medium rare)my husband had the carvery which was also delicious. We couldn't fault the food, and the service from one of the members of staff who'd ignored us ended up being very attentive, he felt like he had to make up for how he'd behaved previously at the bar. We'd not been to this pub for a long time, over a year ago, because of the poor service we'd had then and only went this time as we had a 30% off mains voucher. We're not sure if we would return anytime soon which is a shame as the food (and rose...