Slug & Lettuce - Newbury — Restaurant in England

7:30 Friday night I met up with work people for a meal and drink. We were in the corridor near the entrance. The cold wind blew in every time somebody entered and the door didn't automatically shut meaning somebody from our party had to get up and shut it. It was freezing cold. Most of us kept coats on. The food didn't arrive until an hour after ordering. They said they were really busy. The place was only around half full. I suspect they were mostly busy with the food delivery service with the constant stream of couriers that kept coming in to pick up orders. (And leaving the door open.) The food itself was probably the best I've had in Newbury. Hot, tasty and original. The stuffed fried bao buns were great, Tater Tots covered in hot sauce were lovely, shredded chicken in a sweet and sour sauce were good but needed more sauce, and the sweet potato fries were a decent portion. My friends all talked about how good the food was. That was a lie. We pointed at our food and shouted "good!" at the top of our voices. That was met with a response of "Yes! Good!" from the other person. That was the extent of the conversation because the worst issue with the S&L was the volume of the music. It was so loud the speakers could barely cope so that the sound kept distorting and going 'tinny'. The lock on a toilet stall was broken. Not a big thing in itself. The lock was also broken on my last visit 3 or 4 months previously. It does give the impression that the place is left left to get on with it without much of an attempt to improve or maintain standards. Manager should hear the lock is broken and fix the lock. The manager should realise the entrance way is freezing and make sure the door closes, install an extra door or put a heater in. I'd suggest the also need to decide whether they are a restaurant or a nightclub because you just can't be both. I'm giving it 1 star. Fix the front door and it's 2 stars. Concentrate on giving customers eating there their food and it's 3 stars. Lower the volume during food service time so people can have a conversation and...

It looked so promising, great food menu but we waited so much! Dirty tables, glasses left behind, we were there for about 2 hours and only when we were leaving, we saw one of the chefs collecting glasses, at 10pm! We went to order at the bar as we didn't want to download the app, we queued for 10 minutes, only other 2 people were before us in the queue, however there was one member of staff only taking orders and making coktails, plus another one that would not take orders and didn't even know how to unlock the cocktail vases (my friend showed her), in the end I came to think that maybe she was kitchen staff and was trying to help her busy colleague. Food took 45 minutes to come (the s and l sharer) and most of the elements were cold. For the second round of drinks, we decided to download the app to "skip" the queue at the bar, we still waited 30 minutes for 2 mojitos, and we would have waited longer if we hadn't gone to the bar to ask for them. I think they must have had an absence at the bar because I can't believe they expected to get through a shift with one competent member of staff on his own, especially when they promote cocktails and they are so time consuming, you need at least 2 people behind the bar. If I decided to come back, I would check how many members of staff are working...

Been a regular and happy customer to the various pubs on this sight for over 27 years, several different breweries, countless landlords and the staff and quality has varied greatly as one might expect over a quarter of a century but most of the current bar staff are appalling. The worst in all those years.

They have a caretaker manager (Charles) who returns to his own pub in Croydon next week. The apathy and total lack of interest in the female bar staff right now is contemptuous. The pub is as empty as the Marie Celeste during the day. They have the second most expensive tariff in the town centre which clearly contributes to the lack of customer flow but they could at least compensate for this with efficient customer service but fail miserably. This is NOT a compliment but one gets better service in a spit and sawdust Wetherspoons establishment! I hope and trust the venues area manager will be made aware of these (hopefully) short term failings and invest in meaningful staff training with a focus on hitherto loyal local customers.

To give a fair and balanced review, I have to single out long term manager Nicole who has always been a consummate and personable representative of the Stonegate Group. I guess it’s just a shame there aren’t...