Spencer Arms — Restaurant in England

We arrived after pre booking our table at 5.45pm to be greeted by several members of staff standing and laughing at the bar. They explained to us that we are the first diners in the restaurant this evening and are just wishing their supervisor luck as he was 'playing chef' this evening as the actual chef has broken his ankle and they are now without one. This is not something you want to hear when dining out for a nice evening. Shocked we asked the staff whether we should leave, their reply was to us was the supervisor was kitchen trained so would be fine. Unsure and concerned to what we should do we sat at our table and proceeded to order drinks.

It was around 15 minutes later a staff member came to take our order but did explain that a number of items were missing off the menu as they had not received a delivery. Luckily for us not things we had picked to order, however I do not feel like acceptable. The staff blamed Covid, for not getting deliveries however we eat out alot and know that this is not the case anymore to struggle to get hold of essentials such as cheese; something which could not be had with any meal. Staff could have ran to Tesco to get a block of cheesy to make cheesy garlic bread. It does not take kitchen training to know how to melt cheese.

We waited and waited to what felt an eternity for our meal. The restaurant was now getting busy and could hear many tables around us moaning about the lack of food available.

Now it was 7.10 our meals arrived. Meal, I wonder if I can all it that, as it was actually inedible. The gammon (described on the menu as thick cut gammon with a cola and rum glaze) was a greasy over cooked, cheap piece of fat on my plate. The amount of grease which the food was cooked in was swimming on the plate. The triple cooked chips we over cooked cheap deep fat fried chips. Infact I squeezed one and grease dripped out. It was safe to say, I did not eat this meal.

Another party member ordered the signature beef burger. A burger which she was looking forward to as she had had it 2 weeks prior at another Greeneking restaurant. However when it arrived, it was nothing the same. Instead a cold burnt slab of beef, with no beef ends as described. Greesy chips which were lukewarm and no onion rings and described. A disappointing meal I would say. This is a similar experience to the 3rd party members chicken burger. A cold and overcooked and grease ridden piece of chicken.

The last meal, hunters chicken, it was not. I would describe is as the dregs of the chicken, small fatty chewy chucks of overcooked and dry chicken. Bbq sauce which was served in broken, chipped pot and 8 skinny chips. Yes we did count them as a laugh around the table. We asked the waitress who came back and said the kitchen underportioned the skinny chips and that was what was left but will put some more on. At least they were hot if not greasy. The house slaw was not homemade it was cheap bulk brought warm coleslaw clearly had sat under the pass for quite sometime.

After sitting with uneaten disappointing meals infront of us, we asked to speak to the manager which was when we learned the supervisor was now acting chef. So you can understand the quandary to which we were now in. We had to complain about the meals to the very person who cooked them. He came out to speak to us, not wearing chef whites his own clothes covered in grease splatterings and clearly very upset that he had been left in this position to have to cook when he was not a trained chef. My mum whom I was with regularly eats at this pub and confirmed the supervisor had not long been there and started as a waiter so knows he is not a chef.

The supervisor apologised to us and said he had no choice as he did not have the authority to close the restaurant for the evening. Something I believe should have happened. He told us our meals would be complimentary and also dessert should we chose to have them. Not that we could chose to have as we were then told that no desserts were available. Beyond a joke. Will not...

So we were just told to go to the bar to place our order, whilst they served others at the table. When we asked why, they said because the others reserved a table! This however is untrue as we were there last night (not reserved) and were table served! I said I wasn’t happy and felt it rude. The manager, unhappy with this left our salt at the table abruptly and ignorantly walking off! We received no apology and were not asked if the meal was satisfying (no usual service you would expect was received after we gave negative feedback) as we left the manager stared us down, after asking why, she said she wondered when we would pay! We said we had paid and continued to leave! We were then chased down in front of others as she shouted ‘you hadn’t paid’, leading us back inside. At this point my partner was fuming and shouted back to check cameras and stating we had paid £42 for our 2 meals and 2 diet cokes (2x £20 and £2 in coins) and I continued to ask they do the same! My partner argued with the lady that he had paid as she called him a dickhead and admitted forgetting. At this point it had escalated and we were both back at the entrance being called dickheads by the young bar staff and being shouted at to leave and where we were shamed and having been embarrassed and treated disgustingly! Any other people that saw this would think it be my partners fault for finally shouting, yet nobody would have seen our quiet questions, accusations of not paying or being chased in the car park! I am absolutely disgusted, and will be taking this further. A manager with anything about them would have simply apologised for the mishap over having to place our own order due to them being busy, and continued to serve with manners, they would have approached us quietly to remind to pay a bill that we would have politely shown we had. Or even ran ran outside and said quietly and respectfully that they needed to check payment! To have treated customers in that way as a MANAGER and allowing staff to call my partner a dickhead - I am...

I am soooo disappointed with the Sunday lunch main course we've just had. We booked a table a few days earlier for 12 o'clock (all they could offer us... even though the place was half empty), so they certainly weren't busy.

We took some friends because we have visited the Spencer's Arms many times and always had a super meal. However, today the meal was dire.

I ordered the shoulder of lamb that was okay, but nothing to rave about... but everything else on the plate was very poor indeed. The Yorkshire Pudding was soggy (obviously been sat around keeping warm) the roast potatoes were basically inedible (no one ate them... awful taste) and not even a sign of crispness!! (We were told they had been cooked in oil and yet the menu said duck fat!!). I ordered an additional side of cauliflower cheese in a sauce.... which had the consistency of water and the pigs in blanks were clearly not freshly cooked either.

All in all I do wonder if they have a different chef and I really don't think we will be returning there again.

They did offer us free coffee's, but to be honest, we weren't after anything free, just an enjoyable meal. I wasn't impressed when they said that they had asked another table if everything was okay and they'd not complained!!! That has nothing to do with it.... we were disappointed with our meal !!

Their saving grace was the desserts (probably prepared the day before) three of us had the summer pudding and another one had to millionaire shortbread tart. I'd give the puds a 9/10.

Very disappointing. The one star is for the main course and not...