Spread Eagle — Restaurant in England

We booked this table travelling up from Essex to treat our oldest friends and family who live in Great Oakley as their Christmas gift from us. We had a 12.30 booking for 7 people and requested a wheelchair accessible table. Upon arrival we were asked to wait and then asked to go to a table (which was not wheelchair accessible) having to go up two sets of double steps to the rear of the restaurant and completely on our own. Despite our reminder for wheelchair access the waitress said it was the best place for a table of 7 as all other tables were smaller (could have easily pushed 2 together). The 92 year old who this was arranged for didn't want to make a fuss and said that she could manage just. Having settled into our seat it took a while but the waitress eventually came over only to give us a list of dishes which were not available notably mac & cheese, along with steak and rice, all of which are staples and particularly for a meat restaurant.We started to get concerned that we did not see any other staff around but carried on and ordered drinks. However, drinks came up after quite a wait which was surprising as at that time no other customers were in the restaurant that we could see, being stuck 'out on a limb' it was difficult to ascertain! Drinks came over gradually but not all as mine was left off and then again took a while. By this time over 30 minutes had passed. When ordering most wanted Prawn Cocktail as a starter, only then to announce that they don't keep Prawns as nobody asks for them!! (Cant believe that as the people we were with had exactly that a short time ago in the same restaurant) We were beginning to detect that something was very wrong in the service this day owing to obvious lack of staff and product but wanted to press on as it was our gift to this family with the hope that once we get going on the mains all would improve. How wrong could we be! It took ages to wait for our meal eventually receiving it at 2 o'clock in a rather piece meal fashion and not all dishes came at the same time and was very hap hazard. A majority had roast of either beef or turkey and we have to say that too was less than satisfactory which was communicated to the poor waitress at this time who was visibly under great pressure and embarrassed. During the wait for mains a bowl of 'pigs in blankets' was placed upon the table by way of apology for the wait (so something was obviously amiss!) Upon communicating this to the waitress she went away and then asked us to settle up even without offering dessert or coffees etc. A bit surprised but to be honest as a group I think that we had enough by then agreeing to call it a day to go to their home to finish off. At the till however we again complained to the waitress and asked her what compensation was going to be offered only to be told that a small bowl of 'pigs in blankets' was the compensation!!!!!!!! Gob smacked is an understatement. When requesting the manager she informed us to complain online as the chef had not turned up and only 1 member in staff in the kitchen and lack of staff numbers was contributing to the poor service. Hence my rant here. We must emphasise this was a gift to our friends for Christmas but spent the rest of the day apologising to them. It is patently not good enough and these events go round like wildfire within the local community. Not only that Marstons lost the rest of our custom for the day and has knocked our confidence on a brand which we have trusted over the years. I have to emphasise that this was a total management mess and lack of stock which brought on this issue and cannot at all blame the waiting staff who were clearly new to the job and sent out to pass on messages and to take the flack. IT IS NOT...

My sister booked The Spread Eagle for Mother's Day lunch for five of us, at 1pm and was asked to pre-order our menu choices. After a few queries (which were responded to quickly) our choices for starters and main were emailed to them. We arrived in good time, gave the staff behind the bar our name, and were shown to our reserved table. On sitting down at our table, my sister trod on what she first thought was dropped food. Unfortunately, it was a 'gift' on the carpet, left by a visiting dog, which was now all over her boot. We informed the staff who were as shocked as we were, and offered us another table while they cleaned the carpet. They said we could have drinks on the house, but we had already ordered and paid for drinks. At about 1.25pm we asked if our food would be coming out soon. The female staff looked confused and said we should have told the staff when we arrived, so the kitchen could be informed. We tried to explain that the food was pre-ordered and as we'd given our name on arrival, we naturally thought this would suffice. No apology offered, but after 10 to 15 minutes, our starters arrived. After another shorter wait, four of the mains were brought out, and we waited for the fifth. A staff member came over and asked "Is there anything missing?" to which my brother-in-law replied, "Yes, my meal". He had to tell her what he'd ordered and it was eventually brought out, after the rest of us had pretty much finished eating. The food was not brilliant (we've eaten here before on several occasions with no problems). At best it was pretty average with poor presentation, but the service was very poor with the staff appearing to be inexperienced and disorganised, trying to cope with difficult situations. Another larger group were also having problems and asked to speak to the manager - they were told she'd left the building. It's such a shame that a once brilliant pub with great facilities has deteriorated to this low standard. The staff need more support and more training and there should be better communication between kitchen and front of house staff. The staff appeared to lack experience and there didn't seem to be anyone around to manage the issues or give guidance. They reduced our bill by 30% but this was sadly not a pleasurable or relaxing Mother's...

The restaurant is a lovely building, but was almost empty on a Sunday lunchtime which shocked me to be honest, it used to be heaving a few years ago, I've been going to the Spread Eagle on and off for over 14 years, so was a little concerned why it wasn't busy, I walked to the bar and I noted the wooden floor was very tacky, my sandal's were literally sticking to the floor, which suggests a lack of diligence when it comes to cleaning, then at the bar I was greeted by, well, I want to be polite, two ladies behind the bar, one with bright pink hair and tattoo's all over her exposed arms and neck, not the image I was expecting, the other lady that served me had a few tattoo's as well but not bright pink hair, neither left us with an image of sophistication shall we say!

We sat down at our reserved table (though we needn't of bothered as it was pretty well empty) then on looking around we noticed many rucksacks and coats piled up on chairs next to the bar in full sight of our table, we ordered via the QR code placed on the table, which wasn't so straight forward as the mobile signal was poor, as we waited for our meal we observed the two said ladies standing outside the car park entrance door smoking, not the image I would welcome to see as I parked my car and walked up to the entrance, despite the restaurant being almost empty, we had to wait 35 minutes for meals, but when it did finally arrive it was excellent, very fresh, very nicely presented, and cooked perfectly, and not over priced either.

My recommendations would be to improve the calibre of the staff and discipline, until that happens I will not...