The Cross Keys Wetherspoon — Restaurant in England

Went here recently for a friends birthday, as we went on a day out to Beverley, and had possibly the most vile experience i have ever had in an establishment. Upon sitting down (the restaurant was packed, signage to alternative seating areas was unclear and in order to get to the outside area we had to uncomfortably squeeze past people who were already seated and eating, for anyone with limited mobility, this would be impossible to navigate, not to mention the lack of an accessible entrance). We finally found a table and sat down, it is important to note that in a group of 5, 3 of us are 17 and 2 of us are 18. We placed our orders, and a very rude staff member came out demanding ID from everyone at the table, we were confused as no one ordered any alcohol or age restricted product, simply food such as chips, and drinks such as pepsi and juice. We were all told the staff member we did not order anything that warranted ID, she then stated that we all needed to be 18 to even enter the establishment, this was not signposted anywhere, and i checked as we entered, just to be sure, as some pubs do have such rules, and being a law student, i ensure i check such rules, and they need to be clearly signposted or told to you by staff upon entry, so not only was this unlawful, but a flagrant rejection of wetherspoons corporate policy, who's rules state that anyone over 16 can enter without parental supervision, and some wetherspoons establishments only turn into an 18+ venue after 9pm. We were in this venue at around 4-5pm, and there were young children at the table next to us, so this was clearly untrue. This was after we had ordered and this extremely rude staff member was subtly hinting at kicking us out, which would have resulted in a loss of our money, luckily, one friend who was 18 produced ID, and the rest of us stated we did not have any. The staff member said in a rude tone she would check if one ID was enough, and flounced away, she was not seen again, leaving us in horrible suspense for a while, not knowing if we would get what we paid for or be ejected illegally. Eventually another staff member came out with the (once again non alcoholic) drinks and demanded ID again, to which the same friend produced it, after a strange check (it seemed both staff members were trying to find any excuse to kick us out, as they seemed overly critical of his ID, despite it being a genuine provisional drivers licence), but he eventually handed them over. We were asked yet again that evening, but you can imagine the story now i have explained it twice. When the food came, we were shocked and appalled by the poor quality, obviously no one goes to wetherspoons for high quality or high class dining, but this took the mick. One friend ordered the nachos, and the portion was tiny. We have dined in several wetherspoons in various towns and cities, including being regular visitors to the one in our hometown, and this portion was nowhere near the standard, and the friend was finished in maybe 5 or 6 mouthfuls. Another member of our party ordered the "big cheesy chips" and a chicken burger. There was barely any cheese to be found on top of these chips, and was was present was dry and unpleasant to eat, the chips were extremely soggy and the cheese that had melted onto the plate was not just damp but wet, to levels that cannot be attributed to normal condensation. The chicken burger was extremely artificial and tasted of chemicals, the taste itself could be likened to lip balm. The chips also came with a blue cheese dip, which had the consistency of water, and a washed out, gone off colour, paired with a horrific taste. Another member of our party ordered a regular burger, which was also small and unpleasant, it was clear we had clearly been given sub-par food dye to the ID altercations. I will never dine here again due to the combination of rude staff, illegal and random "rule" inventions, and an overstimulating environment, and as a warning to anyone reading this, DO...

Well what can I say? Lots of niggly things wrong actually, however when you pointed them out the staff made efforts to put (some of) them right as soon as they could. The first thing was how long the drinks took to arrive. Waited ages then eventually went to the bar to enquire (defeating the object of the app) and there they were on the bar poured and ready to be brought to our table. When someone brought them over I asked her to wipe the table because it was sticky. She returned with a cloth and moved it around the middle of our table for a couple of seconds. The Google presence of this establishment definitely states that they disinfect surfaces between customers (at time of writing). This was posted by the owner and is clearly not correct. While waiting for the meal to arrive, went to collect condiments. No salt. Kitchen staff who delivered meal seemed reluctant to find salt for us, but eventually did when we persisted. Our party of 3 all ordered a steak meal. One was a mixed grill, and seriously the portions of meat were so small and there were so few chips that the meal only covered half of the plate. Another was a basic sirloin with salad. The steak had to be sent back, it was so tough the steak knife wouldn't go through it. They didn't quibble and returned with a freshly cooked steak within 10 minutes that was excellent. The third steak was slightly tough (resembled rump steak) but too much had gone wrong by now to want to upset our evening any more. Oh and it was supposed to come with a Mediterranean salad. Nice salad but definitely not Mediterranean. The final slightly unsavoury complaint is about the toilets. Upon entering, there was a staff member replacing the check sheet having just signed it to say all was good. She was still there when I walked past the first stall, so on noticing it was full of water and paper, I mean brimming full, about to spill over, I asked her if she was checking things and told her about the toilet. She said that she was on her way to collect the tools she needed to fix it. When I returned to our table she was waiting tables. It was the same young lady who had 'wiped' our table earlier. I waited 30 minutes, nipped back to the ladies only to find the toilet still brimming. Wouldn't have taken her long to put an out of order sign up would it, if she was too busy to fix it. And I appreciate that she was busy, trying to be in all places at once. Not her fault. Not enough staff. The stall I ended up in had no paper and someone else's drips on the seat. Yet someone was signing a sheet to say all was good. Defeats the object of the check sheets, clearly all they do is tick boxes, lie to head office and lie to hygiene...

Popped to Beverley today to have some breakfast with my partner and went to the bar to order the food rather than the app, and ordered a Small American Breakfast and a large breakfast with a couple of drinks. The lady at the bar (Emma was the name on the till) had taken my order, she seemed extremely busy as she was also serving a couple of other customers at the same time, and as I paid she passed my drinks to me and walked to finish the other customers order off, so no receipt was given.

Food then arrived 20 minutes later to be served a normal small breakfast rather than a small 'American' breakfast. So my partner went up to the bar to mention that the order was wrong and she was told not a problem we will rectify it and they took her plate away. A few minutes later the bartender who originally took the order at the bar came over to the table, and then started an argument with myself over the order that was placed. We was seated in an area full of other customers and whilst I was trying to eat my breakfast the bartender started saying in a really rude and unprofessional manner how I was in the wrong over the order that I had placed, but must of misheard me, which is fair enough, mistakes happen and she was quite busy whilst taking the order, but she proceeded to argue with me and out right lie to my face and the other customers that she read the order back to me, which clearly wasn't the case. The tone and manner which she did this in is outright unacceptable, and even others reacted to this when she left at how unprofessional that was. The problem was resolved by another member of staff who was really polite to us, but it's like she went out of her way just to come across to our table to start an argument?

Will not put me off going to other wetherspoons as the food is always ok, but will never step foot in there again...