The Crown Hotel — Restaurant in England

I am so disappointed! I don't usually do reviews but ..! I've never been to the Crown, despite living in town and was expecting a great experience. We were a group of 4 + a dog, booked in on Mon 11/8 for lunch at 12noon. I didn't expect to be sat at the table on a (padded) bench, in what I thought was the restaurant. It was a bar! There were very few people in there, though it seemed like a room the other side was busy and there were lots of people outside - it was a hot day. I thought someone would take orders but no, we had to order at the bar. We decided what to eat, explained that we would order separately, as two couples, no problem. Ours was put on a tab, but it seems our friends paid straight away for theirs. About 10 minutes later we were informed that the tangiefoot pie was not available as the delivery had been delayed. Er - so you don't cook them on site, they cone in frozen? So our friend ordered lamb rump instead. Some 40 minutes later we finally got our food. Yes it was very nice, thank you, but the lamb came with a meagre amount of veg and the tiniest amount of mash. Our friend decided to have dessert - a brownie - and unbelievably had to wait well over half hour for that and we'd had to ask twice where it was! We were told it was busy in the kitchen! If that's the case then, maybe you need more staff! Then when it came to pay OMG! We were asked to pay for the lamb as well as our own. I explained we'd ordered separately but were on the same table and the lamb wasn't ours and had already been paid for! We all ended up at the bar trying to get this over to the girl and by this time I was very aggravated! It seems the problem was the difference between the price of the tanglefoot pie and the lamb. There should have been no quibble - it wasn't my friends fault that the pie wasn't available. The food, though good, is highly priced for what we got. I thought we would be getting home cooked ours, not frozen, fit the amount charged. We left the pub at 2.45. Luckily I'd paid for 3 hours parking. This was a dismal experience! The waiting around was dreadful. I left their angry. What should have been a pleasant couple of hours spent with friends turned into a farce. I'm afraid we will not...

Thought would be nice for us and friends to meet and have dinner here.Booked to avoid disappointment on arrival were being shown to our table then was stopped because it had not yet been sanitised.Table had high bar stools and a lampost in middle,we asked waiter if we could move to another table as couldn't all see each other to talk to one another,his response was we couldn't move as other table we wanted to move to was for 6 people to which we pointed out our table also had 6 chairs around it, as did every table. So he went off to speak to another member of staff and came back with we couldn't move tables as we had been the last ones to book and therefore this was the table allocated to us. So we asked to speak to manager after approx 5 mins and then the manager turned up and explained to us that we couldn't swap tables because they would have to re-sanitise the table as all tables are sanitised before guests arrive for their booking. We then challenge him only we had been given 3 different excuses about changing tables and that our table was not sanitised before we arrived as we were stopped so they could sanitise it to which he had no answer . So we ordered our food 2 of us swapped fries for triple cooked chips after asking if this was possible and at the end of meal asked for bill was shocked to see charges of £1.50 for each of the fries swapped (we were not made aware of at time of ordering) and also a charge of £5 for waffles we did not have, or even order !! So after calling over manager again bill was put right and new bill received ,after putting money with bill gave to waiter and expected him to return with change but after waiting for 5 mins realised they weren't bringing it back and probably thought that the change ( approx £2) was the tip that they had earned and probably...

We didn't stay the night we went to see fawlty towers the west end actor's. They were absolutely amazing very funny would definitely see them again . It was as in my past experiences of the crown hotel the food was absolutely terrible again . The starter was a sweet potato soup that so spicy everyone complained. The main course was a piece of chicken covered in mushroom sauce and mushrooms. Surly a chicken reduction sauce would have been better as not everyone likes mushrooms. And the veg consisted of green beans and a potato cake of sorts. Vegetarian option was ridiculous a roast vegetable tart mini roast potatoes that were no where near roasted because they were soft and a salad. My God it was so dry it was like eating sand why the chef put a salad with this is beyond me he obviously hasn't tasted any of this food. It was screaming for a sauce for God's sake. This has probably been my 3rd visit to the crown and every time the food has been atrocious. Hall and Woodhouse pubs are renowned for microwave food . Produced else where. But the price and quality is disgusting I would strongly recommend not eating at the crown hotel blandford or any other hall and Woodhouse managed pubs if you really want a microwave dinner go to Tesco it's cheaper and taste's better. If you dought me ask to go into the kitchen at the crown hotel blandford or any other hall and Woodhouse managed pub . And ask to see your food made . I don't think they would appreciate this. The solution to this is bloody simple employ chef's it's not rocket science and a decent chef will taste his food before it's sent or even put on the menu. I will never return to a hall and Woodhouse managed house again for food and I suggest you don't either. Go to a local pub with...