The Cunning Man — Restaurant in England

Review for visit 4 June 2024 (★★★★★)

Party of five people. Our waiting person was Jade. Jade was friendly and helpful. I had the Signature Burger, which was fabulous. There was still no oppressively loud music playing — we could actually hear each other speaking without having to shout and lean in.

At the end Jade gave us a feedback form. I noticed that the QR codes on the form seemed to be rather “busy”-looking. I have analysed the QR codes and sent my findings to the Cunning Man by email.

Review for visit 24 March 2023 (★★★★★)

Party of four people. Nice decor inside. Amy was friendly and helpful. I had the Signature Burger, which was fabulous. I do not recall having a better burger anywhere else. In fact the reason I suggested the Cunning Man was because of the Signature Burger. The cider was good. Olives were good. I tried a bit of the beef lasagna and that was good too.

The Cunning Man seems to follow the style of a country pub, which is nice. There are fairly lights strung up, which is nice. The table and chairs must have been perfectly good because I don't recall any problem with them. The layout of the place is good.

There is NO oppressively loud music playing — we could actually hear each other speaking without having to shout and lean in. This is very good.

I used the gents loos, which were perfectly decent. There seemed to have been some refurbishment. The ceramic washbasins, taps, and handwash liquid dispenser seemed to be up-to-date and in good order. The hand dryer seemed to blow quite vigorously, which was nice. There were some imperfections though: The water at the washbasins seemed to be cold. The wooden worktop on which the washbasins sat looked rather tired. The radiator looked skanky and in need of replacement. I didn't use the cubicle or the urinals, though I noted that the urinals did not have privacy separators, which is not ideal.

I don't want to finish on a negative note though! I would recommend the Cunning Man.

Review from 18 Dec 2020 (★★☆☆☆):

Location is good, decor inside and out good. Staff cheerful and mostly polite. However, there were some problems. When we visited on 18 Dec 2020, we were under Covid restrictions. So I went in alone, and the other 3 members of the party went and sat outside (at table 66). Just inside the door, a sign saying Wait here to be seated. OK fine. There were no other customers queuing. Two staff members were behind the bar. They did not acknowledge my presence for a good two minutes after which one of them looked around, saw me, and came out from behind the bar to serve me. She was polite enough and explained what the rules would mean. I was asking her a question when she seemed to stop paying attention to me and instead was looking over my shoulder at something, that later proved to not require her attention. Anyway, my query was resolved and the answer was that she would need to book us in as a table and take menus to the party outside. OK fine. Outside, another staff member (the receipt says Zoe) came out and took our order, 3 hot chocolate and 1 tea. She was cheerful and polite. OK Fine. After a little while she came out again with our order. The hot chocolate did not have whip cream on it. When you're making it at home, yes perhaps it's just milk and cocoa, but when you're paying a premium in a bar you expect it to be the full package. Also the hot chocolate was not very chocolatey, and it had a funny taste. I remarked that mine was something like warm milk with a hint of washing-up liquid. It was a bit annoying really because a lot of difficult infrastructure-type stuff was sorted and good, but the experience was let down by things that were relatively easy...

Went here saturday morning, 22nd Feb. Arrived at approx. 11:45. Ignored by three staff, but eventually seated. We were probably one of about 3 tables waiting for food at the point we ordered. Nevertheless, it took 40 minutes to receive our food. Slow! Finished our food (which was very basic and certainly not worth the 35 quid it cost) and went to sit in the bar area at a table about 3m away from the bar, by the main door.

As we were sat there, a woman tried to order a sandwich. The barman, who will be referred to a Grinning Man A (right in photo) then proceeded have an open argument with another member of staff called Sam in front of customers about why or why not sandwiches should be served at that particular time, just so in professional. All this in front of the poor lady trying to order; she was clearly embarrassed that such attention was being drawn to her.

I then tried to pay and was served by Grinning Man A. We had walked away from the table we ate at at this point and I was unsure of the table number so, in paying, I stated our table was ‘in the back room next to the fire place’, assuming that would at least narrow down which tables it could have been. But no. Terrible attitude from the guy straight away, claiming to not know where the back room was and that there were multiple fire places. I pointed and stated again, kind of shocked, and without really knowing what else to say, ‘the back room’. After much huffing and puffing he said ‘I’ll assume it’s this one then’ and handed me a receipt. It was that one, and given my description never changed, he clearly knew where I meant and just chose to be difficult.

If that wasn’t enough bad customer service for one day, having gone back to my table, about 5 minutes later Grinning Man A started openly and loudly mocking me to Grinning Man B (left in photo). They were having a jolly good laugh at my expense, and were very pleased with themselves. This is all while I’m still sat 3m away from them, in both eyeline and earshot hearing every word. It was an incredibly rude and humiliating experience.

As we were leaving, my partner pulled Grinning Man A for a chat on his unprofessionalism and instead of being embarrassed at being called out and apologising, he arrogantly and smugly defended himself by saying that I had a bad attitude. He was a thoroughly unpleasant individual.

The only decent thing about the entire experience was the Aussie waitress. Very nice (sorry didn’t get her name). Beyond her though, the customer service was, on the whole, garbage. There is a clear lack of discipline or leadership. I rang to complain the same day and spoke to a nice guy who took the matter seriously and who said he would get the general manager to email to discuss this matter in lieu of leaving a bad review, but the manager hasn’t bothered and this general lack of care sums the place up. So, bad...

I have just returned home from a very upsetting experience at the Cunning Man. There were several issues from the beginning including very slow service, my starter being cold in the middle and my partner’s soggy and disappointing roast. But I will skip to the most concerning and distressing issue. I ordered the Sea Bass fillets without the pea and pancetta veloute because I eat a pescatarian diet. I asked if I could just have some normal peas to replace this. I was not asked my reason for this swap and the waiter said he would check with the kitchen but it should be fine. No clarification was made as to whether I wanted all of it gone, but I thought I had been clear as I highlighted the pea and pancetta veloute and no follow up questions were asked. The waiter did not write anything down either. I never heard back as to whether my order was accepted by the kitchen but I assumed this meant it had.

Unfortunately, when the meal arrived it had normal peas on the side, but had the pancetta sprinkled all over the mashed potato. So the sauce and peas were removed but not the pancetta. The waiter who delivered the food was different to the one who took the order and they were polite and took this back to the kitchen for me stating they would prepare me a new one. I was a bit upset at the idea of wasting this meat but I can no longer stomach eating it and my partner reassured me that perhaps a staff member would enjoy it (not an expectation but made me feel better about the idea of waste). When this waiter returned, the meal was clearly the same. I removed the fish from the top and moved the bowl of peas which revealed pieces of pancetta. I was really disturbed to find that instead of making the dish fresh, they tried to pick out the pieces of pancetta. On top of this, the way the pancetta was hidden made it feel like perhaps this was left intentionally to spite me. It is possible this isn't the case, but without knowing the staff and their intentions it was really hurtful and I no longer trusted eating anything from the kitchen. Unfortunately, this also really upset my partner, both seeing me distressed and seeing the poor consideration with the food. He also no longer trusted the food and stopped eating.

The meals were removed from our bill, which I would consider the bare minimum for the situation, and we still paid for our starters and drinks. I was too upset to escalate the situation and we aren't the type of people to cause a scene. However we're both really disgusted that this would happen. I choose to eat a pescatarian diet based on my own moral decisions, but some people do this for allergen or religious purposes. I was so deeply upset by this situation and have lost all trust in the kitchen staff.

I would not be comfortable to return following this and even my meat-eating partner was put off by...