The Dancing Jug (Bournemouth) — Restaurant in England

Myself and 4 friends booked bottomless brunch here for a celebration on 06/08/2022. At 3pm we were sat in a booth, this booth was in a tunnel outside whereby we needed to ask a table of people we didn’t know to keep getting up so we could get out to use the toilet. This table was very drunk so it made things awkward. We ordered a pitcher of cocktail and a bottle of Prosecco at 3pm. At 3.20pm the drinks were still not with us. A table of disgruntled customers got up and walked out due to poor service so we then took there table which was in a better, less claustrophobic, position. We then ordered a Prosecco and another pitcher after advising we still didn’t have drinks. The drinks came, but with no glasses. The young man serving us said he didn’t care that this was bad service as it was his last day. The glasses finally came. About 4pm, food started to arrive. This food wasn’t ours. It was for the people that had walked out. The young man said our food was coming but we could eat this surplus food. After 15 minutes a waitress comes and said we had been given the wrong food and took it away, even though we said that we were told to eat it. 5 minutes later she comes back with the food and tells two of our guests that they started eating it so that will be their food. We complained to the waitress about the service, her response was this is not my fault. We agreed with her as she seemed very stressed. We ordered more drinks, which again, came with no glasses. I am gluten free and was very concerned that what I ordered wasn’t gluten free. At 4.32pm my food arrived., after asking numerous times where it was. We decided as a group that we would not be paying for this experience. We tried to find a staff member to discuss this with but couldn’t find any. We booked in to another venue to have cocktails we could actually drink and left. The next day we were contacted by the Dancing Jug numerous times so we agreed to pay,as a group, with £5 off each. Honestly, if I had not been with a group of friends I would have refused to pay. You can not say that this place is allergen or Covid safe. The staff are run off their feet and clearly are embarrassed with the service. £24.95 seems like a great price but they would be better off increasing the price, taking less punters and giving better service. Very...

A saturday night booking for a birthday that went all wrong! I am never one to complain but when your night is as bad as this…

We booked the table at least a month in advance and made them aware we wanted to stay for food, this was for the bottomless brunch.

So, what a disaster of a night. Firstly we were told that our pre booked table was given away to their “sponsors and other influencers” who just turned up without booking… we were therefore left sat outside in the rain for 45 minutes waiting for our table.

When seated, we ordered straight away but then waited an additional 2hrs&40mins for food to arrive at our table… we made it really clear to them that we had people on our table that were diabetic and had other health issues but still waited nearly 3 hours for food. By the time food came, one of us was literally shaking due to this error and lack of food.

All evening staff were blasé about the situation and I overheard the manager telling his staff to ignore any complaints. Even the table next to us were having the same problems…

We then ordered our friend a “birthday bottle” and the manager stated clearly it would come with sparklers, singing, and a big entrance (like they do in clubs). Well… the £80 spent on this was actually just a waitress placing a bottle on the table. No singing, no sparklers… simply a bottle out of ice placed on the table.

I must say, the food was amazing (hence the 2 stars). This place has so much potential, especially with a chef who can create great tasting grub. It’s a shame the manager and staff let the whole place down. The guy who said he was the manager was very young, clearly lack of experience and communication throughout. Was very defensive when speaking with us and demanded money over anything else. Eventually managed to get an apology from him… One of us had to just speak with the chef because he was much more communicative...

We came for bottomless brunch and left feeling dissatisfied. We were only served 5 drinks in the 2.5 hours, 2 of which we had to go up to the bar to ask for as we weren’t very attended to at our table. In comparison, we did a bottomless brunch at Slug and Lettuce in Bournemouth Square a few months ago, where in the 2 hours we had about 10 cocktails, and the staff were very attentive, asking us for our next order as soon as they brought the current round over, which never happened here.

The atmosphere here also did not make the experience enjoyable. There were several large and boisterous parties which we were put next to, and with the loud music also playing it was impossible to talk across the table to my partner. In addition, a table behind us were constantly vaping and also being rude to the staff, demanding more drinks for their table from the bar. At no point did any of the staff ask them to stop vaping, and they were there for the majority of our time there. It felt closer to O’Neill’s than Slug and Lettuce.

The staff themselves were very friendly and understanding, but that doesn’t make up for the slow pace of the service which the venue didn’t seem busy enough to justify. If it was too busy for the staff, the venue needs to reevaluate its capacity for table service bookings. The cocktails had a good variety, however, charging extra for some menu items (such as £1.50 extra for any of the non-vegetarian burgers and £10 extra for a steak) does not seem justified on top of the £30 per person for brunch after seeing the quality of the food.

In addition to all this, the disabled toilet was unclean and unsafe as it was being used as storage for extra tables and chairs, and only one tap worked in the men’s toilets, and working is generous, with no hand soap available.

Unlikely to come here again after our experience and cannot in good...