The Dolphin — Restaurant in England

First time here - Average food. Quite frankly bizarre customer service. Came here more for the quiz night, which was actually very good. My gripe is with the food and the totally strange customer service we had. The food is OK - typical pub food. I wouldn’t go out of my way to go there as a food destination. What I found quite bizarre was the service. My wife ordered fish and chips. It comes with chunky chips, but she asked for fries instead. When it arrived, it was accompanied by the chunky chips that we’d specifically asked not to have. I pointed this out to the waiter, who said to me (verbatim) “I forgot to put the fries through on the order, can’t you swap?” - my order of a (distinctly average) burger came with the French fries that we had originally requested to accompany my wife’s fish and chips. After a sigh and a roll of his eyes, the waiter did take my wife’s dish away, and returned with the fish and chips (fries) that we had originally ordered. It did mean my wife’s meal appeared after most of the table had finished their meals. HOWEVER, the poor customer service didn’t stop there. My daughter ordered a kids burger. When it arrived, it was evident that the kids burger was actually an adult beef patty cut in half but served in a full sized bun (see attached picture). I queried this with the same waiter, who replied “that’s the way it comes”. Too hungry to create a fuss, my daughter did finish her abnormally proportioned burger, but left a large amount (half) of the bun. When I came to settle the bill, I again queried the kids burger with the bar staff. I was told, once again, that was the way a kids burger came. I asked why, prior to cooking, half an adult burger couldn’t quickly be refashioned into a thinner (normally shaped) patty for the kids burger, as a decent burger should have a good bun to burger ratio. I was met with a shrug of the shoulders and told that was the way the kitchen did the kids burger. Upon settling the bill I was aggressively asked why I didn’t leave a tip……:🤔. Quiz was great, but food / service was average / terrible respectively. Wouldn’t ever go back. Staff need a lesson in...

Will get the negatives out the way first: the chef needs either firing or giving a hefty slap. The 'medium rare' steak arrived practically raw, I'm fact it looked like the outside was caramelisee on a griddle then slapped on a plate, wouldn't ever be able to call it rare it was that red. One was sent back and when cut open steam billowed out....which to me suggests the 'chef' stuck it in the microwave. Both steaks were unseasoned and the salad when asked for some actual salad was simply a handful of rocket with some onion and tomato thrown on top; again no seasoning or dressing. As a Commis chef if I placed that on the passe I would have it thrown at me full pelt and told to f*ck off out the kitchen.

The staff appeared to be fairly new so the lack of understanding when it came to the menu was understandable, at no point was the waitress dismissive or rude, she was clearly trying her best which was commendable.

Despite the hiccups regarding service and the cooking from the resident microwave technician the serving staff were very friendly. The house red was a very light, fruity number which was most enjoyable and the evening was saved with the arrival of the cheese board, which to be honest was the highlight of the night; the mix of mature cheddar, brie, yarg and blue combined with celery, apple and assorted biscuits was very well thought out and delicious.

Not sure how soon I'd be dining here again simply due to the fact the chef can't do a steak and take zero pride in presentation and execution, particularly when an order gets sent back. The service was okay, a lot of potential with the seemingly newer staff members so I hope they do well in...

Unfortunately we weren't able to complete our stay here due to circumstances caused by the severe rain. Staff at the Dolphin were quick to locate us to another hotel of equal standard, and were very communicative in getting this done rather than during the night in case the leak got worse.

It was a shame to not be able to stay here as the room was lovely and large, and the bathroom was gorgeous. I would advise booking using a credit card, as the full payment for the stay is taken as a pre-authorisation payment from the card that is used to book. Normally this isn't a problem, but as we ended up staying at a new hotel this meant a delay between having the funds returned to my bank account, having also paid for the new hotel. However, after emailing staff there, the lady who replied was exceptionally helpful and apologetic, and chased this up with the bank.

Three stars is purely down to us being under the impression that the Dolphin had paid for our taxi that they had offered to book to get us to the new hotel, as they had assured us they would deal with this. Unfortunately this wasn't the case and we had an embarrassing situation between the taxi driver expecting payment and us not being aware that the taxi had not been paid for.

However, we would give the Dolphin another go should we be in the area again, and the pub...