The Earl of Dalkeith - JD Wetherspoon — Restaurant in England

We visited the Wetherspoons here at Kettering, and it's an attractive two-floor pub with all the ingredients for being a decent place, but it falls short for me.

We walked upstairs, and there were many filthy tables and leftover glasses from the previous customers, which for a pub is to be expected; however, it became clear there were staffing issues.

We made our order through the mobile app, which meant we could type in our table number and then choose what we wanted and have the option of either Google or Apple Pay or a card. Once we went through that process, our receipt was automatically emailed to us, which was very convenient. The one criticism I have with the app is that you cannot view your previous orders unless you check your emails, which is frustrating.

I decided to have the American cheeseburger with a small portion of chips and a side of scampi with Pepsi Max.

We waited about twenty minutes for our food to arrive, and it wasn't until we were finished eating that our drinks finally got served. We could see the staff were very stressed, and it's not their fault because there were a lot of customers here today on Monday, and I could only spot two servers.

When the food arrived, the scampi and chips were excellent; however, the burger lacked flavour. It was pretty dry and unpleasant, but because I was out all day, I was hungry; an American burger should be filled to the brim with sauce, and it was barely noticeable.

Upstairs, there is the book swap shelf, which I thought was a nice touch, ranging from ancient books to recent bestsellers, offering a wide range to customers.

With this being adjacent to the bus station in Kettering, there are many easy ways to reach this pub, with a zebra crossing...

Not been for awhile. Used to be OK - value for money, staff plesent enough but the place is dark dingy and run down. Went the other day and wished I had not. Service has gone down hill. Used the app to order and pay for food, when the waitress came out I asked for a glass of water with my hot drink (to take tablet) to which she replied 'can you go to the bar as I have other plates to bring out'. No manners at all. I am disabled, if I could have gone to the bar myself I would have. My food was not good. Grilled Chicken was chewy and dry in places, jacket potatoe looked like it had been injected with oil and was really greasy and horrible. It was bearly warm. I hardly touched it - I wouldn't feed that to a dog let alone a human being. I tried to get someone's attention but no one was around, that waitress never came out of the kitchen serving plates, infact I didn't see her again until I left. It wasn't particularly busy either. Hungry and thirsty I left. The pay and order with my phone is why I went there in the first place and I won't be going back at all. I would go elsewhere and I recommend to oviod this place like the plage!...

Most of the time you know what to expect with this chain of pubs, but unfortunately despite having a good location and venue it wasn’t quite up to the same standard as I’m used to. On a Sunday afternoon it wasn’t overly busy, but service at the bar was far slower than justified, with a number of staff more occupied with other tasks than serving the growing number of people. The same also was true with table cleaning, with loads of empty glasses and dirty tables, certainly in the area surrounding the bar.

However, get through that and the rest of the experience was fine. Food service was quick with items well presented and hot, the serving staff were really friendly and chatty, plus there was a general good atmosphere around the place.

For a casual drink or bite to eat I’d happily return, but with some extra attention it could be a great pub...