The Fitzwilliam Arms — Restaurant in England

Extremely disappointed!!

Me and my family come here regularly and always celebrate the birthdays here with a meal and drinks. Me and my partner also come here regularly for date night. I last minute booked a table for 4, for my mums birthday on Friday. I had originally booked miller and Carter but last minute decided to stick to what we enjoy the most. So I’ve rushed out of work Friday to collect some birthday balloons and a cake to drop off. This has always been easy and the staff happily decorate the table each time for us with confetti and balloons. Greeted by Danielle who I believe is the manager. I gave the cake in, also checked if our table was in a quiet corner due to the celebration. I asked for her to pop confetti on the table (which is always absolutely fine), she was hesitant and said they can only put a little on. I totally appreciate it’s such a pain to clean the confetti. Danielle then shortly and sharply stated we are “unable to be in a quiet corner as it’s a busy restaurant”. I then said “I can understand it’s not going to be quiet in a busy restaurant, just a corner will do as this is a celebration table” which I know takes priority over a standard booking. Danielle wasn’t welcoming and made it very uncomfortable asking for this. Our original table was not in a corner. I asked if it was okay to bring the balloons in, she said yes. When I brought the balloons in, Danielle responded “so you want all of these?”, baring in mind it was 6 small birthday balloons, plus 2 extra small ones. I responded with “yes please”, she looked at the table and hesitated where they could fit. I tried to help and say “why don’t you put us on this table, over here in the corner so the balloons can fit in the corner of the room out the way”. I worked in hospitality, front of house (waitress) for 5 years in an extremely high standard environment for customer care, I can appreciate and understand how difficult it is organising a busy Friday night restaurant seating plan with lots of different requests and accommodations. I can also understand that a group celebration party takes priority in cornered tables or out of the way as you tend to spend the night causing noise and celebrating. Danielle mentioned there was a large reservation booked at the back which takes up the restaurant and “this is all we have got”. I understood this. She again hesitated about the table in the corner for the balloons, took her time making me feel like a burden looking through ‘uming’ and ‘arring’ to move me. Arrived in the evening, greeted by Danielle who had changed her tune immensely with a friendly welcoming attitude. Taken to the table in the corner. I noticed the back part of the restaurant was not a reservation. All tables of 4 had a maximum of 3 customers on in a quiet corner of the restaurant (where we are normally put for our celebration meals). From my understanding, Danielle had insisted these were for the big reservation. Ordered our drinks, took over half an hour to arrive! A gent apologised for the long wait, said it was the cocktail we ordered amongst the other drinks. Food came, was lush as alway, we had to ask several times for our missed onion rings and mayonnaise, my pizza is near enough cold now. The flies were absolutely everywhere! All over the food, which put everyone off finishing. We took a break outside and left our dinner at the table. I went up to pay and explained the flies issue, Danielle didn’t respond with anything, but offered to bring out mums birthday cake. She brought out the birthday cake with all the decorations on top…didn’t bother lighting the candles. Was apparently “too windy” however this was not the case at all. She stated she was “trying to light them at the door” which did not happen. Overall the attitude was appalling and I’m super disappointed with the care taken for my mums birthday. The service was poor and not what it used to be. Not spending...

There was a three of us, booked a table for 4.30pm on 7th of March. I left a comment on the booking to say that we are at a funeral on that day, so we may arrive a little early, as unsure what time the service would end. The table was ready on our arrival and the dining area was pretty empty. Our main courses were a bit of a let down. I had fish and chips, there was hardly any fish in a fish, mainly batter, chips way overcooked if not burnt. Two of my other friends went for chicken breast in mushroom sauce, unfortunately both of their dishes were slightly cold. Although plates were extremely hot, no warning when passing! There was no staff who came to check on us or ask if we wanted anything else. I went to the bar to order another drink, but even behind the bar there was no one to serve me straight away. No one checked if we want anything else once the dinner plates got collected. We got rudely interrupted by a member of a staff at 5:30pm (bare in mind we booked the table from 4:30pm - I would imagine we had that table secured for about 2hours) „you’ve had everything now, I need this table back as we are fully booked tonight”. Not even „excuse me…”- he has literally interrupted our conversation and jumped straight in to say we need to leave! In my opinion the member of the staff was rude and arrogant, I believe his name may be Angus. I totally understand business is business, but there are way more polite ways of letting your customers know the table/area is booked. He could have said that we could move to the bar area or at least check if we are actually done, not telling us we have had everything now and we have to leave. Please note that the restaurant as well as the bar area was still looking pretty empty with many free tables. Also none pre-warned us that we will need to leave by certain time. We would then happily just move to the bar area as we understand how the industry works. Instead we ended up going somewhere else. Yes, I have paid for my friends dinner in advance, as I didn’t want them to fight me. Although me paying for their dinners did not mean we were done. Next time maybe check with your client, not assume… The staff’s behaviour was absolutely out of order in my opinion and people like that affect the business/business reputation. It was very disappointing experience and the staff attitude was not what we needed after the funeral. Under a different circumstances we would probably asked to speak with a manager, but we all felt emotionally exhausted and heartbroken. We simply just wanted to have a nice time together to raise a glass in our...

Okay so upon walking in, firstly, pretentious and overpriced come to mind, but to be fair its well decorated and not a bad atmosphere so me and my partner decided to sit down to dinner, I went up to the bar to order drinks and not a smile given from the gentleman behind the bar, now before I go further I should say I was wearing joggers and a T-shirt and maybe didn’t look like the kind of person they like to be in their pub but I’m a paying customer, I was friendly, polite, quiet and respectful the entire time I was there, but it’s clear from staffs attitude to me and my partner vs their attitude towards other patrons they had an issue with us, despite the fact we were just out for lunch

I watched the family infront of us order WAY after us and receive their meal after 23 minutes (i timed it ) and we waited just over an hour for ours, jugs of water brought for everyone else dining whereas I had to go and ask for a glass of water at the bar which was begrudgingly brought to our table 5 minutes later and just thrown down on our table without a word said to us.

The food was at best 4/10 by the way, all frozen, fatty brisket, ( which tasted like pork aswell) horrible burger and not a thing in sight homemade. My partner has had better shepherds pie at Tesco.

I’m currently still sat at our table infront of dirty plates for the last 15 minutes while the table infront of me has Been offered multiple drinks, dessert and checked on how their meal was …. No one has even asked how our meal was, offered a drink or desert.

Next time, maybe be aware of ALL of your customers, not just the ones that are dressed nicely, we spend our hard earnt money here just like everyone else and are heartbroken at the obvious neglect of our customer service today.

You’re more than welcome to check anything I’ve said in this review, we’re sat at table 30, by the window, we’re here today (22/07/2023) and ordered food at around 17:20. You’ll see we weren’t attended to once and the utter disregard for our dining experience and customer service from your bar and...