The Foundry Bell — Restaurant in England

Where do you start when you're planning a surprise lunch for your Grandma's 90th Birthday ... having weighed up numerous Hotels and Restaurants ... thankfully and gratefully someone recommended The Foundry Bell to me!!

From the moment I made contact via an enquiry form, they have been simply fantastic, Holly answered my initial questions and subsequent ones when amending numbers, checking if there was a children's menu, if we could bring balloons and a cake, never once was I made to feel like I was being a nuisance.

A great appointment site allowed me to log in, make the deposit payment, amend numbers and review everything.

Then the big day arrived yesterday, I had spoken with Holly and she said it was ok to deliver the balloons early so that they were in place for our arrival. I was met when I arrived by Abi and Gwen who were really lovely and knew of the booking. Holly wasn't in but behind the scenes Holly had fully briefed Gwen. They helped me with the balloons, showed me where our table would be in the private area in the restaurant and showed a real interest in the day's proceedings ... this settled my nerves a lot and allowed excitement to kick in!!

From the moment we walked in with my Grandma we were made to feel very welcomed by Abi and she did a fantastic job at pretending to have never met me before ... Abi led my Grandma to the dining area and the chorus of "surprise" erupted, once the happy tears had stopped and the welcomes had settled Gwen made a beeline for me to check all was ok and to reassure me that she was there, and I just was just to let her or Abi know if I needed anything.

The other front of house team seemed just as excited for Grandma and made a fuss of her and made her feel very special.

Naturally, some of the family hadn't met for a while, so Abi was really good in judging enough time to take drinks orders and allowing us the chance to talk for a bit before taking our order, we never felt rushed at any stage.

We ordered and my goodness we were not disappointed, the food was beautiful!! It was fresh, well presented, colourful, tasted amazing and showcased the best of British produce. Portion sizes were great for the price, we said that we thought the price was very reasonable and was representative of the quality of the food without being extortionate.

As always with hospitality you never get to meet the behind-the-scenes teams, the Chefs, and their kitchen team, but we all said how beautiful the food was and how they clearly have a passion and flare for using fresh ingredients and combining with some exciting flavour combinations.

There was not one disappointed person with the food choices they made, even my incredibly food fussy 12yr old loved his!!

From the moment we walked in, we were all made to feel incredibly welcomed, nothing was too much trouble, and the staff are an absolute credit to the owners and a lovely touch was when Abi's shift had finished, she could have just left and headed home, but she wanted to come and say Goodbye, check everything had been ok and to wish Grandma a lovely rest of the day.

As someone who worked in hospitality for years, I appreciated everything yesterday and whilst it can be a long, hard and at times thankless profession, it can also be incredibly rewarding when you know that your hard work made such a difference and believe me, the Foundry Bell team did that in abundance for us yesterday!!

The whole lunch was a very special way to celebrate a wonderful Grandma's 90th Birthday ... I can't thank everyone enough for making yesterday so special, I can't wait to come back again when a little less stressful and...

I ate at The Foundry Bell in August with three friends and despite a relatively nice but expensive meal and good service on the evening, the aftermath and customer service from Greene King has been hideous.

The day after eating at The Foundry Bell I become unwell with a fever, high temperature and a stomach that simply put, didn't want to retain anything I ate or drunk. I spoke with the three friends I'd eaten with and none of them were having the same issues as I was experiencing. Two of my friends had eaten the crab burger for mains while another friend and I had gone for the beef burger. We'd all had different starters to which I'd opted for the Smoked Chicken Liver Parfait and toast.

Day 2 followed suit and after 72 hours the feverish symptoms had gone but the stomach issues remained and I was frequenting the WC around 15-20 times a day. As my sickness hadn't eased after 72 hours I called the restaurant and made them aware of my symptoms and explained what I'd eaten 3 days prior. I received a call back later that day from the restaurant where the issue was logged and passed to Greene King customer service.

A week after eating at The Foundry Bell my stomach problems still remained so I had to visit my GP and get tested. Two days after visiting my GP they confirmed I'd contracted a form of food poisoning called Campylobacter, a bacterial disease that comes from contaminated food/water or undercooked poultry, amongst other causes.

I informed Greene King customer service of the diagnose and provided a copy of my GP record to aid their own internal investigation. After a couple of days of no contact from Greene King, I received a Friday afternoon copy and paste email from one of their BDMs informing me they'd investigated my concerns and deemed the Campylobacter couldn't have come from the restaurant and would have materialised elsewhere based on my symptoms materialising within 24 hours of eating at The Foundry Bell.

It's worth noting that I spoken to two different Doctors at my GP surgery by this time who both confirmed the timeline of my symptoms starting were in line with eating at the restaurant and that having consumed a poultry based dish, there was a high probability this could have been the cause.

The response from the BDM was patronising, unsympathetic and lacked any ownership in Greene King potentially being at fault. However, despite washing their hands with my complaint, the BDM offered me a goodwill credit of £125 to use in any of their establishments. If Greene King were that confident the food poisoning hadn't materialised at The Foundry Bell, why would you offer such a significant goodwill gesture?! It's a strange approach to a customer complaint where you've confidently documented you're not a fault.

My illness continued for 2.5 weeks and only eased with the support of probiotic supplements. And whilst I've in no way asked Greene King to accept full responsibility for the food poisoning, given it's difficult to determine the exact cause, I would have at least expected a little bit of ownership based on all the evidence provided. These things can and do happen despite the best will in the world for restaurants to conform to hygiene standards, however Greene King has completely brushed off my complaint yet tried to throw goodwill at me in the hope I go away quietly. It's incredibly poor from such a recognised restaurant chain in the UK and only reinforces my opinion that these cash cow businesses have no interest in their...

Valentines disappointment We booked a table for Valentines dinner and paid the deposit for the valentines menu dinner (£10pp) As we arrived fairly early in the evening (18:15), there were not many tables taken in the restaurant area. The decor was nice and cosy and we were looking forward to our dinner. We have waited a while for our orders to be taken, even though there was a few tables taken in the restaurant. The waitress took our orders for the starters, dinner and desserts at this point.

We have ordered the prawns for starters: chilli garlic prawns with a slice of bread - turned out there was no need for the bread as there was not a drop of sauce, the dish was rather dry (prawns were coated in panko-like crumbs, soaking wet with oil). Mans were a steak and a duck breast. Steak was good, my husband was happy with it. However the duck breast came undercooked (about mid-rare) with pink meat and juices soaking from it - i didnt touch the breast and called the waitress to take my plate and ask chef to cook the breast to a well-done state, and explained that being pregnant I cannot have anything undercooked/with pink juices inside). Ive waited a while before I got my duck which still wasn’t entirely cooked. I decided not to make a fuss and ate the fairely cooked edges of the breast. The meat was chewy and nothing like the duck I have ever eaten before. Meat was tasteless. My husband had a bite of it and spit it out on his plate, later saying the texture resembled one of his own fingers. No waitress came to check on me and my meat. Veggies were ok. A waiter then collected our plates with a nearly full uneaten duck breast on it, didn’t ask how was it. As he was picking the plates from our tables, we asked for the desserts to be brought. That was about 19:35 when we asked for them and at 20:00 we still didnt get them, even though we have brought this to the attention of a waitress in the meantime, to which she said “oh yes, the manager said something about that”. At this point we were a bit annoyed as they did take our orders upfront, the choice was limited, so surely the kitchen staff should have prepared the desserts ready for service. We have waited another while and finally asked for the bill as we couldn’t wait any longer having other plans soon after. We weren’t told why did we have to wait so long and why our desserts have never arrived. The waitress told us that she cannot remove the desserts from our bill, but she can remove the still water, half pint of lager and my alcohol-free sparkling wine. No manager was there to speak with us about the issue of the service we paid for which wasn’t delivered. The dinner cost us £90 bill and £20 deposit. The price was not worth the disappointment.

I do not recommend the foundry bell. They clearly don't know how to run the place, the waiting staff hasn't been trained properly in food & customer service and the kitchen staff being unable to properly cook the meat, creating starter that makes sense and delivering the desserts that were pre-ordered, should probably have their qualifications checked. By serving undercooked meat, they risk a foodborne illness, also putting at risk the baby.

Where is the...