The Gardeners Country Inn — Restaurant in England

Horrible customer service and arrogant management attitude. We called here on a Friday night, after arriving at the lodge site, to check it for later in the week. Our first impression was very bad with all the outside tables dirty and full of dirty plates and glasses. The people we spoke to didn’t seem impressed. What was more concerning was the amount of food that was left - surely this is not a good sign? (However my dog did enjoy the massive piece of fish that was left) I reviewed this on Tripadvisor and recieved a load of abuse, as did anyone else who dared to criticise this establishment! Any sensible business would learn from bad reviews (of which there are many!) and use the feedback to improve their business. Not the Gardeners - they appear to believe they are perfect and that everyone else is out to get them. Unfortunately we didn’t read the reviews and and as we didn’t have the time to visit the Railway Arms, as planned, we decided to risk a meal here. The actual food is ok but the service and staff attitude was appalling and bordering on Fawlty Towers. First experience, I ordered drinks - pleasant friendly young man served me a cider and a glass of water. A slightly older young lady tore this server off a strip, very publicly, for not topping my water up to the top (it required 1cm extra!) Very unprofessional especially as the young man was doing his job well. He helped me to carry out the cutlery etc to our table without being asked and was very good at his job. I checked the menu and returned to bar to order the meals. The young lady was serving and she took my order. I ordered surf and turf and she asked if I wanted a sauce with it. I asked the cost of the sauce and was told £1.50 and so I ordered peppercorn sauce. I requested VAT bill and checked it to discover the sauce was charged at £2.50! I queried this immediately at the bar and the waitress said she told me she said it £2.50 - I told her she clearly said £2.50 and she started arguing that she didn’t and that I was wrong. - unfortunately another man at the bar piped up and said he heard her say it £1.50 also. I requested refund of the £2.50 or honour the £1.50 - unfortunately she wasn’t able to do either and needed a manager. I agreed to sort it out later. I didn’t know until my meal came whether I was having sauce or not but wasn’t overly bothered either way. It came without sauce and without comment , perhaps hoping I’d forgot. I requested manager come and refund me and 5 minutes later when I was eating the manager came over. She interupted my meal to try and refund my card, but the wifi would not reach and so she couldn’t. No apology for the mix up and again blaming me for not knowing the cost of the sauce! As it said on the menu! She again blamed me for having bad hearing and insisted her waitress told me she had said £2.50. The man at the bar was sitting at the next table and again he confirmed what the waitress had said. She also acknowledged the waitress had tried to upsell me the sauce and she was trained to do so, “it’s hospitality” - I believe the waitress lied to me regarding the price and then lied to me again when questioned about it and then again to her manager when telling her side of the story. Shame about the witness overhearing the conversation! The manager was arguing with me about this whilst I was trying to eat my meal and there was no apologies or offers of a free sauce or even at £1.50 as she said. She appeared to expect me to go into the bar straight away to refund my overcharge but agreed to do it after I had eaten. No apologies, no offers of discount or deserts or any goodwill at all on her behalf / just blame. When I went to bar later to collect refund she again had a very cocky attitude. I certainly won’t be returning, I made that mistake once and no doubt I will get a load of abuse for telling the truth and giving an honest review. Hopefully management learn from this and change or improve the staff training because otherwise I don’t expect this restaurant will have same team if I ever return to...

This room was £70 a night and we had booked for two nights, and whilst I wasn’t expecting luxury I was expecting the room to be clean and to have a decent night sleep ahead of a family funeral. Having driven 8 hours from northern Scotland, all we wanted was a clean room and a decent nights sleep to be rested ahead of the funeral. ||The first morning we were woken at 6:30am by a delivery van arriving, reverse warning beeping followed by 15 minutes of clattering and doors banging. Then 8am a road sweeper arrived followed by an hour of cleaning the car park. Ordinarily an 8am start would not be an issue but this was on too of the 6:30 earlier wake-up call.||Spoke to a lady in the car park and who worked at the hotel and was supervising the road sweeper, I explained the issues with the duvet, and then being woken up etc. she sympathised said she would speak to the cleaners about the duvet and that she had previously spoken to the delivery truck.||We returned after a long day attending the funeral. |We decided that we would have some drinks and a bite to eat in the pub. Given the dire state of the rooms it was preferable to sit in there than in the rooms. At 9:30pm as we were chatting, the chef appears and announced that the bar was closing. Thinking that this was quite early, we asked what time it usually closed, his response “11pm, but there’s nowt doing and we can’t keep the lights on and staff here just to serve you. But you can take your drinks back to your room”||As we were leaving we heard the lady who I had spoke to in the car park the previous morning that she would have to speak to the cleaners because she’d had ANOTHER complaint about the rooms from a lady in the car park!!! If you know there’s an issue with the rooms, fix the problems!!||The second morning we were woken again at 5:30am by the deliver truck, clattering of crates being rolled along the car park, opening and slamming truck doors etc.||Bedroom |Duvet was too small for the bed, it just covered the top of the mattress, no overhang.|Only 1 bedside lamp for a double room|Cobwebs, clearly been there a while which were full of dead flies|Neither wall lights worked, even if they had worked only 1 had a bulb.|Carpet was covered in grit.|Walls paper thin we could hear very worm on the to next door. ||Bathroom|Only 1 hand towel provided for 2 people|No soap provided for the sink|Sealant and grout full of black mould and split|Hole in wall|Toilet roll holder hanging off the wall|No soap provided for the sink|Paint peeling off the ceiling.||The photos on the website are not recent photos, and don’t be fooled by the google reviews - they are for the pub not the...

This room was £70 a night and we had booked for two nights, and whilst I wasn’t expecting luxury I was expecting the room to be clean and to have a decent night sleep ahead of a family funeral. Having driven 8 hours from northern Scotland, all we wanted was a clean room and a decent nights sleep to be rested ahead of the funeral. ||The first morning we were woken at 6:30am by a delivery van arriving, reverse warning beeping followed by 15 minutes of clattering and doors banging. Then 8am a road sweeper arrived followed by an hour of cleaning the car park. Ordinarily an 8am start would not be an issue but this was on too of the 6:30 earlier wake-up call.||Spoke to a lady in the car park and who worked at the hotel and was supervising the road sweeper, I explained the issues with the duvet, and then being woken up etc. she sympathised said she would speak to the cleaners about the duvet and that she had previously spoken to the delivery truck.||We returned after a long day attending the funeral. |We decided that we would have some drinks and a bite to eat in the pub. Given the dire state of the rooms it was preferable to sit in there than in the rooms. At 9:30pm as we were chatting, the chef appears and announced that the bar was closing. Thinking that this was quite early, we asked what time it usually closed, his response “11pm, but there’s nowt doing and we can’t keep the lights on and staff here just to serve you. But you can take your drinks back to your room”||As we were leaving we heard the lady who I had spoke to in the car park the previous morning that she would have to speak to the cleaners because she’d had ANOTHER complaint about the rooms from a lady in the car park!!! If you know there’s an issue with the rooms, fix the problems!!||The second morning we were woken again at 5:30am by the deliver truck, clattering of crates being rolled along the car park, opening and slamming truck doors etc.||Bedroom |Duvet was too small for the bed, it just covered the top of the mattress, no overhang.|Only 1 bedside lamp for a double room|Cobwebs, clearly been there a while which were full of dead flies|Neither wall lights worked, even if they had worked only 1 had a bulb.|Carpet was covered in grit.|Walls paper thin we could hear very worm on the to next door. ||Bathroom|Only 1 hand towel provided for 2 people|No soap provided for the sink|Sealant and grout full of black mould and split|Hole in wall|Toilet roll holder hanging off the wall|No soap provided for the sink|Paint peeling off the ceiling.||The photos on the website are not recent photos, and don’t be fooled by the google reviews - they are for the pub not the...