The Jolly Drovers — Restaurant in England

Easy to find and parking could be an issue some days but there was still a few places left. Atmosphere was as to be expected, quite busy and the staff seemed friendly and attentive. The food though seems to lack any magic, we ordered off the main menu which was probably where we went wrong. They had carvery on which maybe would have been a better option. I ordered the classic cheese burger with fries, the fries were bland and at a guess I'd say they were frozen. The burger was absolutely not homemade (the menu didn't state it was) but you expect something better than you can make at home when you go out. My mother had the sweet chilli chicken with rice and skin of chips I think (that's what they looked like to me) she said it tasted good but as a whole I'd say it wasn't what I expected.

I guess the hype I'd heard about the place was mostly down to the carvery which from spotting passing plates looked to be a much better choice than what the regular menu had to offer. Although judging from the experience of the regular menu of have a guess that most of the veggies in the carvery side would most likely be big packets of frozen veg and maybe even frozen mash but I can't say for sure.

I also asked what sauces they had and one of the waiters didn't know and my blame falls on management for this and all the other underwhelming parts of my experience.

A reasonably trained chef can with the right team behind them manage to put freshly prepared food out to customers in a timely manner, timing wasn't an issue but as mentioned above the quality of the food from what is essentially an eatery wasn't where I'd have guessed it would be.

I didn't get any pictures as I didn't feel like it was worthy of sending to group chats when it came out.

Hopefully the management can read this review as well as some of the other stuff I spotted on their staffing reviews and make some improvements, as I say the staff there currently seem friendly and have good customer service, the young lads I would guess are a little fresher and they seemed to be a little less vocal and engaging but they were completely fine and professional, the ladies working seemed to be a little more engaging in a just as friendly but slightly more bubbly manner and this is the reason they got as many stars as they didn't because the food was a half star at best. The other 2 and a half* are purely for the ladies and gents staffing the dinning areas.

Just work out some simple shortened menus for carvery days, don't over populate the choices on any day. Allow staff some input into how things are laid out and this place...

I used to love coming here and despite my favourite item being taken off the new menu, the lovely waitress said she could ask the chef if he could still make it which was sweet. I only wanted something small so I order chips and gravy and some onion rings. Onions rings were delicious albeit rather greasy but my big disappointment came from the chips which was my main reason for eating here. They came out super pale apart from 2 which were a lovely shade of brown. I asked a different waitress if she could ask for them to be cooked longer (gravy came out separate and wasn't on the chips yet). She looked at me if I said something very foreign and after confirming what I wanted her to do, she came back out of the kitchen shortly with the exact same chips and said the chef said 'because of the type of potato they are, they can't brown anymore'. I mean I was quite taken back from this because I've never heard of such a ridiculous thing. Not only did I feel like they they thought I was stupid enough to believe this but I even showed the waitress the brown chip to use it as a reference...therefore I know the chips could reach that browness level as I was given 2 of them in my batch. I felt like the chef just simply couldn't be bothered, gave a poor excuse and I didn't want to ask again because frankly I was annoyed. They tasted alright, just not as nice as they used to be or could have been if they had been cooked longer like I asked. I felt uncomfortable from that point and not like a valued customer. Don't think I...

visited here the first time and was told there was chicken (dont go to many carveries).the next time we went on a busy sunday qued up a while got to the front and my partner was told no chicken on offer as she doesnt eat the other meats. she got shown up by the female chefs sarcasm and basically calling us liers that we didnt get told the week before that they do chicken that they never do but then tripped herself up saying only if they run out of something they do. my partner shook this off and stayed calm to ask if she can just get veg and have it downgraded her meal she was told no it gets served up and prepared for you and she would have to wait longer! bearing in mind there was a huge line of people behind us! my partner walked off the chef then said with attitude so is she having anything i then tried explaining and just got a head turn and a "right" from her.we also had a table booked and they stuggled to find us one when we got in,we had drinks ordered but we just left those and walked out.very unprofessional we were in there 45minutes we went to the ox inn at stanley later and were served and finished all within 45minutes...