The Keel Row — Restaurant in England

I brought my family here today for Sunday lunch but absolutely wish I hadn't. We had driven past so many times in the past and having checked their website previously, I did find one of my faves - homemade corned beef pie. Unfortunately the pie wasn't available to order today (understandably as we are visiting on a Sunday).

We ordered 3 Sunday lunches which we found tasteless, watery veg and lumpy flavourless gravy. We weren't saying anything about these meals and we would obviously just decide not to return however....

My youngest son had the tomato pasta and the sheer taste of this actually made him physically vomit. He said it's yucky mummy and proceeded to cover the front of his clothes with sick! We obviously didn't feed him anymore of this and left the full dish to one side (after cleaning him up ofcourse).

One of my sons had the cheese pizza which he did enjoy as it was really cheesy.

My other son had a portion of chips, which were extremely dry and inedible. Again a full bowl of chips was left to one side.

On the way out I walked via the bar and I spoke to the staff, she asked me if everything was okay and I proceeded to explain about the pasta making my son vomit and the dry chips, both of which remained on the table practically untouched. She said she would have to get someone, I believe she is the manager or owner. She approached me with folded arms and a terrible attitude from the get go.

She told me that I had offended her by telling her about the pasta. I was very confused at this point. I was trying to speak quietly as to not disrupt other customers and she was talking rather loudly. She stormed off and came bounding back chewing on something. She advised me she was tasting the pasta and it was absolutely fine and there was no way this could have made my son vomit. I tried to explain yet again that I could only let her know what had happened, I didn't understand the issue and I was simply just asking for a refund for the items which hadn't been eaten. You need to pay for your food in advance so I wasn't in a position to ask for it to be removed from the bill before I paid, otherwise I would have. Considering the circumstances I do not believe this to be an unreasonable request at all and had I of been in any other establishment I'm pretty confident that I would have been met with firstly an apology, followed by a let me get you a refund of your money (or words to that effect).

There was very little to no customer service from this lady and maybe she could take a few lessons from the lovely girls working behind the bar as they were very helpful (guessing that they weren't allowed to deal with disgruntled customers though as the lady I spoke to kind of panicked and told me she would need to go get Sharon).

After flapping her hands a lot infront of me, at first she was begrudgingly going to give me a refund for the pasta dish but then when I asked if I was able to have a refund for the uneaten chips aswell she told me that I was trying my luck and now she was refusing to give me a refund for anything.

I would avoid this place at all costs!

Some lessons in customer service and customer care are definitely warranted.

What can I say,...

This review has been edited from a very good review to this. I'm getting very disappointed with this place, The place was looking a little tired but the owners have made a good effort and brightened it up, although I would have though that above the picture rail would have been included in the makeover. The toilets.... what can I say, the area stinks of cigarette smoke and urine, clearly someone is smoking out in the back staff area and it's wafting through to the toilet area (In the same corridor). If the smoke comes from an outside smoking area then that needs to be moved! The flooring and parts of the walls, certainly in the male toilets looks to be in desperate need of a deep clean, The filth on the toilet floor is being dragged out into the hallway and obviously into the nearby restaurant area too. See the pictures! Clearly I wasn't going to go right in to the toilets to take pictures but the doorway gives the right impression of what is inside. The food I feel is deteriorating, I remember when the Shanghai sizzling platter deserved a 5 star rating, now, the quality and more like the quantity of meat vs vegetable makes me extremely unlikely to purchase this dish again. It's not worth the price or £14 or £15 it was they're now charging, If I wanted a dish which consisted of mainly spring onions with dry chicken and chewy beef strips submerged in what tasted like a poor Hoi Sin sauce, I'd go to a cheap Chinese buffet. Even the four prawns were way over cooked. On a table of 7, most of the other food here was fairly priced although not all freshly cooked, just this Platter dish tonight was particularly disappointing, they need to go back a few years and put a little more effort in rather than relying on it's reputation. I can't fault the friendliness and atmosphere of the place though, Just a few issues to fix and I would go back to a 4 or 5...

My sister & I arrived at the keel row friday for lunch at approx 12.45 for lunch and were allocated a table for two. We ordered drinks and our meals (1 liver & onions and 1 scampi & chips). the drinks duly arrived and we waited and waited for our food. After an hour & no food appearing I enquired as to the delay and was told that they were short staffed in the kitchens due to sickness and our order would be next. At that point the staff did apologise for the delay but at no point during our waiting time were we given any explanation or apology for the delay. We were told that the bar was exceptionally busy and this had been another reason for the delay. We ordered more drinks and eventually our meal was delivered. However my scampi was on a cold plate and before I was 1/4 of the way through it my whole meal was cold. When the plates were collected I mentioned this & was told that I should have said something earlier & something could have been done about it. We left after settling our bill of approx £23.39. Altogether not a good experience and one I would never attempt again. The question must be asked ; are the bar customers more important than those in the restaurant and are they given priority over other customers ? The waitress who served us was courteous but obviously had no control over how long we waited. However this did nothing to enhance our eating experience . I have dined at the keel row many times in the past but will not...