The Lydiard Beefeater — Restaurant in England

Firstly we waited to be seated with a member of staff looking at us but not acknowledging us, she then came over & said that the Sunday roast had finished, we were then seated left alone a short time to look over the menu,

the waitress then came over asked if we would like to order drinks we placed our order, then ordered 3 meals 1 meal consisted of the 3 starter option, ( i also asked if I could keep A menu to look over) she stated she would bring it back if we needed it? we stated on ordering that we required this to come out with the other 2 meals, the starters came out after approx 10-15 mins the 2 meals didn’t follow after having to pull another waitress explaining we’d ordered our meals to come out together, she apologised said we could have the starters for free!!. Also tried to blame the younger waitress that was on shift we corrected her & told her what waitress had took our order she then proceeded to say oh that’s * and she’s gone off shift & not here to take the brunt of this now how very unprofessional of her.

The new waitress came and said my pie was ready & they was just putting the fish on for the other meal we waited a further 10 mins for the 2 meals to come out bearing in mind the pie had now been sitting under a hot plate for 10mins, the meals came out they did offer to ale something fresh for the meal thst had come out an hour before, we declined this offer, I then queried why would the starter meal me free when we’d waited an hour for the other meals, she said leave it with her she’ll see what she can do. The fish meal came out with the wrong peas served.

We finished our food most of the Redon eating the starter meal was left as she was uncomfy eating alone & tried to wait as long as possible for ours to come out. The brought the bill offering us 25% off & the starters free, I wasn’t very pleased with the discount offered so went & spoke with the manager whom tried to speak over me, also stated that the pie wasn’t cooked before the fish, I said I’m not happy paying for the meals I would pay for our drinks, the manager did wipe the bill including the drinks I walked away.

Whilst in there a table with a family of 5 left another table had waited an hour for their bill, and other tables was still waiting for food too. I appreciate they looked very short staffed, but a little communication with the customer to say there’s a delay on food I would then have been given the choice to stay & wait or leave, they did however after an hour & half say there was a delay to a new...

I am a premier inn business customer. I stay at premier inns about 2-3 times a month. I actually made a mistake and booked this hotel It’s not the closest one to my customer but I stuck with it. I am currently staying at the premier inn next door (Swindon West) so was eating at this place. I arrived pretty late on Sunday evening, almost too late for food (that I had already paid for). The place was far busier than I expected on a Sunday evening and the staff were rushed off their feet. I did manage to order before the kitchen closed and the bartender was brilliant despite being unbelievably busy. (Receipt says she is called Charlotte) I could see some customers being unhappy with waiting times and communication between kitchen staff and customers but the bar staff handled a difficult situation well under the circumstances. It’s obvious that the kitchen staff need some sort of training to be better at communicating with staff so they can help customers have a better experience. The bar staff are the customer facing people and if they don’t get information from the kitchen they can’t communicate this with their customers. I had a fillet steak which I’d asked for ‘very very rare’. I had a salad as my side dish. When it arrived It was medium-rare and the salad (shredded lettuce and tomato) had no dressing at all, not even a wee tad of olive oil. The steak was okay at best. Medium rare is be a polite good description. A nice piece of meat but just not what I ordered. I do regularly send a steak back but I could see the bar staff already having issues with kitchen communication and it was now past 10pm. It was okay, not what I ordered but it was okay! (2 stars).

All in all… very, very busy staff but looked like massive understaffing issues because many tables in this pub were empty! One more person behind the bar and another person serving would probably have resolved all the issues.

I have sat in the pub and written this review. I am posting this as a live action review!

PS while I was at the pub, the front of house staff were amazing. I think the manager is Lee and the bar staff were Charlotte and Cindy (sorry if that is spelled wrong) Those staff members made my experience here an overall good experience.

When I next visit this customer I will stay in this hotel and give them another chance because the front of house staff (Charlotte, Cindy and Lee) were...

Our recent visit to The Lydiard Beefeater was, unfortunately, a deeply disappointing experience. From start to finish, the service and cleanliness fell far short of what one would expect.

Upon arrival, we were informed that there would be a 20-minute wait for a table. However, we ended up waiting for 45 minutes, which set the tone for the rest of the evening. Once seated, we were told that our food would take 30 minutes to arrive. In reality, it took 50 minutes, and when it finally did, several ingredients were missing from the dishes we had ordered.

A side we had specifically requested never arrived at all. When we mentioned the missing ingredients to the staff, our concerns were dismissed without even a hint of an apology. This lack of attentiveness was further highlighted when we were asked if we wanted sauces, which were never brought to the table.

As we neared the end of our meal, we asked for the bill, which took an unreasonably long time to arrive, despite the table next to us being able to pay promptly. It was clear that the staff were overwhelmed and demoralised; we overheard one of them expressing their frustration behind the bar, saying, “I’m this close to just walking out. It’s like this every Sunday, actually no, every day and I have had enough. She needs to hire some more staff because I can’t go on like this!”

The state of the restaurant itself was equally concerning. Every empty table was cluttered with dirty plates and glasses, and the till area was stacked with dirty plates and food waste. The lack of staff to manage the size of the establishment was glaringly obvious.

To top it all off, the toilets were filthy, and the female bathroom had no toilet paper—an unacceptable oversight.

Overall, this was a very poor dining experience, and I would not recommend The Lydiard Beefeater to anyone. The issues we encountered—long wait times, missing ingredients, dirty facilities, and clearly overworked staff—point to a larger problem with the management and operation of this...