The Manor — Restaurant in England

We went for a family lunch on Sunday afternoon and I actually felt sorry for the place if that's possible! It's grubby. The carpet is done for and by all accounts the ladies toilets were grim too. Thankfully I didn't visit the gents as they're normally worse. The disabled toilet door (opposite our table) was open and I wouldn't be pleased if I had to use it. Again, it just looked like it had never had a deep clean. Our table hadn't been wiped and didn't get wiped before we got our food so first impressions were poor.

The bar staff (singular when we turned up) was not on the ball. Bearing in mind it was a sunny Sunday in the summer holidays in a holiday town near to a holiday complex, you'd expect there to be sufficient and experienced staff on. For whatever reason he could only serve one drink at a time, when people are ordering for a family then this gets pretty tedious. Eventually back up arrived but unfortunately urgency didn't. Effective drinks delivery time doubled to two drinks per minute. Nice lads I'm sure but even though concentrating hard they may be able to smile and reassure waiting customers that they'll be with them soon(ish). The wait put us off buying more drinks.

It took over an hour from ordering to get our food. By this time we had a narky table! I understand that sometimes orders slip, I used to work in a restaurant, but unfortunately there were loads of narky tables! There was a party by the door with quite a few kids and by the time we left they looked thoroughly miserable, heads being held in hands, very long faces, very tested parents! The play area isn't enough to keep any kid amused for long, my lad is four and he got bored with it very quickly. The best bit of it seemed to be the exposed root just inside the gate which acted like a trip wire! The kids loved that!

Consensus on the food was that it was a bit poor. The portion of chips you get with your meal is pretty feeble and they seemed a bit tired and cold like they may have been there a while. I had to get an extra portion and I'm not a big eater. Otherwise my chicken stack thing was tasty. Two of our party had the roast and they weren't impressed - undercooked stuffing, small and boring mashed potato portion and generally not hot enough. There was a fajita sizzler thing and a Mexican platter I think, both of which were ok but not hot. Maybe that's a tactic - make us wait so long that by the time we get it we'll cram any old thing into our faces just so we can get out of there!

The poor head waitress (I assume) was just fielding complaint after complaint; she looked flustered and rightly so. Simple things a customer shouldn't have to do like ask for the self-service cutlery trays to be filled up/enquire as to when their food would arrive/enquire as to where the rest of their order was seemed to be norm. Admirably she stuck up for her staff but probably having suffered a stream of gripes she may have slightly lost her cool and her responses could have been perceived as unhelpful and curt (we were close enough to hear). Hers and everyone else’s day would have been a lot better if she had a bit more help. If she wasn't the head waitress then she was the only one who was stepping up and taking the flack.

We went to the Old Manor for a meal last year and it was a similar experience. I wouldn't have chosen the place again as a result of that but I didn't book it this time. I’d like to have given a higher rating as it has got a lot of potential and could be a great place for lunch but it really misses the mark. If it wasn't for the previous experience and other reviews you could maybe put it all down to a bad day or staffing issues. However, that doesn't account for not getting the basics right like service, toilets, carpets...

Food - was good. Customer service - terrible Toilets - not the cleanest but seen a lot worse.

I bought my parents a pre-paid gift card for Sizzling Pubs for Christmas and after a couple of attempts to book at table at what seemed to be a popular venue, we managed to book a table online.

When we arrived 5 mins before our booking - the staff spent 10 mins running round trying to find our booking and a table for us, and i was asked our surname three time. Despite seeing reservations signs on other occupied tables - it seemed nothing had been done with our reservation.

We were told where to sit (not shown) and sat down and looked through the menu. Making our choices, we then went to the bar to order.

There were only two staff behind the bar and both busy. So when a member of staff came free there were three of us waiting - telling her the order we arrived - she served the first customer and then proceed to look ask again whom next again.

Once we placed the order we offered the staff member the gift card which would not swipe on the till and would not go in manually - we were offered to set up a tab - but after some explanation that we had only picked this location because we had the card and really did not want an issue with the bill - when the card was valid and i had the purchase receipt to prove it - the staff member finally managed to get the card through.

We were told that there was a 45 min wait when we first ordered the food - but with all the issue of paying we were unsure at what point this would start as it had taken a good 10-15 mins to pay.

We sat an waited for over an hour and then asked how much longer our food would be, after waiting another 5 mins we were told about another 5 10 mins. So after being seated at 1.30 we eventually ate at 2.45. By which time we were ready to eat anything we were served,

There was no apology for the delay and no one came to ask us if we were okay during the actual meal. The food was good and hot. Which was the only saving grace.

We decided not to order dessert as did not want to wait again.

We left the pub being ignored by all the staff.

I appreciate there were issue with the gift card and that we could have been seen as being award customers. However, i feel right from the moment we walked through the door - that the staff we not helpful and there was just a lack of general customer service.

I would also add i used to work behind a bar and was always taught no how busy you are to try to keep an eye on the order customers come to the bar, so you can serve the customer who had been waiting longest, if you do not manage to do this then at least apologies to the customer for having to wait. I was also taught no matter how busy you are always say good-bye and thank you to any customers leaving. No, matter how awkward the customer always be polite and thank them for their custom. You might just win them over for another visit, and they may turn out to be a loyal customer after that.

We will...

Have visited here twice in the past month. The first time was a hot summers day, when we arrived the place was not very busy with customers but an absolute mess inside and out. It got busier while we were there but staff made no effort to clear tables. The food was great but the service horrendous, very long wait at the bar. I was served the wrong drink but having already waited so long I wanted to return to my companions. Visited last night, the girls that were on the front of house were fine, they were very obviously having a bad day and were still smiling, nothing more positive to say about our visit. We were a group of 7 with 3 orders placed on the app at the same time. Our drinks took over 35 minutes to arrive despite asking twice for them. One meal arrived before any drinks. The chips were cold so she tucked in, good job because the other meals arrived over 1 hour later! We were aware there was a wait on food which wouldn't have been too bad had we had our drinks in a timely manner. When our food eventually did arrive: 2x hunters chicken - both burnt, one was inedible, the peas were dried out and the chips were essentially crisps they'd been cooked that many times. Neither had any Bbq sauce on. Scampi - chips and tartare sauce missing, peas dried out. Asked for the chips, they were brought out stone cold. Curry feast - missing the tandoori chicken skewer and the sauces but the food that was served was tasty. Tandoori chicken sizzler - missing the sauce but again, what was served was OK. Horrendous that sizzling pubs don't allow staff to turn off the just eat app under extreme circumstances - we were told after our 1.5hour wait for food that they only had one proper chef and a newbie working due to holidays and sickness but we could see just eat orders were still going out! The people that are physically sat in the pub should take priority!! If places like McDonald's etc. have the sense to turn off during high demand/extreme circumstances, why on earth can't sizzling pubs - a true reflection upon how much this company values it's staff. Targets and numbers take priority. Awful. Also poor rota planning on the pub/kitchen managers part and bang out of order on the front of house staff who undoubtedly had to deal with the fallout and still smiled! Would like to add, the duty manager was lovely, approachable and apologetic. She offered us free drinks and desserts but by this point we just wanted to get home. Refunds were given...