The Norton Arms — Restaurant in England

Surprised by the many good reviews this place has. Unfortunately, our experience didn’t live up to this. This was our first outing since pubs/restaurants reopened for outdoor serving, the weather was nice so I was looking forward to an overdue cider and the ‘street food’ they offered on their menu. This was spoiled by rude staff members and management. I’m well aware this isn’t a five star restaurant so I haven’t treated it as such. As it was the second weekend of pubs/restaurants reopening, everywhere was busy and fully booked & this was a last ditch effort. I booked over the telephone & when we arrived we walked through to the beer garden via the back believing this was the right thing to do & stood at the entrance of the beer garden waiting for someone to serve us. Nobody did so I stopped a young man & advised him that we had a table booked. He asked me for my name & went inside to check. He came back out to advise us that we needed to walk back to the front of the pub as we are meant to walk through the inside of the pub to check in first. My mum apologised and advised him that we didn’t realise we had to do this. He replied with a snarky response & said ‘there’s a big sign at the front that says please wait here’. You could look at that and mistake it for a comment made in good gesture, it wasn’t, it was said in a mocking tone. As we got to the front of the pub, there was a sign at the bottom of the steps but it did not say ‘Please wait here to be served’, instead, it was promoting food but nevertheless, even if the sign had said ‘please wait here’, people make mistakes and snarky remarks like this are uncalled for and completely unnecessary. As we got to the front of the queue, we were greeted by a lady host who I assume is management. She asked me to scan track and trace with my phone. As I went to do this, she asked me if I had the NHS app, I advised her I didn’t and what I’ve done previously is scan the code which brings up a website and I insert my details into said website. She then went on to tell me that I needed the NHS app (unsure why this is, or if rules have changed at all pubs/restaurants since reopening). This wasn’t a problem but she then made a snarky remark & said ‘this is why I told you over the phone when booking that you needed the NHS app’. Firstly, I’m not aware who I spoke to over the phone but I was not told this on booking and secondly, if I had been advised of this, I would have downloaded the app prior to the visit. It seems an odd thing to say to a customer when I assume the pub deals with lots of customers each day & is unlikely to remember the specifics of each conversation. The host then went on to ask my mum if she had the app, my mum does not. The host then asked my mum if she had a smartphone and could download it. My mum advised she hadn’t and politely asked the host if she could take her name and number instead as this is what she has done previously at other pubs/restaurants. As the host aggressively grabbed her clipboard, huffed & puffed to write on the paper attached she responded with another snarky remark ‘Well, we’ve been trying to avoid doing this as all we do everyday is write names and numbers down’. I’d just like to point out that this is part of your job, if an elderly couple walked in who were computer illiterate, would you treat them with the same disdain? Within 10-20 minutes of arriving, we had received three snarky remarks from two staff members - these were all unprovoked, rude and completely uncalled for. The two stars given are for the two young lady’s who served us who were smiley, helpful and polite and for the food which tasted good. I don’t enjoy leaving bad reviews and would prefer not to, I’ve worked in hospitality and retail for many years & there are better ways to approach a conversation without coming across snarky or rude. It’s a shame as the beer garden is a nice spot and I would have loved to have come back here but when you’ve been looking forward to something and it gets spoiled by rude staff members then that’s enough to put you off...

Walked up to the Pub yesterday with my wife after work. Long week!@ Been going to this pub for well over 30 years. Has always been a good pub for food and drink. We've always been within walking distance. So we got seated I went to.the bar. I was asked "if we were eating"?. I said " yes we would be". So a Tab was opened. We sat and then asked if we were ready to order after about 5mins. We said no not just yet we would have a few drinks first then when we were ready to order we would order another bar. This was agreed. "No problem when your ready". So maybe 30 mins or so later. My wife went to the bar and ordered the food and drinks. Food arrived 20 or so minutes later. Great Food!. We finished the food got some more drinks and continued to enjoy the afternoon. 10mins or so after the plates were collected, we were asked how long we would be with the Table as it was booked for 6:30pm. It was only about 4:40pm. We said we would be easily gone by then. We were walking back home. So we continued to relax etc. It was a nice say after all. Then the same person came back after 15mins and said we would need to be away from the table sooner and asked again how long we would be. So this just wasn't right!! We had an open Tab we were drinking, the Pub wasn't that busy that people were queuing for tables. So rather than get continually badgered on how long we long were going to be?, we moved to the bar area to try to continue with our afternoon. Then because we moved we asked to pay the bill to close the Tab!!. Wow. So in essence we weren't wanted there!! as we had the food and drinks and payed. When I asked why were basically badgered to move? We were then told that you can only have a table for between 1.5 to 2 hrs. Never known this for all the years we have been going there. If we were told this when we sat down we would have known. It's not on any notices or on the menus to say this. Or is this a new thing in the Norton??. If it is,then might be worth notifying or advertising this for the patrons. My wife has vowed never to return, don't blame her really. The Norton didn't make it a relaxing day at all. Shame really usually a Nice place. Other pubs are within walking distance that do food. Maybe it's time we take our custom there as the bill for the Norton is usually between £60-80 for us. I'm sure other pubs would...

Words can’t describe, known the pub for years, been for years but Claire has lost custom. Took my heavily pregnant due in 3 weeks partner for a meal with my dad and mother in law, only for my partner to ask for a well done steak, usual request you would think. It arrived and was pink and gristle. I mentioned this and brought it up, the girl on shift was great and handled it well but as for any rectifying it was null. They took 5 pounds off the bill, off a meal that could have harmed my partner due to pregnant women being unable to have raw meat. Not only that the duty manager was also the chef who was also hiding out in the kitchen who had not bothered to come out and talk to us rather her of his staff take the brunt of the situation. All in all they hate giving money back but love taking it in, management shambles. Won’t...