The Old Granary — Restaurant in England

My husband booked a table at The Old Granary for our pearl wedding anniversary on July 29th. Upon our arrival no table had been reserved for us. It took several minutes for a table to be located and cleared before we could actually sit down. We then settled ourselves down and decided what we would like to eat. Nobody came to ask us, so we decided to take a photograph to mark the event. This photograph was time stamped at 19.06. It wasn’t until sometime after this that another server came and asked us if we would like to order a drink. As we were quite hungry by then, we ordered our main courses at the same time. The drinks arrived but there was a long wait for the food. It was after 7.30 when we were served. I enjoyed my lamb dish. My husband said his steak was tough in places. We then had another long wait for our plates to be cleared away. The server who came to clear our main course was friendly and pleasant and she asked us if we would like to order desserts. As it was a special occasion, we said yes so she brought some menus over to us. We then had another long wait for our orders to be taken. I opted for one of the cheesecakes and my husband the cherry pie. Both of us enjoyed the desserts we had chosen but when we were finished there was another long wait before a server came to ask if we needed anything else. During this time, my husband went off to the gents . It was whilst he was away that the same pleasant young lady came and asked if we would like a coffee. I asked her to come back when my husband had returned to the table, Well, my husband returned and we waited, and waited and….waited. A couple who had been dining out on the terrace came in and were served coffees. We saw our server and others who had served us through the meal on a number of occasions. Most of the time, they appeared to be busy clearing other tables and setting them again for the next occupants, which was rather galling because we were still waiting and feeling more and more that we were being deliberately ignored. We could even see one of them emptying the coffee machine at one point and she then went on for a long chat with one of her colleagues behind the bar, so we then knew that there was no prospect at all of us being served the coffee we would have liked. We then decided that we would just ask for the bill. Several different servers walked past our table but getting the attention of any one of them was trying our patience to say the least. When we did eventually get noticed, the server was extremely off hand in her comment, “Is something wrong”? We politely asked for our bill. We couldn’t believe when it came that an “optional”10% service charge had been added. “Optional “ but had been added anyway. We were so disappointed at the lack of service, we deducted the charge from the total because we weren’t prepared to pay one penny of it. Then we waited again for our payment to be collected but we might as well have been on the Marie Celeste for the lack of any one taking any interest in providing any service so we went to the bar to make the payment. He asked for the total written on the bill but when we said we weren’t prepared to include the extra 10% he made no effort to ask us why. We had hoped our experience at The Old Granary would be a pleasant one to mark our special wedding anniversary but unfortunately, it was anything...

Firstly, I'd like to preface that the food and personal service by the waiter was superb.

However, I have a specific issue with my experience at the granary. I booked at table for Valentines day at the Granary for me and my partner. I booked it psefically for the Valentines menu they had on their website, which was 2 courses for £27 per person. It was for items that are already on the menu. This was pre-booked a week or two in advance, and I mentioned in the note for our booking that this would be FOR valentines.

After arriving and sitting down and having the waiter come over to us, we mentioned that we'd like the Valentines menu with the items we wanted and we were told that they were not doing the Valentines menu, despite it being Valentines. We were told that they realised that the prices of some of the Valentines menu would actually end up being cheaper for us if we were to purchase them outside of the menu, which when we checked, was not really the truth. Especially not the items we originally wanted. At this point, I had booked a meal for me and my partner as a surprise, and driven over 45 minutes to reach this restaurant for a specific menu. A menu that was still on their website at that point at time, might I add. I could have left to try and find another restaurant, however doing that would ruin the whole atmospher of the day for us, as I would have to search for somewhere else that'd suit the meal I wanted to take her for. I wasn't in a situation to easily say "No thank you" and just leave.

Now it is within a restaurants rights to change their menu, or events when and how they want to. However, I do find it disengenuous of a restaurant to do that, and keep the event menu up on their website and also, not update any of the customers who had booked for that day, that the menu would not be featured. Considering they knew people would turn up to it with everything pre-booked and then have things change on them.

In the end, the meals originally planned to have, would have cost us £27 via the Valentines 2 course meal promotional. (I am excluding any items off of the Valentines menu that were ordered extra, as I do not expect the restaurant to make changes to the cost for that), however without the promotional, they would have come to £15 more.

It's not something that will break the bank, especially for a nice lunch, especially that was well crafted. But the whole situation left a sour taste in my mouth and I expect more from an establishment like this, which is why I'm giving a low score.

My recommendation is if you are going for an event, is to make sure you call on the day and check if the event is off. However, if you plan to eat on the main menu, then the food was lovely and the general service despite the...

Our experience at the Old Granary left us with mixed emotions and sadly we won't return. this was our third lunch here and we were excited to bring a good friend with us.

We are not local to the area and had not vistied on a Saturday before. On our arrival we were surprised to find that the parking area was filled with a market and we had no idea where we could park. We pulled over and our guest popped in to enquire as to where we could find parking. He was met by a frosty unhelpful lady who shrugged and said she didn't know, and by her attitutude she didn't care either. Fortunately when stopping the gentleman also assiting at front of house, some directions to parking were proferred. The first impression for our guest though was not what we had hoped for.

Our table was in a loud and busy area, which would have made it impossible for conversation, something to note when making your booking. Fortunately, and a plus on the service experience, we were able to be seated in a quieter area. The Old Granary is an attractively detailed pub and we liked the decor.

Issey, our server was fabulous. Great smile, engaging and she rescued the lunch on the whole. Food wise, we had the Larder sharing platter which was well presented and tasty, classic fish and chips, the chicken and bacon pie, and the sirloin. The sirloin was not the best and quite pricey even for steak, and was a bit of a disappointment.

After a rainy day the sun evetually broke through the clouds and we wanted to take advantage of the deck area alongside the river for a drink and dessert. As requested duly settled our account and headed outside with our drinks, I popped inside for a menu to be told by front of house that because of the weather no food was being served outside, not even dessert. This was in case the rain returned and we needed to come inside and tables were not available. It was late afternoon, between sittings with many empty tables, and when settling our lunch bill I had stated we wanted to have dessert outside and was told that this would not be a problem. We were a table of 3 an our bill was about £50per person... Overall not very hospitable, and not what we expected from our previous lunches a disappointing end to...