The Old Moat House — Restaurant in England

Take no notice of the pictures on their web site this is not representive the actual place itself. At first glance on the webiste it looks like a quaint well kept almost immaculate thatched village country pub....THAT.... it is not ! The Old Moat House is situated in the middle of a housing estate where there are old matresses (not just one, but several) laying around on the streets with rubbish strewn everywhere. On arrivel the pub frontage was surrounded with building site style metal harris fencing, directing you to a side footpath to the entrance, as the maion path to the door is closed off. You walk over a foot bridge crossing a river that is part of the pub site. Lying in the actual river itself in ful view is an old beer barrel with other large bits of rubbish, as well as piles of rubbish lying around the car park area. Not a very pleasant sight to see on arrival other than a very tired, worn out looking building and very untidy surroundings that resemble a fly tip/rubbish dump. My wife was apprihensive as we got there wondering what sort of a place we had arrived at, but as seen as we had driven for 20 miles on the premise of their webiste and the web site photos we would give it a go. The pub inside is tired and very dated however the staff are pleasant & friendly enough. But the Sunday afternoon carvery was a big dissapoitment as they had run out of roast potatoes at the most crucial time of day and the most crucial day of the week (Sunday 5.30pm) We had been told they would take 25 minutes but when we asked realistically how long we where then told around 30/45, which really means 1 hour+. I decided to take a look at the carvery serving area to see if that could persuade me to wait, but it actually looked like a bomb had gone off. Chunks of discarded meat lying all over the carving area, the veg pots were all as good as empty, and the gravy dishes half to near empty had dried up slops of gravy spilling all over them. I know people serve themselfs at these places and can make a mess but it doesnt hurt to keep one memeber of kitchen staff on housekkeping duties of the serving area to keep it tidy for the next lot of people coming in to eat. there just wasnt any sense of pride in the place, and especially the food serving area where that should be important maintaining a level of tidyness and cleanliness. Despite our table booking for 5.30-6.30pm as you are given an hour slot with online bookings, and having a person with us with severe learning disabilities that relies on a daily routine/schedule we had to decline the table booking and leave to try and find another place to eat, which thank fully we did. (The Market Cross Dunstable 5*) I cannot comment on the standard of the food as we didnt get to taste it, and I very much doubt we will ever return. The only good thing that did come of our wasted journey to this establishment that we got to find an alternative & decent place to eat we hadnt...

This was our first time coming here. Firstly, walked through the door and saw no staff whatsover. No signage telling you where to go to wait to be seated at the table we booked either, we had to find that ourselves. The waitress who eventually greeted us was ok, until she randomly disappeared without saying a word before leading us to our table. Came back a few mins later with no apology, then led us there.

We sat down, decided on two regular carveries and 1 child's carvery (this took all of 2 minutes for us to decide). With the time it took to wait in line to order, then stood at the carvery bar waiting to actually be noticed by somebody and be served our meals, it had been a full hour. Nobody warned us when booking the table or ordering our food that there would be a wait.

Even when I went and stood at the carvery bar, it was a full 5-10 mins before a chef/carver even looked at me. Another 5-10 mins later he then asked what size meal I'd ordered, and what meat I would like, but didn't actually start to plate it up for me. So I stood there for an even longer amount of time, wondering what on earth was going on. There were a couple of Just Eat drivers there waiting, too, and they were impatient as they had been kept waiting for a long time as well. A waitress then comes over and asks how much longer the wait would be, as she had a table that had been waiting over an hour for their food and they were complaining. He told her an hour longer. Neither of them acknowledged me during this interaction to apologise for the wait or ask me to come back in a bit, despite the fact the waitress was stood right next to me. So I stood there awkwardly for a minute before asking him, "should I just leave, then?", and he agreed and told me to come back in 5-10 mins. At least he apologised for it then, but it still didn't excuse the fact that he kept me there for ages and made me believe he would serve me soon, instead of being honest and asking me to go back and wait a while when I first came up to the serving area.

Once we finally managed to get our food, it was just okay. I was given the tiniest bit of gravy from what was left in the bottom of the pot, so the stuffing and turkey were dry af, and lukewarm.

To make matters worse, the entire time we were there we witnessed absolutely no cleaning being done. The toilets were disgustingly dirty, too. We chose to hold it until we got home. You would think that during a global pandemic, they would at least clean SOMETHING. Even our table- which seemed clean- was sticky. The sofa/bench also had large holes in the apholstery. I didn't want to touch a single thing in that restaurant.

We left as soon as we finished eating, not bothering to order the desserts we had been planning on getting. There were no further words of apology or graditude from staff. Not even a smile. Will never be eating there again. Guess we should have expected this from a...

This pub what an amazing venue the look of the place is so nice and rustic.

Now for why it's a 2 star ordered 4 carverys a sharing combo and a pasta dish with mash potatoes.

Now on the menu it's says with the ultimate combo wash down with a cold beer sounds lovely . Once the food was ordered I was asked would I like a drink I wanted to change the cold beer for a Guiness to then get a look from the barmaid of almost disgust to think that my meal would cone with a drink again wash down with beer the only thing I seen on the menu that had this what she said was a suggestion but no other suggestions on the menu. Got the Guinness was the best part of the meal.

The meat from the carvery was dry, tough and full of grizzle the mash was lumpy and by most not able to be eaten.

Orderd a Pepsi that was so sugary when i went to ask for another drink was given a look as much as how dare i.

When my ultimate combo did cone is was missing the nachos with was then added the girl serving at the tables was very accommodating with the food.as it turned out I got a toothache and was unable to eat so bought it hone with with me to only discover today that 2 of the chicken wings still had feathers on them (not to appetising.)

Before leaving bought a drink and another Guinness as it was so good maybe the best I have tasted out side of ireland so there's a positive and the reason for 1 of the stars the lady at the bar rang up my drinks and said £9 something not sure but it didn't come up on the machine fie me to rap my card when she came back from getting my Guinness I told her this so she rang it up again and this time it came up to £11.15 didn't even question it as had enough by this point. Also heard the first var msid talking about some obe was complaining the Pepsi was to sweet obviously aimed at me not great customer service. Maybe this needs working on.

Over all the building is amazing improvement on the food needed and 100% with the staff this place has so much potential it's a same it is the way it was when I visited.

Looking forward to...