I don't make a habit of leaving bad reviews as every establishment has a bad day but i felt compelled to write this one to warn customers who have allergies or special dietary requirements that you should probably choose somewhere else to eat!
Our meal was a total disaster from start to finish. We were a large party, but we did submit a pre-order in advance which included providing the pub with details of two who had allergies/dietary requirements. One adult required gluten-free and the other, my 15-month old daughter, has a milk allergy.
For starters, the first of the meals didn't arrive until 1 hour after we sat down and it didn't even all come out at once, we were told that some of the roasts would come later (because there were so many of us) and the pizzas would also come out separately because they were cooked by the outside vendor. Some of the meals ended up coming out 15 mins after the rest (after others had already finished eating). Not acceptable in my opinion because surely when placing a pre-order you've got plenty of notice to make sure everything comes out on time? And to be honest, it wasn't even worth the wait - all the root veg was rock solid and crunchy, not enjoyable at all.
The worst part however was the complete ignorance by the ktichen of the allergen information. The gluten free roast, when questioned, was in fact not gluten free at all, so it had to be sent back. Prior to this, they brought out the kid's roast and said "kid's milk free roast with no yorkshire" as they put it down. BUT 5 mins after serving the kid's roast - and after my daughter had already started eating some of her potatoes - the server came out and asked if the milk-free allergy roast had cauliflower cheese on. After looking under the pile of meat and veg i discovered there was in fact cauliflower cheese hidden underneath!!! I was mortified. I'd called several days in advance of the booking and asked what items of the kid's roast contained milk, i was told "only the yorkshire" which could be removed. And it was. Their menu doesn't even list cauliflower cheese as an accompaniment to the kid's roast so i wouldn't have expected it to be on the plate, regardless of my daughter's allergy so i'm really not sure what it was doing on there. They confirmed they had the details of the allergens on their pre-order sheet and just apologised by saying "the kitchen must not have seen the comments".
Thankfully, my daughter's milk allergy is non-ige so no immediate harm would have come to her (except perhaps several days of digestive issues) but i told the server, "what if she had a severe anaphylactic reaction?!" To someone with a serious allergy, that could have been life threatening. Totally inexcusable and i'm half tempted to report further so that others with severe allergies are not put at risk. With all the recent publicity on allergies with the likes of 'Natasha's Law' etc. i'm honestly dumbfounded that establishments are still not taking allergies seriously.
The only reason i've given the extra star is because the refurbishment the pub has undergone with the outdoor play area and 'Bear Island' is fantastic and great to keep the kids entertained and the live music/entertainment is such a nice change from most other places.
But honestly, if you have any kind of allergy or special dietary requirement, please don't even bother considering The Old Thatch as the kitchen places absolutely no importance on the health and safety of...
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