The Pear At Parley — Restaurant in England

This place really cannot manage large table bookings. We booked for a table of 26 for a Saturday evening in April for a joint 30th and 50th. The lady I was dealing with advised in the phone we needed to supply menu choices a month in advance, I clarified she meant a month & she confirmed a month. I thought this was quite far in advance but did as was requested. When I called with a query it was an absolute nightmare to find our booking. The same person then told me I had sent the choices to early & I need to give a weeks notice. I was then told menus are changing & is picked the wrong menu (I hadn’t. I also hadn’t got the month/week wrong as I checked our internal cctv and our conversation was there). After lots of blaming me, she eventually accepted that it was probably due to her language barrier. Every time I had cause to speak to her it was a challenge. On the phone call she kept saying our booking was Sunday & given all the previous pains, I was really nervous we’d even have a table to sit down at! Anyway, we arrived earlier than 5:30 as we advised we’d like to decorate. Our tables weren’t set out yet, which was fine, we just decorated around them. The staff in the sun restaurant were lovely but the lady who dealt with our booking I felt was very rude & not welcoming in the slightest. In fact, she made us feel like we were a huge inconvenience. I sensed there wasn’t a lot of cohesion with her and the rest of the team. Our starters came out and midway through eating mine I was interrupted to ask if I could double check the menu choices. I then got the impression the original lady hadn’t been great at communicating with the kitchen. By the time we’d gone through choices my starter was cold. I also requested one garlic bread to share between two kids & two cheesy garlic breads. 3 normal garlic breads came out. The mains did all come out fine (thankfully) but all the additional sides were missing so there was a wait for those. The desserts were just plonked anywhere & at this point any feelings I had of not being welcome here had been cemented. It was like no one could be asked with us anymore. We also had no staff come back to check how puddings were so I couldn’t advise we’d been sent out an extra cheeseboard (their error).

I was also told I’d need to supply paper plates for the birthday cake which was no issue but then they brought out plates & these were pretty grim & I had to clean them before use.

When it came to pay and I highlighted to the main lady that we’d been charged for additional garlic breads and cheeseboards she would not accept she was wrong. Argued the toss over everything (which I experienced throughout this process) & she made the whole experience quite draining. We obviously didn’t pay for stuff we didn’t order but it was like climbing a mountain to get it taken off the bill.

The whole experience felt very disorganised and chaotic. I don’t think a single person wished any of the birthday girls happy birthday either, just adding to the pretty rubbish service we received.

I have put the poor experience down to them having a really busy Saturday and we were just unlucky.

The guy who came and checked our orders was fabulous, great service and attitude and really apologetic. But the woman, who I think is manager, absolutely awful. I’ve had better service from McDonald’s than from her. I’ve also attached an email reply from her, you can get the gist of what she’s saying but it is a good example of how unclear her communication was through the whole process and I just guessed a lot of it.

Really bad experience for what was a really lovely occasion. Would not advise anyone to book here for a...

Took mum to The Pear for lunch for her 72nd birthday on Monday. We were really looking forward to is as the last time we went (before the rebrand) was superb, plus it is dog friendly.

Firstly I'll mention the reasons why I'm giving it only 4*: On calling to book a table and check it was dog friendly (recent Google & Trip advisor reviews say it isn't), I was told "all the dog friendly tables are booked, you can take dogs in the garden though as long as they remain on the lead." I thought this was a bit strange, surely a dog friendly place is dog friendly throughout? It's kind of like saying "we have a special area for fat people"?! It took an hour for our food to arrive. Two baguettes shouldn't take an hour to sort, not should it take the customer to go and ask what's happening, so slightly disappointing. The food came within minutes of asking. The staff were very apologetic though. We sat on a table in the new Pizza Garden with a large parasol as mum wanted the shade. Lovely spot, overlooking the extensive, well maintained and beautiful grounds - it really is an idealistic setting on a nice day - when suddenly a gust of breeze came and our parasol took off vertically, about 30ft in the air, flipped, and came crashing down about 6ft away! I got up and managed to get it back through our table and into the heavy base for it only to find the retaining nut was never done up. As trivial as this may seem, this was extremely dangerous: what would've happened it it came down on a small child? A simple (and health and safety) fix is to make sure these parasol have the retaining nut done up securely on the base.

Onto the positives: This place is stunning! From the long private drive in, flanked by lots of beautiful old pine trees, to the interior which is vast and beautifully decorated, to the large and wonderful grounds and surrounding setting, this place really is a little beauty! The food is good, fresh, well prepared and well presented. Good, not excellent. Expected for the price, which is affordable as opposed to overpriced. The staff are friendly, welcoming and pleasant.

The Pear is worth a visit, although (due to this experience) I will give it one more try to see if there is an improvement on food delivery times before I decide if it is worth going back to again. If they get the food sorted, it is a...

This was my first time visiting The Pear at Parley, and it will likely be my last. I went on the afternoon of Saturday, 21 June 2025, with three friends after a day at the beach.

From the outset, the experience was disappointing. The first staff member who greeted us was noticeably cold and unwelcoming. We were told there would be a 15-minute wait for a table, which then changed to 20 minutes after we’d already waited 10. That in itself wasn’t an issue—we were happy to sit outside with drinks and were told the delay was due to how busy the kitchen was.

After about 50 minutes, we decided to place our food orders, hoping to give the kitchen extra time. However, the staff member taking our order made us feel like a burden. Her tone was abrupt, especially when one of my friends couldn’t immediately recall our table number. She responded harshly with, “I need a number,” prompting my friend to run outside to confirm. The whole interaction felt uncomfortable, as though we were in the wrong for simply ordering food.

When the food eventually arrived, we all agreed it was delicious, though the portion sizes could have been more generous.

After our meal, we decided to order dessert. One of my friends also wanted to order a plate of croquettes from the starters menu. This time, a different staff member served us—she was warm and friendly, which was a welcome change.

Unfortunately, after paying, my friend was informed they had run out of croquettes and was refunded. Minutes later, croquettes were brought to our table, only for the staff to realise they'd already processed a refund. They removed the plate and gave it to another table—even though we’d been served first. Oddly, the other table had ordered the same item after us. I won’t speculate on why their order was prioritised, but it left a very sour taste, especially knowing the food had been sat on our table and was then served to someone else.

Being aware of the overall treatment, as we were leaving, there were no parting pleasantries and we were completely ignored.

Furthermore, my friend raised this in a separate email directly to the restaurant however she was met with a complete dismissal of her experience and the most tone deaf, generic response "hoping to see us agian".

We came to this place on a whim, but I don’t plan...