The Prince — Restaurant in England

It saddens me to post this but I feel, on principle, compelled to write a review about the way musicians are treated there. I performed there a few weeks ago and when asked how long we should play for ? The staff member I was talking to replied and said a couple of hours was fine - We played approx 2x 1 hour sets with a 15 min break in the middle. I should add that the contract said 2 hours 30 mins ( with a break in middle ) but these things are always open to flexibility on the day depending how busy it is with customers - sometimes u play a bit longer , sometimes slightly less. On this day we finished playing when the place was virtually empty. We would have gladly played longer had we been asked but we weren’t as it would have been to an empty room. So we packed up and as we were about to leave a staff member who I hadn’t been dealing with complained that we hadn’t played for 3 hours ? I said that it was only meant to be 2 hours 30 mins and that if we had been asked to play longer ,before we had packed up , we would have gladly done so. As a musician playing longer is a joy not a chore ! We were meant to be paid £150 and were deducted £30 for playing s shorter set- even though the staff had said 2 hours was fine. I complained to the agent who agreed that they had never heard of a complaint so ridiculous as a slightly shorter set length but were unable to intervene as the contract had proved we were 15 mins short . They had no complaint about our performance or behaviour. In truth they said at the beginning that 2 hours was fine and then another staff member had said 3 hours ?? ( poor communication) and so as a result, deducted our fee ( which was significantly less than industry standard for a duo anyway ). In my opinion they are cheap, disingenuous and simply looking to shave off a few shekels here and there. If they are prepared to be like that with the musicians it would stand to reason that this attitude would persist through other areas of running the place...

I've been to the Prince many times over the years, it must have changed hands at least four times during. This is the first time I have been there since the "new" owners. My friend and I both ordered the big breakfast. 30mins later plus another 5 after enquiring they finally turned up. We quickly noticed that neither breakfast had the two eggs each that they were supposed to. The young lad that brought the plates tried to say that this breakfast didn't come with eggs. After showing him the menu he said he would go and get them. By the time they arrived we had almost finished. At this point my counterpart noticed that there was also no blackpudding. This wasn't an issue for myself but for him it was an important part of the dish. The server did respond and go to the kitchen to see if we could have the single portion but returned with this response. "We don't have black pudding because people don't like it so we gave you another hashbrown". I know this is a pub and perfect food is not why someone goes or has ever gone to the Prince. But this is a first for me at any eating establishment. Cooks should know what they are cooking and the menu should be accurate. I think therefore the owners should know of our rather surreal experience today. English Breakfast without eggs, I mean really. The new outside area...

Beyond Disappointed.

Upon arriving dead on time for our booking we were asked to wait. They confirmed my name was on the booking list however no table was to be found. 2 waiters scrambled around to find us a table.

Roughly 10 minutes later we were told we could come to our table. Having to squeeze past another table we were shoved into a corned table that was approximately 1m away from another table.

Ordered drinks through the app, very little choice but no problem.

Ordered food from the app, again little choice - hoping for no problem. 15 minutes pass and a waiter comes to tell us that there is an issue with our order as they have run out of cheese so we cannot have the pizza we have ordered. Disappointed we change our option. Another 15 minutes pass the waiter returns to tell us there is another “slight hiccup” with the order as the other meal we ordered is not available and we need to change again from 1 pie to a different pie.

After waiting an hour finally our 2 alternative dishes arrive and they were below average.

Not impressed with the food, menu options availability, handling of the situation and the cramped environment in these times especially.

I am well aware that these are difficult unprecedented times but this is no where near even...