The Ridley Arms — Restaurant in England

We have just started being a regular visitor to this pub, eating out there two to three times a week. Until our last visit the food has always been fresh, hot & nicely presented, that was until our last visit. I must say before I continue that the regular manager, a little fat guy with glasses & no customer repertoire was standing in as relief during our visit time. Before retiring I was in catering for many years but if anyone working for me showed the attitude that this guy did he would be long down the road, P45 in his rear pocket. My wife & I placed our order & from my experience of beautifully cooked, fresh Cod, again I made this my choice as a main course. The food arrived & I must say that although my wife passed her Curry as good my fish was a disaster. Overcooked to the point of being dry, soggy batter as though it had been cooked in fat or oil that had not reached it's temperature & just slapped on the plate. I did not make a formal complaint as the Relief was in the adjacent bar at the top end, deep in conversation with another customer but I did state to the guy behind the bar that the food was no way in the same class as experienced previously. Returning to our seat to finish our drinks & after a short wait a little fat guy who stated that he was manager appeared with the statement "OK, what's the complaint then". I civilly explained to the guy that it was not a formal complaint but merely a comment that the food was no way in the class that we had previously experienced. The man went off it, in a way that led to quite an audience & remarks from a number of customers in the vicinity what they would of inflicted on his person had it been them. This was a perfect example where a minor situation blew into a major conflict by a totally inexperienced manager. The food, without even mentioning it I was told that I should of complained earlier & he would of changed it, now it was too late & if it was compensation I was looking for I would have to go to the Head Office. I did not even mention compensation but had he wished I would of gone further than his Head Office, direct to Mr David Hogan, who was a customer of mine many years ago. In fact David Hogan's Father was a customer when their office was upstairs above the Cafe Royale & Ted was the accountant. I do not like threats like he was giving. I travel quite a distance to visit this establishment but rest assured I will not be back until I am certain that the regular Manager is installed in his position after his holiday's. A disaster through...

We have been here many times before and this time we booked to come on Easter Sunday for a family lunch. There were six of us. We arrived and found our table wasn't ready. The manager pushed two tables together in front of us and asked us to sit down. There was no one else sitting in that particular area (by the bar) but there were tables available around the corner, in the the main restaurant area, where all the other customers were sitting. We could hear all the other people talking around the corner and sitting where we were wasn't a great atmosphere (we felt a bit isolated and stranded). If there had been other people sitting by the bar then we may well have stayed there but at the time everyone else was round the corner and we wanted to be part of the atmosphere. We asked politely if we could move to one of those tables as we had made a reservation and were told that if we had rung up to book we could have asked for one of those tables but because we had booked online we were being given this one. There was no reserved sign on the table we were being given but there were on the other tables in the main area. To be honest we felt a bit of an afterthought. After lots of very mixed messages from the manager as to why we couldn’t have the other tables, it was all because we had booked online apparently, he eventually relented and let us have a booth table where we then enjoyed our delicious meals and were treated to first class service by the staff who couldn’t have been more helpful. It was just a shame that our arrival was so chaotic and there wasn’t a clear explanation given as to why booking online somehow disqualifies you from certain tables as oppose to others. It would be helpful if someone could explain how the allocation of tables works as this was very confusing. This wouldn’t be enough to put us off coming again as the food and service from serving staff was excellent but perhaps the manager could have a clearer idea of explaining the table allocation procedure as he seemed very unsure of it himself. We were discussing what could have been happening and did wonder if the table was being held for someone the manager knew but that is only speculation and would be very unfair if true. We didn’t speak to the manager again during our visit and departure (I don’t think he was very happy with us) but we cannot fault the staff who served us and the delicious food we ate....

Lets start by saying this place used to be excelent - it used to be. So we decided to try The Ridley Arms again - it has been a little while. Booked up for the restaurant and on arrival were given a table next to the bar - not a great start, particularly when the bar staff kept throwing empty bottles into a bin from distance causing a ridiculous amount of noise.

Mains food was tasty to be honest but there was definitely a lot less if it. My mum's pork Sunday dinner was cold and the roast potatoes had definitely dried out making them impossible to cut without a steak knife. If you order chips - please note they come in a tiny basket and you wont get fat eating this amount of food.

I asked for more drinks but we had finished our dinner before these eventually turned up. yet the shandy was horrendous and made with soda water. I was given an apology to say the lemonade had run out and that these things happen - agreed but it isn't rocket science.

Decided to speak to the manager at this point who has promised to seasonally adjust the bill, but perhaps by this stage it is too late. The people at the next table completely agree that their meal was cold but didn't like to complain as they were hungry. They absolutely agreed with the horrendous level of noise coming from smashing bottles at the bar. The other people at the next table got up and left to go elsewhere.

I felt they seemed to be trying to please by stating the apple crumble plates were hot - yet that was not the case at all. I refused to eat the apple crumble that was freezer cold with a strong taste of TCP anticeptic. Apple crumble is not difficult but pre-making it in dishes and warming them up

Yes, the managers were very apologetic but this is the reputation as it stands. Two stars because of the polite managers despite bottles continuing to be thrown.

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