The Roundhill Pub — Restaurant in England

We came on a Wednesday, which I would never do again. There are plenty of great reviews for the Sunday roast! But unfortunately this was a bit of a messy experience across the board.

The Roundhill's website shows the standard a la carte menu, various drinks menus and the Sunday roast menu, as well as a flyer for pasta night. When making our booking, we were presented with the standard a la carte dining option or the pasta option. We decided to give the pasta a miss and book for the a la carte.

When we arrived we were presented with a reduced version of the a la carte menu, especially for Wednesdays, due to the pasta menu/offer/deal. This isn't displayed anywhere on the website, which I don't think is fair or transparent. They were also lacking a lot of the larger dishes, leaving a burger option, the wrap option and small plates. The menus we were given were heavily faded on the left, making it unclear which dishes were GF and which were GFO. When we ordered from the menu, we asked about some of the GFO versions, which resulted in the person serving us having to leave three separate times to check what the GFO actually meant.

For example, the GFO for the loaded fries, removes the topping (seitan, which the person serving us wasn't aware is literally gluten). Leaving chips with sauce and gherkins, for the same price as the regular loaded version. After we'd ordered, the person serving us returned a few minutes later to inform us they usually have a cheeseburger loaded fries, which is GF, so they could do that instead, which we were super appreciative of and happy to go ahead with.

As our food came out, at least 1/3 of the dishes were cold to the point where you couldn't tell if they were meant to be served cold, or just hadn't been properly heated/kept warm. This included both versions of the cauli wings we ordered, the cheeseburger fries, and the corn, which was by far the coldest. Nobody came to ask how our food was, or check in, so I went and told the person serving us about our issue, who insisted they were hot when they came out the pass, however the fact remains that these items were cold when they were put on our table, which was disappointing.

We were told the pasta night was a new direction for them, but the whole evening felt very unorganised, overly complicated and disappointing. What's more we saw roasts being served and when we asked a staff member about this, they mentioned they can be booked in advance, however on the website the roasts are listed as Sunday roasts, which made us think they were only served on Sundays and require booking in advance, again, this could be us misunderstanding but it doesn't clearly state they are available any day as long as you pre-book. Also when booking the table, as mentioned above, we were only presented with two options; a la carte or pasta.

We were kindly treated to not having to pay for some of the cold items, but the whole experience felt confusing and disappointing. I appreciate this may be a new direction for them, but it felt like it hadn't been trialled much or given...

Booked a reservation for Sunday roast. Our first time in and we were very excited as we live right down the street and my friend is vegan. Had the potential to become a local for us. When we got there and were shown to our table, one seat was in very direct early day sunlight. My friend couldn’t see anything from her seat. As the place wasn’t particularly busy, I asked the man behind the bar if we could move to one of the other three free tables for two. He very coldly told me that this wouldn’t be possible as they were reserved. I explained that we also had a reservation but the direct sun in our eyes at our table made it so that we couldn’t even read the menu. He told me that each table was specifically allocated depending on the party size so it would be impossible to move us. As someone who has worked in the service industry for over a decade (and probably anyone who hasn’t) this was very confusing to me as there were multiple free tables set specifically for two which were not in places where they could be added to form larger tables for larger parties. These were stand-alone, high-top tables and individual round tables set for two. I tried to explain why this was confusing for us, as it seemed fairly simple to just swap us with another table, and his response was inappropriate. He essentially told us off, began mumbling under his breath (when I asked what he said he replied “don’t worry about it”), and acted as though we had massively inconvenienced him. He talked to us as though we were beneath him and not worth him time. I’ve never experienced customer service so outwardly demeaning and uncomfortable. Witnessing my discomfort, another member of staff came over and very quickly and easily told us that it was no problem for us to swap to another table where the sun was not so intense. This server then proceeded to serve us and was very kind. It’s a shame that this initial interaction was so uncomfortable and rude that we considered leaving before even trying their delicious food. There was an issue with the ticket for our dessert being lost, but we were in no rush and our lovely server comped it for us for the trouble. He really was a saving grace. I really hate to say this, but management and ownership should know how this staff member, with dark hair a shirt with a bunch of moons on the back, makes customers feel unwelcome and uncomfortable. I would love to come back for another delicious meal and great service from the gentleman who ended up serving us, but if I see that particular staff member in, unfortunately I will go...

We have eaten here a number of times over the years and have previously considered it amongst the best in Brighton, but unfortunately based on our most recent visit it does seem to be going somewhat downhill. Looks-wise it used to have a really eclectic and interesting feel, as well as being bright and airy. It's been decorated since we last went in, and of course this is just personal opinion, what I feel is a much less cool and quite oppressive style. Sadly the finish is also a bit lacklustre... meaning that ironically the whole place feels more boring and tired than it did before. We visited for the Sunday lunch and left feeling quite down to have spent so much on something that we felt was pretty standard and that we could have probably made better at home. The seitan was honestly unpleasant. The mushroom Wellington was better, but did not feel resturant quality. It tasted like a nice frozen veggie meal from the supermarket. The best bit of the whole meal was the broccoli. The roasties were nice too. The rest of the veg was just ok. You used to get kale or chard and now its pretty flavourless garden peas instead. We usually always order the famous sticky toffee pudding to follow but were so disappointed by our main and were worried it would follow suit that we didnt want to sink more money in the experience. Hopefully it was just an off day but my worry is that costs are attempting to be cut whilst keeping the high prices in the hopes nobody will notice and if that is the case I want to beg... please don't- it is noticeable. Going out to eat is a treat for most people and it feels really sad to leave disappointed, especially when going somewhere you used to think was a such a safe bet. We were clearly a bit disappointed on leaving and I tried to ask if there had been some kind of change in management or something but the person serving us didn't seem very interested, which is fair enough, but means unfortunately we didn't feel invited to give our feedback in person, which I personally would have preferred. Please get back to being the stars you...