The Secret Garden - Pooley Bridge — Restaurant in England

We booked an Indoor table however we tried to call to see if there was availability to sit outside as it was nice weather. There was no answer several times of trying. We asked when we arrived The man on reception if there was space outside he said yes but on a two table even though there were 3 of us we were grateful of the move. We ordered 3 drinks and ordered our meal at the same time. We ordered prawns and nachos to start then 2 steak baguettes and lasagne. (Which by the way the menu online is out of date) so as a family with additional needs my son prepared what he was going to eat. After 30 mins we asked how long the starter would be, the waitress left and came back to say the ticket hadn’t gone through. When it arrived the nachos were not cooked properly the cheese was raw and not melted. She asked if everything was ok and I said no the starter wasn’t satisfactory and hopefully the mains will be better. My son and I went to the toilet to see our mains sat on the side. The meal then came out some time after and it was cold. (Baguettes) we asked if these could be re made which is a reasonable request for £17.50 sandwiches. This can probably be seen on camera the length of time they were sat there! They took the 2 meals and returned the man on reception. He was very rude and said he wasn’t going to remake the food because we are rude and the food was fine because they had all tried it and it was good enough for them. I mentioned about the poor starter and how it was unacceptable and he said that was also fine. See picture of nachos. We were in fact not rude but merely asked for them to be remade and explained the prawns were fine and the lasagne but not the other dishes. He said we didn’t have to pay for anything he just wanted us to leave. The man didn’t leave any time to explain or give our opinion on the food or service. My son is autistic and this change has had a detrimental impact on his holiday. The man shouting at me and making a scene infont of the whole restaurant. This was so unprofessional and I asked him not to speak to me like that Infront of my son as this can cause him upset. My husband was at the toilet at this point when the man approached me shouting he wasn’t going to serve us our meals. He overheard the staff around the kitchen area saying “she’s the problem”. This is discusting and unacceptable. We were then left on bank holiday weekend with no where to eat as everywhere is fully booked. The waitress who had previously served us (who the man said she said we were rude) asked if we wanted the said lasagne taking away. I said it’s up to you and she kept pestering I told her we don’t want to be rude and advise she do what she needs to do with the plate. She said we weren’t rude to her?!! But the food was fine? I wouldn’t ask for a refund I only simply require the food to be served to a good standard of food hygiene and safety regulations. The service is terrible young staff not interested in customer service and customers who are paying a lot of money for mediocre food. They really do sell food at cheap standard and catch holiday makers who aren’t returning. There selling point in the location and everything else is compromised. Will not advise anyone to eat here poor service with children with...

I booked a table for my birthday on Saturday. Firstly, we turned up at 7:30 for a 7:30 booking. We were told by the chap at front of house that "I have you booked in for 8:15". We showed him our email confirming it was indeed 7:30, and he told us it would be no problem for us to come in, but he had the booking as 8:15. Not sure how that can happen when we had an email from your own booking system showing 7:30.

We were then shown our table, which was a lovely spot right at the bottom of the garden, by the river. It was a cold night so we were happy to see there were table heaters all around. Unfortunately, the 2 heaters nearest our table were 'out of order'. I can accept this, but really they should be repaired when you have guests sitting by the river on a fairly cold evening. We were then however, given blankets, which was a nice touch.

On to the food. We both wanted king prawn kebabs, which we were told were unfortunately now 'unavailable'. A bit disappointing given we'd been looking at the menu all week and both agreed they sounded lovely, but nevermind. We switched to chicken kebabs. It was ONE kebab on the plate, containing FOUR cubes of chicken, for £16. Not great value. The chicken was really dry on both of our kebabs. I raised this with both the waitress and the front of house as we paid, hoping to give an opportunity to put it right. In fairness, they were apologetic, explaining they knew why it was dry - the chef cooked the chicken in advance, then stored it in a 'drawer' to keep it warm. Maybe don't do that then? I also overheard another customer saying the chicken was too dry to eat.

In addition to this, I witnessed a waiter cleaning a glass on his t-shirt, and also applying lip salve and drying that on his t-shirt, all in full view of customers.

Overall, I'd really hoped for something better. I left feeling ripped off and hungry. It wouldn't be hard to make this place a...

Was EXTREMELY disappointed with our experience at the secret garden. On 20th September me and my fiancé thought we would come here, not going on dates often we were very excited and this looked like the perfect place! They accept dogs which was perfect for us and the garden was lovely and quiet which is exactly what we was looking for, with a good atmosphere. We arrived at 5 and our table had to be returned at 6.45. The staff was polite and showed us to our seats and we ordered 2 cocktails. After a while we ordered our food. We ordered fish and chips, burger and chips and 2 more cocktails. Whilst waiting we made friends with the couple next to us. Both us, and the other couple waited over an hour for food, with the other couple receiving the update of ‘our ticket machine isn’t working properly but your food will be out shortly’. No one updated me and my partner until we had waited around an hour and 10 minutes for our food. At this point both us and the other couple were getting frustrated as we could see other customers who had arrived after us getting their food. Luckily, the other couple got their food, however the women had to send hers back as it was undercooked. When me and my partner saw this we had given up hope and decided to leave as we still hadn’t got any food after being told it would be 5 minutes and waiting well over an hour it was getting ridiculous knowing we would have to eat fast before we had to give our table up, if we even got the food! We went in to pay the bill and tell them we was leaving, we paid £52 for the cocktails we drunk, and received no apology, discount, offer on next time we come, nothing. Was very disappointing and ended up getting a take away and coming home. Would...