The Ship — Restaurant in England

Unfortunately, my son and I had a very disappointing experience at The Ship in Christchurch. We walked in today at around 11.25am asking for fish and chips. We were told that it was a bit early and lunch starts at 12noon. We moved further into the venue to choose table to have a coffee first. We were not offered to be shown to a table or given a menu. All the tables seemed empty with no guests in sight. Someone yelled something behind me, I turned around and saw an angry looking gentleman. Unsure, I asked if he was talking to me. " How can I help you?" he almost yelled again in an unfriendly manner. I explained that we asked for lunch but it was a bit early and we are looking for a table to have a coffee. He did not respond, only staring back at me in an unfriendly manner. Bar staff, I just spoke to said nothing or looked at me. We proceeded to leave. Our family speaks several languages and we did not use English to communicate between ourselves, however I spoke good and polite English when communicating with the staff and the angry gentleman, presumably, a manager. My son and I are both British citizens, the fact, which should not matter and yet, sadly, I am under impression that we were made feel unwelcome because of the use of a language other than...

Ok, we ordered way too much food and we drank quite a bit so the bill came to £45 per head. All the food was excellent. Enjoyed everything. The beef Massaman was my favourite, tender melt in the mouth meat, great flavour. Menu is Thai plus pub classics. We went full on Thai. Better than the one round the corner imho. Service was informal and nicely friendly (when we enquired about the noodles, our waitress admitted to no being sure and when off to the kitchen and came back out with a cheeky laugh and actual examples, perfect )

Having said all that, I'll not be inclined to go back to eat there because. Sadly the gents loo was a real mess by halfway through the evening. Sink blocked up and a shallow lake of "fluid" across almost the whole floor.

Almost every fast food joint can keep its loos clean throughout service, so if you're charging restaurant prices.....

Makes me wonder what standards are applied elsewhere in the operation.

Might be ok in a spit n sawdust pub but if you're aspiring to be a restaurant, not really acceptable.

I mentioned it to the staff, who reacted encouragingly but only cleared the sink, the floor was left in its pretty disgusting state.

So if the loos had been clean this would have been a...

Arrogant and unprofessional service! I arrived from USA (long journey) with my fiancee and we booked a table for 8pm at the restaurant...we arrived 10 m early, we were seated at our table by young waiter when I asked for the house wine I was told there was only a French wine...I asked wish grape was it...she didn't know! When I saw the menu they had a Portuguese house wine Fonte de Nico...I still tried to go to the bar and swap it but she had served already...no problem I will order next. And that was the main problem....To Order! 40 minutes later here we where waiting for someone to do our food order...a couple arrived 30m after us and this old arrogant chap presumably someone that should have any kind of customer service went straight to the table next to us and did their order... No comment!!! Just unprofessional service, doesn't matter the decor it has to be all about the customer service!!!

y fiancee and we book a table for 8pm at the restaurant we...