The Shrewsbury Arms — Restaurant in England

The Shrewsbury Arms, Albrighton . We went out for a meal as a group of 7 on Easter Sunday 1.30pm, we have been to this pub many times before but let me tell about this visit. We normally travel as a group of 10 parents this group of parents have a little bit of experience as we gave travelled to many different public houses and restaurants in the Midlands and beyond (every month) for the last 20 years. We have our favourites places but I will say the meal we all had at the Shrewsbury Arms was a really very nice and easily matches any other of the top places we have visited in the last twenty years. Before I start telling you about this a little note about the ambience of the place. The Shrewsbury Arms is so welcoming, as soon as you arrive and walk through the front door you feel comfortable, with oak beams, open fireplaces and lovely individual private tables set out in ‘little nooks and crannies’ to each side of the bar area giving privacy to the customers and diners who frequent them. There is a public bar to the right as you enter the restaurant which opens out into a more formal, light and airy dining area and with a grand piano used as a reception desk. We were shown to our table but as our other guests had not arrived we decided to get drinks from the bar first. When we were ready we were shown to our table by a waitress when the rest of our group arrived and ordered our meals. My wife and I decided ti go for the share platter Sunday roast with a selection of meats. This meal was lovely, consisting for each of us of a large Yorkshire pudding with 4 roast potatoes in it, a wooden platter arrived with 3 ceramic trays, this contained a selection of three slices of pork, turkey and beef with parsnips and gravy sauce. (Oh yes and don’t forget the 2 scratchings) A few minutes later 3 to 4 dishes of cauliflower cheese and cabbage arrived to share with the rest of our group with their meals. There was plenty there for everyone. We all finished our meals and I noted that all the plates on the table were empty, everyone in our group was definitely full to the brim. We then had our desserts, each choosing a different one from the dessert menu, they were really tasty and again all went well without a hitch. Not a single complaint from anyone in our party, all the meals, the place and the service was excellent. Just a few things I noted during the time we were at the Shrewsbury arms. The young waiter with the glasses, dark hair, grey apron was very attentive and we felt we were important to him and his working day, nothing was too much to ask and we could see that he wanted to make sure our meal and our visit went well. I also noticed that he used Sir and Madam when addressing us and came back to the table each time he had brought food to make sure everything was ok. This made us feel very special. Well done to Manager/Landlord, you are running an excellent public house/Restaurant. A Great place to go, with great food !! We will definitely all be making a return journey...

This was the email sent to Katie in events...unfortunately the response was somewhat very disappointing almost accusing me of exaggerating what happened. Judge for yourselves..... also after paying a deposit for 13 people in 2020 I was sent an email on the 21st December 2021 after paying our balance on the 14th November for more money saying we still owed £220 ....unbelievable.

I needed to send this email to tell you how disappointed we all were on Christmas day which we were hoping, after last year would have been fabulous.

I had to go 3 times to ask if our table was ready as we were booked for 3pm. When we finally got shown to our table it was 3.20pm. The service was appalling I'm not sure who was the restaurant manager as it seemed like no one knew what they were doing. We didn't get our starters until 4pm then when the main meal came we were so surprised as the menu promised so much but delivered so little. We had 1 bowl of sprouts between 11 of us same with the other vegetables. When we asked for some more roast potatoes as we only had 3 each ( I asked for some mash potatoes as I don't like roast but was told there was none) they eventually bought a small bowl with only 3 more roast potatoes. We had our desserts then as we had waited so long we asked about the cheese n biscuits which were on the menu they seemed baffled and took an eternity to bring some.

We had no mince pies again which were on the menu, they bought some coffee trying to say it was free. I did day sorry £74.50 per person and this again was on the menu was hardly free.

We had booked our transport for 6pm and as we were left so long for courses I got worried about the time but when I said this to the lady who seemed to be in charge she said sorry we close at 6 so everyone will have to be finished

There were other tables who would have no way been finished in time as some were still waiting for the main course.

We had to leave the table as our transport arrived.

I can't tell you how disappointed I am as we have been many times for Sunday lunch and never had such terrible service. I have to say I wouldn't be able to recommend Christmas Day to anyone unfortunately which is really a shame.

We could have had our deposits back last year when I was contacted by David to enquire If we wanted to carry it over to this year. We wanted to support businesses as much as possible due to the awful 2020 they had all had. Sadly it backfired on us all by spoiling our Christmas day.

We didn't want to complain on the day as it was supposed to be a happy one, none of us wanted to bring the mood of our party down. I have only just been able to draft this email as I was so cross.

Please pass my comments to the manager as he really should be made aware of...

Unfortunately I feel compelled to write a review following our recent experience dining at The Shrewsbury Arms.

Wednesday 27th December 2023. Reservation for 9 people all looking forward to good food, service and atmosphere which we had previously enjoyed. At time of booking at least 2 months earlier I had enquired if it would be usual menu or Christmas to be told it would be the regular menu.

We were given menus with no mention of anything being unavailable, four of us ordered the Chateaubriand ideal for 2 people to share. The waitress took our orders returning after a few minutes to inform us the Chateaubriand was not available, our second choice Fillet also unavailable, they could only offer Sirloin informing us that was all that had been ordered from supplier. A request for chicken was also not possible!! We were astonished having taken our reservation quite a while ago the menu was lacking numerous main staple items, if they had been busy that evening and ran out that would have been understandable but to simply not be able to offer a full menu because they didn’t order supplies is very disappointing. Not wanting to starve or spoil the evening but extremely dissatisfied we adjusted our order.

Two people ordered Surf & Turf, when it arrived both were luke warm with dishes served in cold, we spoke to waitress who took both meals back to kitchen. They returned, obviously having just been given a boost in the microwave. Waitress had no idea which meal belonged to who, both had a mouthful of food missing (how identified it was cold), luckily we were able to work it out.

The Surf & Turf come on a sharing platter, we were not given plates until we asked for them, this was the same with other meals. When the plates were delivered to the table ‘COLD’ they were plonked down in a pile in front of one setting for use to allocate.

We also had drinks that didn’t turn up when ordered during the evening. Waitress was asked if leftover meat could be taken for dogs, we were handed a roll of foil to wrap ourselves.

I asked to speak to the manager to address our disappointment: lack of menu choice availability, cold food, poor service etc. to be informed it was the managers night off. The person who I believe to be next in charge visited our table and said she would speak to the manager, after sometime a waitress was sent to inform us they would not charge for the two Surf & Turf meals. We appreciated this offer of compensation but still remain disappointed with the dining experience and certainly not confident to return...