The Treacle Mine — Restaurant in England

We booked a table for Sunday late afternoon/early evening, wasn't exactly necessary, busy but still tables available. Parking is good enough, remember to register your number plate at the bar if you do use the car park. So, sat immediately because we'd booked a table, a nice big printed a4 piece of paper with my entire name on and then left there with us after we'd been seated. Why not take it away and throw it? Instead leave it on the table? Okay.... Told us to go up to the bar to order when we're ready but, you can order from the table, which she didn't bother to mention. We were warned immediately they had no roasts at all... On a Sunday?!?! Use the QR code, sign up and get a free drink, also order from the "comfort" of your own table. A lot easier. Atmosphere wasn't great, there were sports on, so lots of loud patrons, screaming at a TV.... But worse, one waitress, talking to the next table, loud and just moaned!! Moaned about her hours and her colleagues. Unfortunately she wasn't wearing a name tag, otherwise I'd definitely put her name in here because she made the loud sports fans quiet and was just absolutely annoying and unprofessional.

We ordered a bottle of white wine, it was chilled (as it should) but just brought and left on the table, no bucket, nothing to keep it chilled while it just sat there. So I asked for a bucket with ice to keep it chilled... See photo. The wine glasses were warm, warmer than warmer. Fair enough if they've been cleaned but you don't serve warm glasses to drink chilled wine from... Went for the cheapest wine because from what we'd experienced so far, we didn't have high expectations for the food and we weren't wrong.

The starts came out like a fast food restaurant. As you can see, my calamari was in a bowl but dropped inside was some sauce from a paper cup you get at McDonald's (also what they use at hospital to dispense medication). Calamari was plain and boring, best part was the sauce. I had a medium-rare steak, this was more medium than rare. There should be a little bit of blood and there was none. Oh well, the 3 onion rings it came with were actually nice! Not smothered in oil and didn't just taste like batter. Only good thing about the meal. The sweet potato fries are the WEIRDEST fries I've ever had! They were floopy and smooth. Never have I ever, had sweet potato fries taste, feel or look like this. The whole main was luke warm at best... My wife ordered the chicken fajitas and was given a sizzling plate and then a normal plate covered with the toppings, nowhere to construct her fajitas but managed to do it while holding everything in her hands. Why not give another plate?! It's not rocket science. Couldn't ask for an additional plate because no one bothered to come and check on things and why should we have to get up, go to the bar and chase someone while our food gets cold(er). Table next to us, sent back their chicken because it was raw inside. The waiter came back and told him they'll make him a fresh one but the chef said it was just a vein and it was completely cooked.... Ha.

The best part of this so far loud and disappointing evening was the dessert. However, it doesn't come as described. The addional pimped out chocolate added is meant to be melted, instead it's just been thrown on. But like I said, still the best course. The brownie was warm, fully of chocolate flavour and not an overkill.

Service was, other than the loud, short, dark haired woman, was fine. But seemed more interested socialising amongst themselves. No one bothered to ask how any course was, took a long time to clear our plates... Just all in all, a disappointment.

There's plenty of outdoor seating, couldn't see any outdoor heating. Just saying.

We will not be going back. Ever. 2 stars, just for that one brownie. Otherwise 0 stars...

1 star is generous! After attending with family today and my sister paying a fair amount for food. There was no record of what she had paid for or asked for. Staff well aware of the booking when we arrived but no preparation made to the area that had been booked earlier in the week. Area booked was dirty doesn’t look like it had ever been cleaned, cigarette ends everywhere in the shelters we had booked. No attempt to help clean it at all despite there being plenty of notice. We’re tolerant people but when my 21 week pregnant sister is told “sorry nothing has been left for us so we know what we’re doing for you” that was the last straw for me. The guy I spoke to and asked for his manager was rude, dismissive and to be honest couldn’t care less. I come from a customer service background and have trained many in customer service skills well this guy needs more than training. He was complaint about his shifts in front of other customers, standing in the garden smoking whilst moaning to other customers, moaning about his manager (who was non-existent when I asked to speak to them and apparently having a break down out the back). The same person shot me quite awful looks which I’m not offended by but was raised to me by several of my family members When I’m trying to help my sister and ask for someone senior, I get told “I’m speaking to her not you” I find this incredibly rude and offensive. We don’t expect a red carpet but we do expect a level of service as locals from the Grays area and have frequently used the treacle mine over many, many years. Let me say whoever is running this place, needs speaking to by someone senior from sizzling. As does ‘Bradley’ who constantly moans about his job and customers. Awful customer service and hospitality, I understand being under pressure but the pub wasn’t even half full! Have some accountability even if you don’t have all the information and at least pretend to care! Happy to discuss further if needs be but won’t be coming back anytime soon! Oh shout out to whoever does the food that...

Overall a rather dreadful experience. I would not recommend eating here.

The pub was somewhat busy when we arrived, but not rammed. The menus on the table were sticky, as though whatever had been left behind by the previous patron was mearly spread rather than removed by the cleaning efforts. After some time spend trying to work our way through the online ordering system (made even more problematic as the pub is situated in some kind of communication dead zone that meant we were operating on what felt like a 1999 WAP connection), we were unable to submit a table numbers, so had to go to the bar to order anyway.

The bar staff were pleasant enough. The coffee machine was broken, and they said they'd bring our two cups of tea to the table shortly. We waited 10 minutes before chasing the first time. We had to chase again, and finally got our tea about 20 minutes after ordering. A sign of things to come.

Our food took a full hour to come out. When it did, it ranged between disappointing and awful. To be fair, the jerk chicken skewers were pretty tasty. But the chips were dreadful. The hunters chicken was gross - a dry chicken breast that was obviously not freshly cooked, with a rasher of fatty bacon, a meagre skid of BBQ sauce and a rubbery cheese slice that had evidently been microwaved, but not long enough for the cheese to melt, just wilt slightly.

It came with a most bizarre sauce. After some debate, we decided it must be a combination of gravy and BBQ sauce. Either some kind of mistake in the kitchen, or they were running low on BBQ sauce and decided to eke it out with some bisto!!

We were, however, lucky. At least our two meals came out together. The table behind us received their four meals at 5 minute intervals!

Would have gone for 1 star, but the beer is pretty cheap, so would go back for a pint. Just make sure to...