The Trough — Restaurant in England

Horrible experience

We totally understand that popular establishments get busy but please train your staff to be honest and upfront about it and apologise in advance if you think there will be a wait. Saying the word "sorry" is free and goes a long way to great customer service.

We've had lunch here previously & although a bit pricey, the food is always delicious and we've had a good experience.

Unfortunately this wasn't the case this time. We'd pre booked for 1pm for a table for 2. Once seated we didn't see anyone again until 1.25pm when our order for both food & drinks was taken. No apology for the wait. We could see they were busy so politely asked if there was much of a wait for food as we'd got tickets for an event. We were told it would be 20 mins, again no apology. Drinks arrived with a very friendly different waitress. When there was no sign of food at 2.05pm we had to ask again when it would arrive. Still no apology for the wait. By now we were really anxious as there wasn't going to be time to eat our food, let alone enjoy it, plus our confirmation email stated we only had the table until 2.24pm. Our waitress went away to find out but didn't come back. We saw her laughing & joking with colleagues so it wasn't the case that she was too busy to let us know. I had to then ask yet again where our food was. She advised it was coming out, again no apology. At 2.20pm we couldn't wait any longer & so my husband went to pay for the drinks and advise that we couldn't wait any longer. At this point my husband received an apology that we hadn't had a good experience, but it wasn't at all friendly or sincere. While he was paying our food finally turned up but it was too late and we had to leave.

To add insult to injury on leaving the restaurant we were then followed out by a man with a tray (so assumed he was staff) who very loudly confronted us about what had happened.

We couldn't believe that on top of having waited for 1 hour & 20 minutes for our food & not receiving it until we paid for our drinks that we were then treated in such an awful manner. Very upsetting.

We've always considered it a bit of a treat to go to The Trough, but it was more like a really horrible ordeal on this occasion. Very disappointed.

Please don't become one of those restaurants who feel they don't need to treat customers decently because you know you'll always get the custom anyway because of the...

UPDATE: 01/06/2023 Still enjoy coming here. Service was a little slower than usual but it's a lovely place and so, time passes easily. Food is always great; I had the Trough Burger and whilst it was really tasty and thoroughly enjoyable, i found the patty to be quite dense in texture and so, a little difficult to chew. My wife had the Tartiflette and again, superb meal but just needed to be that little bit warmer (not enough to comment to the staff because she was hungry enough to just get on and eat). Anyway, overall, lovely food, lovely surroundings, especially so when the weather is warm and you can enjoy the views.

Always a pleasant surprise when we visit the Trough. The amount of effort these guys put into everything they do, is really impressive. This occasion was for their first offering of a pumpkin picking experience and it was so well organised. Well laid out across the field, plenty of size choices, straw over the foot ways (to prevent a mud bath) and a well put-together marquee with picnic tables, so we could sit and drink a lovely hot coffee. The hotdogs were great and burgers were nothing short of gourmet restaurant taste. Amazing. Looking forward to many more visits to the restaurant with the family....

The Trough is a beautiful looking restaurant with unmatched views all around!

Unfortunately the food didn’t match up to the reputation for my family and I.

We all ordered the aged beef with Sunday trimmings. The veg was cooked lovely but the meat came out extremely raw, even though we weren’t asked how we wanted it cooked, and one member of my family’s food was so under cooked the staff even took it off the bill (after previously saying it couldn’t be done. Maybe they noticed how under cooked it really was?).

Dessert on the other hand was amazing and definitely worth mentioning. I would 100% recommended trying them as they all looked great and tasted even better.

As for service, we weren’t offered any water for the table, even though everyone else had a bottle on the tables around us. When we were brought dessert, which as I mentioned was great, we weren’t given any spoons to eat it with.

That being said all the staff were friendly and welcoming and were working hard.

Overall I just expected more. Everything from the restaurant’s reputation, to how it looked just didn’t match up to the food we had.

I’ve had better for less, and I think that’s...