The Walnut Tree — Restaurant in England

Where should I start.

I was surprised when I arrived, with the potential of this pub. I have memories of it being a little run down and it is far from the pub I drank in 15 years ago, and it has so much to offer. A bouncy castle, pic n mix for the kids, and a lovely playground, so much potential. So you may be wondering why the 1 star, well the service.

We arrived at 17:00 on Bank Holiday Monday, and the outside was busy, but not overly. We had booked a table, and ordered drinks straight away, which took 50 minutes to arrive. We then ordered food, as we had not been able to order before this time, despite waiting 40 minutes, and it took a further 80 minutes for our food. It really was not busy enough to take this long, one of the waitresses spent most of the time talking to her dad and complaining.

On arrival, the waitress, with so much dirt crawling behind her nails, gave us our food and one of the meals didn't have half the items. When questioned we were told they didn't have any left, and I quote "its been busy and we have ran out of most things, you are lucky to have that". I said that's not good enough, and if you knew it would not arrive why have we not been offered an alternative or discount. I was told there was nothing she could do, so asked to speak to the manager. I am astonished by the childish behaviour of a waitress who wasn't that young, she just had a poor attitude.

The manager was more reasonable, but still gave a lame excuse. He offered some drinks, but it was not about the money for us, and 80% of the table declined, they were already fed up.

The food wasn't terrible. A typical pub meal which was ok, nothing special.

What is disappointing is seeing the potential. The kids meals came out late, the drinks took so long. People were walking out without paying after being so fed up waiting. When we left at around 19:30 the pub was pretty empty. This pub should have been packed and genuinely so many would have stayed if they could get a drink. There was a real lack of care. No one cared that customers were waiting almost an hour for a round of drinks. If they provided good customer service it would have been a good night out, and one we would have spent a few hundred pounds more. Without a doubt, from this day alone they have lost out on thousands of pounds because of poor...

Called to book a table for a family of four and to check that they are dog friendly (which they are). Was not able to book because the 'pool lads' were coming in at that time. But was told to come along, there will be plenty of room. Lovely. When we arrived, there was no staff around. We stood in the doorway for ages, unsure whether there was a specific are for dining. When we did see someone and asked where we should sit, she laughed and said 'ummm anywhere'. Not a very warm welcome. I wanted to give it a chance, so sat at a small round table by the bar while we tried to figure out if there was somewhere better to sit in another part of the building, then heard the same member of staff being rude to another customer about having to wait their turn. We decided to leave.

On the way out, we saw another customer sneaking macdonalds in through the window to feed his kids who had been waiting for 2.5 hours for their food and were starving. A lucky escape for us, I think.

There was plenty of opportunity for this to have been a better experience.... when we called to enquire about a table, we could have been given more information about what having the 'pool lads' there meant.... Was this the reason for delayed service? when we arrived, have someone available to greet and make us feel welcome and also explain that there was a long wait for meals. have helpful staff, it costs nothing to smile, even when it is busy.

My final observation was that this all happened on a Tuesday evening, there were tables vacant in the bar area, so it didn't appear to be full, so maybe some additional staff would benefit this pub?

Such a shame, we are not local, but here for a holiday, we had seen this pub a few times and I really wanted to go there for a family meal out (with the dogs) to break up our...

I had recently ordered from The Walnut Tree pub, the "New and improved Walnut Sundae" was missing half the ingredients listed, but if that wasn't insulting enough the sundae arrived the 6 SEPARATE containers. I have never order a dessert I had to make MYSELF. If I wanted to make a dessert I would have made one, I wouldn't have ordered a DIY dessert from a pub! They conveniently omit the fact that you will need to make the dessert yourself in the item description. I have no idea how they can send that out to paying customers and not feel ashamed. I am embarrassed for them. "New and improved"!? How bad was it before!? The Walnut Tree Pub - The IKEA of the dessert world. No shame No standards No self respect No taste No thank you Never again But it doesn't stop there. The ribs I ordered were microwaved and cold. The chicken was overcooked and dry and cold. The chips were soggy and cold. The apple crumble was burnt and... You guessed it, cold. It is fair to mention that at least I didn't have to make the crumble myself (unlike the sundae), although having tasted this abomination I would have been better off if they had sent me a bag of apples, some butter, flour and sugar because I could not have made a worst tasting crumble if I was baking with my eyes closed. The coleslaw was grey, the vegetables were presumably going off. I live a 3 minute drive from the pub so there is no excuse for cold food. £160k revamp and THIS is what they end up with? This is the quality of food they roll out? This is the respect they show their paying customers? What a complete...