The Wheatsheaf — Restaurant in England

Attended last Sunday for a family meal, and fundamentally, really good food but undermined by some interesting serving choices and some serving blunders.

On arrival, our table booked for 9 was only with 7 seats. I believe they had to change it last minute, but it left us squeezing in to accommodate us all.

I had the Fish and Chips, lovely fish, beautiful crisp and light batter but not many chips, which was a shame because they were excellent, just a little stingy. I had 9 on the plate.

My wife like many on the table ordered the roast dinner, her choice of meat was pork. When the food arrived, her dinner didn't. It appears they had forgotten her, once the food arrived 10 minutes in, the meat sadly was mostly fat leaving her hungry.

The children enthusiastically ordered Burgers. The burgers themselves were seemingly great quality beef, but utterly smothered in a bright orange (almost synthetic nacho cheese-esque) burger sauce. The sauce entirely dominated the dish leaving the otherwise good food unappealing. All four children refused to eat them as a result. On tasting it, the sauce is extremely strong, in smaller measure it could have complimented the dish but here it was too much.

The free Yorkshire Pudding offer did ensure that our family did at least partly fill up, but this unlimited offer shouldn't have been necessary to compensate for the spaces in our stomachs.

The deserts were lovely. After the disappointments of the main we were practically licking the plates/ice cream tubs clean. These were the highlight.

A frustrating experience, especially given...

Manager lets the place down. We visited here to check the place out before booking our Christmas day dinner, but unfortunately we won't be returning. We arrived into the bar to see the manager stood behind the bar on her phone. The other waitress was serving food and quite loudly said "sorry I'll be with you in a minute" to which the manager still stood there on her phone, she didn't even acknowledge us. We waited a few minutes while the waitress finished serving her table with food.

We sat down and I mentioned to the waitress about the lady on her phone to which she explained that was her manager. I was shocked that management had this attitude towards customers and would expect her to be setting a better example to her staff.

Later, the manager came over to 'apologise' but in a very abrupt and passive aggressive manor. It clearly wasn't to apologise, but to make a point. She said she wasn't just on her phone, she was dealing with a bill and "we all use our phones for everything and I didn't actually see you come in". I'm sorry, but she definitely knew we were there and there's no way, I'd be stood behind my reception desk in my salon, on my phone and ignore my customers, not even acknowledging their arrival. I don't care if it's work related, it's rude and unprofessional. And the way she spoke to us afterwards was just unnecessary. So for this reason we will not be returning to the establishment and the owners will now lose regular revenue because of their managers appalling attitude...

Poor. It was not a nice experience for a number of reasons

Firstly - having to pay a deposit to secure a table booking. That's fine, but there's nothing to say that the deposit will be taken off the bill at the end of the meal. I had to phone and confirm. It was an unnecessary hassle and it should be made clear when booking online.

Arrived for a table at 12pm. Was told we only had the table until 1:45pm. Nothing wrong with that in theory, but it's a pretty sad way to start your dining experience "welcome, enjoy, but you'd better be watching the clock". Not welcoming at all.

Thirdly - the roast was ok. For the amount you charge for a roast I'd expect better. There are places locally who charge a similar amount and the quality is better and the portions bigger. Not terrible, but I wouldn't be recommending it to anyone at that price.

Finally - you don't take cash. That an absolute load of crap. I only had cash on me and was told that there are signs at the bar that state it's only card, however, how is someone meant to know what upon first visit? It's not exactly clear when booking online. It was embarrassing having to ask my mother to pay for her own mother's day lunch because you don't accept legal tender.

Honestly, very disappointed and won't be recommending to anyone. I am not alone in this opinion either, I had some friends also dining that day at different tables/times and they echo exactly the...