Ye Olde Fleece Inn — Restaurant in England

On arrival to Kendal, we parked on the car park and as we worked our way up the high street, this and another pub caught our eye as an old fashioned pub grub experience in this lovely little town. To say we were very disappointed was an understatement! On walking in, we noticed that it looked a bit dawdy, but we had come this far, so we thought we'd give it a chance. We settled at a table and as one of the staff was walking past the table, I asked if we ordered at the bar. She did not stop as she briskly walked by and abruptly said "yes.. at the bar!". I went to the bar and asked if they accepted cards or if it was cash only. "Cash only!" was the reply. This set off the first alarm bell, but as it was an Olde Worlde pub, I didn't think much of it and so I went out to a cash point for some cash. On getting back, I placed my order from the hand written grubby menu.. "Chilli con Carne with half rice and half chips twice please and I'll go for the children's chicken nuggets. Also.. one coffee and one hot chocolate"... "We don't do hot chocolate" came the reply. "Ok..chocolate milk shake then please".. "We don't do milkshake" came the reply. "Okay then.. appletizer?" I said.. "Nope.. no appletizer".. "okay... erm.. coke??" .. to which, the unhappy 'lady' behind the bar dusted off a can of room temparature coke from off a shelf and poured it into a gloomy dirty glass to the dismay of my daughter who was hoping for the hot chocolate, or the milkshake or the appletizer but settled reluctantly for the coke.. given the miserable attitude of the bar lady. When I returned to our table; the reality of my terrible choice of eatery began to set in. The cutlery was very dirty.. to the point that olde mushy peas or something equally disgusting was still fused to it. The napkins were the really cheap thin little paper ones.. the tables, chairs and other furniture was very worn and most notably of all.. the whole place was freezing cold. I looked around to see mist come out of the other customer's mouths as they breathed. We touched the radiator and it was freezing; we looked at the fire hearth and it was cold and empty - despite a sign outside saying "come in and warm yourself next to our roaring fire". After waiting around 35 to 40 minutes for our meal.. I started reminiscing of the time that I went into a very similar looking pub in Heysham when I ordered a meat pie and received the worst food poisoning imaginable. In fact, my immune system and my stomach has never actually fully recovered. Fear set in and I started to consider not eating whatever came out, no matter what it was. Having only eaten 2 crumpets all day, I was starving and so I decided to give whatever came out a go. Sure enough.. what came out was exactly as expected.. All the meals were cold. The chips were burned and cold (not sure how they achieved that one!) and it seems that they had taken a can of tesco value mince with gravy.. added some kidney beans and chilli powder and put it with the scary looking cold rice and burned chips. My daughter's chicken nuggets were also accompanied by cold burned chips and they seem to have attempted to strain some of the mince from the gravy and poured whatever was left over her meal. This was the worst meal I have ever received at any eatery in my entire life ever!!! One of the staff, a young guy who served on the tables was extremely pleasant and deserves a positive mention, but I find it laughable that the apparent boss walked around asking people how much they enjoyed their meal. He came across as not a person that would accept any kind of critique - be it constructive or not. If there was a choice of zero out of five, I would have chosen it. The cost was £24 to £25 but add to that the £2.75 for the actimels to avoid food poisoning then it was almost £30 for the worst dining experience of my life. Do not go there...

Allergies Beware!

my daughter and I visited your pub for food

We ordered food and I expressly advised that I am vegetarian and have a sesame allergy.

The waitress advised that she will inform the kitchen.

After around 70 minutes of waiting for my food, to which my daughters starter and main had both been consumed. I received my “quorn” chicken burger. The chicken looked like chicken and bacon and so I asked another waitress, who advised that the dish is very deceiving but is quorn.

The waiter then returned and advised that the chicken was in fact chicken.

The meal was removed and I waited another 30 minutes for my now quorn burger (which was breaded and looked nothing like real chicken!)

I ate the burger, not very hungry at this stage. Within 20 mins, my throat became itchy. I took an antihistamine and asked the waiter to check with the kitchen if the meal had sesame in it. The waiter disappeared and never returned!

My allergies cause anaphylaxis if not dealt with instantly, obviously by this time had I not taken an antihistamine, I could have collapsed and died!

No getting wheezy, I asked another waitress to check. She went to the kitchen and returned with the following: “We have a new chef who did not check the allergies and has not prepared a list yet, as the chicken meal was returned, he was also not aware of allergies to check!”

I did not pay for the meal and will not be thanking for this. I walked home out of breath and had to go to bed, with my ten year old taking care of me and panicky. We are on holiday and our evening was ruined due to the incapabilities of every member...

We had lunch at this town centre pub restaurant today. There is a Covid friendly one way system in place with disposable food menus and the table was cleaned in front of us. However the drinks menus don't appear to be cleaned between customers nor are the salt and pepper mills. The salt mill was quite dirty. The food was very good - we both had fish and chips with a halloumi starter. The food waiter was very good, prompt and polite. However the bar and drinks service was a bit chaotic. We watched people being ignored while waiting at the lectern by the entrance. You have to help yourself to menus and order at the bar which wasn't made clear when you are seated. There were three staff at the bar but they were very slow and didn't appear to have a system in place. We had to wait half an hour for our bottle of wine even though we reminded them twice about this. The wine arrived after we'd finished our starter and was cleared away. Not good. The waiter said the delay was due to a lack of clean glasses yet it seemed clear to us they were understaffed and had no system in place. The wine was good when it arrived and I would insist upon getting drinks when you order rather than wait. The place is owned by two men, one of whom was doing odd jobs but didn't seem to be helping much and the other walked around with a phone pressed to his ear. They could usefully take charge I think. We heard staff openly talking about their employment terms and conditions which suggests the place is having recruitment and retention issues. We'd eat here again and hope these staffing and service issues will get...