Countess Wear Beefeater — Restaurant in Exeter

Booked a table on line only to arrive and be told the restaurant was closing so we had to eat in the bar which wasn't ideal as we had 2 children and the bar area had lots of people who had obviously been to Christmas parties etc and were loud and rowdy but we managed to find a quieter seat but it was freezing so we kept our coats on for most of the meal. When trying to order our meal the bar person informed us food was finished and even when we told her we'd booked on line, she was unimpressed and just said they'd finished, luckily the manageress came and said we were just in time. We ordered main meals for 2 adults, just chips for one child and a child's 2 course meal for another. Our meals took quite a long time to arrive and were basic but the child's dessert never arrived. We asked at the bar twice but still nothing arrived and the bar person was very nonchalant and didn't even suggest going to find out she just spoke about it to another member of bar staff who was cleaning up. On the 3rd time of asking we requested she go and find out what was happening which she did reluctantly and the manageress eventually came to tell us they didn't have the dessert even though it was the one they had suggested when we ordered, eventually after over an hour of waiting the desert arrived. We also ordered refillable drinks which were initially served to us by the manageress but when we requested more the bar person said they didn't do orange Fanta/Tango I had to explain we had just had some but she insisted until she eventually looked and said it must have been new??? Our main issue was with the bar staff as the person was ignorant to the point of being very rude and unhelpful and obviously did not want to be there. Another issue was on using the toilet somebody had vomited in the sink and over the units we couldn't even use any of the taps etc we informed a member of staff but it was still like it an hour later. We understood that it was fairly late to be eating and they had obviously had a very busy night but our visit overall was a disaster and certainly not pleasurable and the booking system should never have allowed us to book if the restaurantwas closed. We were visiting the area and would definitely not return to this establishment and it has made us weary of booking a Beefeater again. The only good thing about our visit was the Manageress who was helpful...

We had a fantastic meal out at the new look Beefeater. Treat ourselves to the best dishes and the two ladies that serves us throughout our evening were fantastic (Lisa and Emily I believe).

Everything was top notch and the food was fantastic........ But.......

There were a couple of little pointers that stopped them from getting 5 stars.

In order of them happening: On the way in to the premises, there was piled up rubbish and leaves (a lot of it) all around the steps and far more than what could have gathered in a few hours, it was days worth.

The elderly waitress with white/grey wirery hair that saw us first waiting to be seated, when she finally came over too us from clearing plates, asked if we'd booked (we hadn't), said "give me a minute" then continued to clear a table and disappeared, a few moments later a gentleman appeared and seated us.

Finally... a big one for me...

Staff in a hospitality environment should NEVER ever be seen eating! And then after putting their hands near their mouths continue cooking and serving?! Not only did I see 2 or more chefs doing it in the open kitchen, but a waitress or two on the floor, that then immediately took plates off the counter to serve a table.

Come on guys, 3 of us has a £100 bill with only refill soft drinks as refreshments, so if you're pulling that weight at the till, you should be tightening the reigns to earn 5 stars and have me talking about how superb the steaks and the lobster Mac n Cheese was instead!

Oh..... little disappointed with my dessert too! The girls had trifle and triple choc brownie, my Sunday cost the same and was vanilla ice cream with 3 lumps of brownie and some squirty cream plus my churros were over cooked.....

We will return again, but hope to give 5...

We had booked a table for 22 at 5pm. All menu choices were prebooked. They didn't start to serve the food until 5.45 and it came out in dribs and drabs so by the time some got their meals others had finished. Some food was incorrect. One person ordered a steak well done with his mixed grill but it came out rare. He sent it back and by the time they brought it out again he had finished his meal. We ordered some veg with our steaks which didn't come out until we had almost finished. Service was very poor. One person serving was so busy looking at my granddaughter that twice she almost pushed things in people's laps. Myself and my daughter went to pay for our meals and were told that she couldn't break it down individually. We had blue light discount towards ours so she applied it to the whole bill and told us we would have to work it out ourselves. We started to calculate it and someone went to pay their bit but we're told that she had 10 deserts to do now so we would have to wait. The meal was booked early so we could get my 7 month old granddaughter home to bed. By this time she was so tired she was hysterical. To top it off 2 people paid by cash but the venue has no record of this and have made my daughter pay again for these meals. I wonder whose pocket that money went into. Perhaps they thought it was the tip which we didn't leave due to the bad service. My daughter has complained and was told that they wouldn't compensate us because we already had £90 off the bill (due to the Blue light card discount which they chose to apply to the whole bill). Neither of us will ever go there again. They have lost a lot of custom. They ruined what should have been a happy celebratory family occasion. The worst meal we've had in a...