The Willowbrook — Restaurant in Gedling

We have been to the Willowbrook several times for food over the last couple of years and it has been consistently very good. However today was a really poor experience.

Booked for Father’s Day, came in and before sitting for our 1.30pm table we had a pint. The real ale (Harvest Pale) was sour which was changed to a different beer and my Amstel was flat. The Harvest Pale should’ve been taken off at that point as it was clearly off. We were also told it was “about to go”.

We enjoyed a drink outside and then went in for our table, which we were told was cancelled. We only booked it the day before! It didn’t matter though, as it wasn’t busy (the restaurant was less than half full) and the lady who took our order was lovely.

We (a party of 4) ordered a starter each and a main and waited for them to arrive.

Around 25 minutes later 2 main courses for another table were bought to our table (we hadn’t had our starters yet and we told them we hadn’t had anything yet) so we turned the waitress away who silently took them back. We laughed it off and carried on with our conversation and another 20/25 minutes had went past and by this time (about 50 minutes total) we had still not received our starters and noticed other people who had arrived after us were being served, so we just finished our drinks and left. When we left, the staff said “thanks, bye!” so I felt I should let them know we hadn’t actually ate anything. They admitted we had been waiting ages after checking and said that they’d lost our order and they apologised.

I’m just not sure how, when you have about 5 staff on the floor of a half full restaurant area, you can fail to notice when a table hasn’t ate.

A member of our party is a type 1 diabetic so we really couldn’t have waited any longer as it is...

The Willowbrook has become our new local! Didn't realise it was within walking distance of our new home, but glad we have found it! Serving Castle Rock beers plus gues ales means there is always a good selection available. Staff are always polite and friendly, service is good, and beer tastes great. Bit of a strange set up with the tables in the main area, but is a good use if the space. Love the comfy sofas are dotted around the pub! There is free parking across the road (unless the council start charging), and a very handy chippy a...

My wife had the ploughmans which was very acceptable according to her after two medium sauvignon blancs. I had the cheese and onion roll and chips. Unfortunately this newfangled craze for triple cooking lumps of potatoe didn't work in this case. The cheese and onion roll was fab, just what I wanted but please give me proper golden chips, not dark brown mushy over cooked greasy bit of potatoe with the skin still on them. My wife thinks I've made a big deal out of it but it has decided me from gping there again and ordering chips...