Imperial Inn Hereford — Restaurant in Great Britain

Called in on bank holiday Monday. Nice looking place, met on the door, Covid protocols etc. Given choice eat in or out, there were maybe 3 tables being served inside, and we chose outside. Nice set up about 15 tables, it was 14.15 Various menus available, there were only 5 or 6 tables occupied with 5 serving staff, so by 14.45 I had got a bit fed up of waiting and went inside to ask if we could be served. A nervous waitress took our order. we chose from the set menu, 2 courses £9.95 or 3 courses for £12.95. Garlic mushrooms starter and scampi, Garlic mushrooms starter with cod, plus 2 drinks. Another waiter came along with condiments, serviettes, 2 forks and 1 knife, "I'll get you another knife guys" Drinks came, we waited, at 15.10 one of the starters arrived. Waited ten minutes, called over waiter asking for the second, seems the waitress only ordered one, the second then turned up. and "could we have our second knife please" No sign of mains, called over waiter, seems the waitress didnt put them on the order either. Within ten minutes, both tasteless, undercooked meals turned up, btw the advertised triple cooked chips were frozen, no salad peas etc. "Oh, you wanted peas!!" yes you guessed it, the waitress hadn't put them on the order, a bowl of peas turned up. David the manager? on seeing our disgust waived the bill. " Sorry about that but the two younger girls are new" I asked if it wasn't the best idea to start people on a bank holiday weekend. "Well they have here for two weeks but they were really hammered yesterday" I presume that "hammered" meant that they had had a busy day. The garlic mushrooms were...

Went there for lunch while visiting Hereford for the day. Upon ordering drinks and food at the bar. I ordered a pint of strongbow and a coffee for my wife. The girl behind bar pulled a pint of Carling larger instead of Strongbow which she had to change. Was told my wifes coffee would be brought over to table. We waited a while, so I assumed the coffee had been forgoten about. I went back to the bar and asked what was happening about the ordered coffee, to which I was told again, it will be over shortly. Went back to the table and waited again. No coffee was delivered to the table, as the girl who served me was too busy sorting some sort of drink out for herself. When she passed our table, I asked again for my wife,s coffee. I was given a look of dispare. Finally 15 minutes after ordering. The coffee was put on table by the same girl, no appologies for the wait. She just put it on the table, saying nothing and walked off. Finally our meal came out and was served. I had hand battered cod that had been frozen and chips, which was awfull. The batter on fish was soft, not crispy, the chips were squashy as if they had been kept warm, waiting for the rest of the order to be ready. My wife had half duck and some sort of red onion sauce. The duck was very dry, and the sauce was taistless. I would not recommend going there for a meal, if it was the only place in Hereford open. £37 pound which would have been better spent elsewhere in my opinion. Wont be going...

Update. Tried again as suggested by management below.

The imperial is worse than ever. The person commanding you to look at him while he tells you how to order is under the impression I listen with my eyes not my ears and he needs to back off as he stands far to close to I do not think he understands social distancing rules.

Also it's the same ordering system as wetherspoons we common folk are not so thick we do not understand how to order try printing it out and put it on the table for people to read and keep out of customers faces.

Will never go back nor will I give them another chance. ..................................................................

We first tried to enter this establishment in the afternoon and were politely refused entry to say they were doing staff training. They had the signs outside advertising the food so why they did not have a sign out saying closed for staff training or at least lock the door and keep the signs inside is beyond me. We went later in the evening and the staff seemed to be more on patrol than hosting. We felt as though they were waiting for trouble to happen rather than waiting for people to have a nice experience. The food was supposed to be upgraded from previously but when we saw the food it still looked like it was cooked by chef Mike and was just given fancy names.

Not impressed but if you feel like a drink and a bite and some intimidation of the patrol squad do enter this fine...