The Walrus — Restaurant in Great Britain

Really disappointing visit to The Walrus yesterday. I'm always on the lookout for somewhere that does great gluten free food, and The Walrus came up in my searches with good reviews. We made our way across town and joined the (then) small queue to be seated. There were many helpful staff at the bar, but seemed like they weren't allowed to do anything to help the people queueing - no 'thanks for waiting, we'll get you seated as soon as we can' etc. The manager was at the welcome desk on the phone then he seated the pair in front of us. We waited another couple of minutes, and a waiter came over and took our track and trace details, but seemed like he wasn't allowed to do anything else. We waited a little longer for the manager to come back to seat us (don't know why the waiting staff weren't allowed to seat us as that wasn't explained). The manager seemed annoyed that the waiter had tried to help us by taking our information, then appeared to huff at us for not having booked a table even though we'd been told by the waiter it was fine. The manager proceeded to make a big deal over our menus and at that point we decided we would leave after all. At that point the queue was out the door. Very poor attitude towards customers and seemingly no trust in the waiting staff who we could see wanted to help but obviously had their hands tied by the overworked and slightly rude manager. We would suggest that to help prevent a situation like this in the future, the waiting staff who were free should be allowed to greet people in the queue, gather their track and trace information and check if they have a booking or not so that there is not just one person (the manager) doing all of this at the desk and being rushed off his feet being the only person allowed to escort guests to their...

This place was recommended to us by a local as “best Sunday roast in Brighton”… however, it was not for us and I later found out after my feedback to my mate that he had only eaten here once a long time ago! Very disappointing- I & my party of 4 others, we give it 6/10 for the food. However, the service was very good and at the end when our waitress collected our plates which had a lot of food left over on them, she was very sympathetic when we said the food wasn’t great, & she asked what was the issue: Too much red cabbage which wasn’t very pleasant, weird tasting carrots, which were too oily and some in my party thought the roast potatoes were too garlicky. The “supreme” chicken which is just chicken breast with the skin on had zero seasoning & no flavour, it wasn’t that moist either. Two of us that had this, felt this. The lentil wellington, had by 2 others, they both felt it was far too bland, again no flavour. The one who had the steak, only ate the steak and broccoli. He had some fat or gristle in one mouthful towards the end of the steak and had to spit it out. The Yorkshire puddings were on the verge of burnt. I ordered an extra side of cauliflower cheese which was very saucy and didn’t even taste Cheesey! Our waitress spoke to her manager about this who kindly agreed to give us 20% off the bill. However, even after the goodwill gesture of 20% off, it was still £110 - & for this very below par meal, it still seemed too much for how little we all ate (only 1 had 1 alcoholic drink + 3 non alcoholic drinks). I think the chef must’ve changed since my friend last visited here. Just a very disappointing Sunday...

Had booked a table in advance for a family gathering. Friendly welcome from a member of staff who advised our table was upstairs. Found our table situated next to the window that was nice however the table was incredibly sticky and needed a good clean. Each place had a small glass for water but unfortunately a lot of the glasses were dirty. Food arrived within 20 minutes of ordering but disappointed by the size of the plates (small for a roast) and small portions. One of the group finished his roast in 5 minutes. Everyone agreed that the roast potatoes were cold. The desserts were all fairly small as well and had clearly been bought in advance (not home made) The general cleanliness was poor with thick dust on top of the speakers, cobwebs visible and the light fixtures were grubby. As for the atmosphere well that was difficult to rate as we were the second table to arrive so it was very quiet, shame there was no background music. One guest ordered a tea that arrived with a dirty cup and no milk provided, had to ask for a clean cup and milk. Had this have been a cheap roast you wouldn’t mind so much but at £18 each it was not...