The William Aylmer - JD Wetherspoon — Restaurant in Harlow

2 months after my original review we decided to chance breakfast. (We used to be regulars until our last experience below)

We arrived at 11am and ordered our food and drinks by 11.05 via the app. Our coffee cups arrived within 5 minutes. At about 11.30 we were told there were no vegetarian sausages so we were offered a choice of swaps. (1 egg for 2 sausages!) At 11.50 our food still hadn't arrived. We were told there was a delay yet everyone else who had arrived after us had finished eating. We eventually ate at 12 after I chased our food up. When my husband had finished eating they brought a hash brown which had previously been missing. Honestly, we won't be bothering again, as this place has a habit of ruining our mood and our plans for the day with their ridiculous inability to serve food in a timely manner!

Have had a few decent meals here so we generally return fairly regularly. However on this occasion I was extremely disappointed. We sat for 10 minutes with someone else's plates piled on the table and had to ask for them to be removed. The table was not wiped either. I ordered a jacket potato with cheese and coleslaw as an extra. Also ordered drinks. The drinks came after the food and there was no glass incduded for my husbands bottled drink, a glass was offered and accepted but never came. The jacket potato had a thimbleful of grated cheese on it and the coleslaw didn't come, I was told it was coming separately. I had to chase it up. It arrived, the pot I had paid extra for was half full. I asked for it to be filled. By the time it came back full my food was stone cold and I had lost my appetite and my husband had finished his large brunch! They refunded me and were nice enough about it, but honestly I wish we hadn't come as it just really put me off the place. I appreciate it was busy. The place always seems sorely understaffed and despite the fact they're always rushing around the staff don't seem to see the jobs which need doing such as...

Came here for a bit of lunch.

The QR code on the menu offered a nifty way to order from the table. Except the website is very unresponsive and some of the meal combos do not allow you to select all combo options, e.g. you can't add your drink choices.

So I had my draft basket on the website and went up to the counter. I explained the website issue and the lady took the order from my phone screen, then reconfirmed my drink orders.

I hadn't realised but one of the meal deals was put through without the deal, so was missing the chips and cost more.

One of our group ordered the chicken burger and it turned up cold. Clearly cooked ages ago, dried out, then popped in the microwave for 30s. I assume thulis is standard practice in a place like this.

For these prices, I don't expect great food. But I do expect hot chicken to be hot! But for less money, you can get significantly better food from most fast food joints.

2 stars and not 1 because:

the food was tolerable but not terrible (bar the cold chicken). when we explained the above to the manager, she quickly sorted out the missing chips, and refunded us for the cold chicken. Credit to her customer service approach.

It's been a good 5+ years since we've been to any JDW and probably 10+ years since we've been to this one.

Based on today, I might stop into JDW for a drink but not to self: make sure to...

I went into your Harlow pub yesterday and ordered a pint of Guinness. I have been drinking it for years and know that apart from the head, it should be a dark black. However, this one was a light brown even after it had been sitting on the bar for over 5 minutes.

I therefore asked the person who served me, who claimed he was the Shift Manager if I could swap it for something else as I did not want to drink something that just didn't look right.

He said no I can't, gave me my money back and said he would no longer serve me that night, but did not bar me, in fact he said to come back tomorrow. He said that clearly their beer is not up to my standards. I said well that one's not which is why I have asked to swap it, but to no avail.

As a Customer I feel I have the right to express concerns about the quality of the item I intended to drink before I do so. However, I was, I feel, penalised for expressing genuine concerns about whether it was safe to drink said pint.

They've now decided to bar me for expressing genuine concerns about the quality of their beer.

Avoid, drinking their beer may make you ill, and I mean more than...