The Chequers — Restaurant in Hart

It is very clear that staff are overworked. I arrived with a party of only 3 others only to be greeted by a lady performing what can only be described as acrobatics with food. As she balanced more plates than countable she directed us to a barrel and told us to wait to sit down. 15 minutes later we were directed to a barren table. No heating was provided. The thing that has really made me write this review is the waitress. I cannot begin to explain how poor her attitude was to me and my friends. I was EMBARRASSED. After ordering online the drinks were totally incorrect. Bear in mind I'd already seen how overworked the staff were and was fully willing to cut this lady some slack in light of the terrible management. I paid £11 for ONE DRINK. Paying that sort of money, I believe I have the right to send back a single rum and coke if it isn't what I asked for and my waitress has stuck her fingers in it. I was met with sarcasm and insult. The words she intended to mutter under her breath were heard LOUD AND CLEAR by the entire table and upon my previous pleasant visits here I felt totally and utterly embarrassed as my friends were bought to this pub under MY recommendation. I consider myself to be thoughtful. And for this reason I cannot blame that lady. I saw the immense pressure she was under the minute we arrived "please, not another customer". It's for this reason that I urge people NOT to attend this pub until the staff are treated fairly and paid accordingly. The management was asked for 3 times but wouldn't show face. Totally happy to take £11 for a drink. I doubt the waitress earned that an hour. I WILL be taking this to management and above. To my review readers and the waitresses who'd clearly been overworked and underpaid. This was not the fault of service. The absence and sheer sloth of your manager does not deserve your time or your money. The reason for that GENEROUS 2nd star is simply a credit to the endurance of my waitress.

This review will not be my last input on this...

Decided to give The Chequers a try after looking at the menu online and seeing a few things which took my fancy.

On arrival we were seated straight away, which was great. The place has a really nice look to it and the interior has been decorated tastefully. This is where the good stuff ended.

We placed our order and I decided to go for "King Prawn & Brixham Crab Salad, Avocado, Tomato Salsa & Crispy Tacos" which sounded great to me. What arrived was a very different story, 2 very sorry looking shell on prawns, which looked as if they were cooked a week ago along with about 5 grams of crab, 3 tortilla chips, served on a bed of Sloppy leaves, avocado, a few specs of tomato and completely unseasoned. I asked the waitress if this is how it is usually served and she confirmed this is how it's always served. One person in our group had ordered this as a main and decided to change their order upon seeing the finished article.

Hoping things would get better, we received our mains. I had ordered off the specials board a Lamb burger with a slaw and fries. Well the lamb meat was ok, the fries were fries. The bun for the burger on the other hand, had seen better days. Stale and completely inedible.

Perhaps the Head chefs day off is Tuesday?

Overall everyone felt as though we had received very average food.

Making this known to the waitress, she was very understanding and offered the us two free dessert. Which again, were distinctly average.

Unfortunately, this will be the last time I visit the Chequers for a meal. Which is a real shame as it's a great venue with plenty of potential just lacking...

Very disappointing visit. First meal out after lockdown and chose chequers for a Sunday roast as had a good meal here before. We rang before to check there were still roasts available and were told ‘of course, we do them all evening’ but then when we arrived we were told they only had one option left (and not the one either of us really wanted). One of our starters was also not available, and whilst they tried to make something different for us when it came it was really dry. When the roast came it was clearly not fresh and all left over from lunch time. The roast potatoes and parsnips were hard, the gravy was cold and the cauliflower was brown and mushy with hardly any cheese sauce. Dessert was the only hope of enjoying some of the meal - a nice crumble and custard. We were told that there was a problem with the freezer and there were no desserts with ice cream, but ‘we have everything else except crumble’. Given there were no other desserts that wouldn’t be served with ice cream we didn’t bother. I understand that after a busy Sunday lunch you may run out of things but Sunday roasts shouldn’t be offered all day if they cannot be the same quality and things that aren’t available should be told up front. Also we were the only people in the restaurant, and I would think after months of being closed a bit more effort would be made to satisfy customers. I’m not usually one to complain so I paid the £65 but would not come here again or recommend to a friend. The only positives about the visit were the friendly waitress and the yummy non...