Hartford Mill — Restaurant in Huntingdonshire

First visit since having a bad experience about 9 months ago and it was much better. The staff were clean and seemed to know what they were doing a lot more than the last visit. The carvery was good with three meat options, only comment would still be about the serving of mushy peas instead of proper peas. They're a little cheeky with their soft drinks, even the ones with ice weren't filled and had about an inch at the top of the glass (like most places do when you ask for no ice). Definitely a much better experience and more like it had been on previous visits to the last.

Old review; Unusually poor quality visit with a couple notable issues;

Issue one - Carvery meat; We were sat at the table we'd reserved and ordered our food (all carvery) through the app, once we were brought the drinks and carvery tickets we looked over at the carvery and there was only gammon and a tiny bit of beef left (looked odd as well, the meat looked pale and had a weird pink outline, and not the normal pinky brown med rare beef is). We went up and asked the carvery guy and he said that'd be it for the night (this was 7pm so the carvery was still serving for another 2 hours). There was no way between us arriving and ordering all the other meat disappeared so we were a bit miffed as to why the waitress that seated us didn't warn that the carvery was low on meat options. Most of us were happy to have the gammon but one of our group doesn't like it and the beef looked so bad she wouldn't have that either, after talking to the staff they said they'd switch the meal to one off the menu. So the group member picked an item off the menu (hunters chicken macaroni cheese) and was made to pay the difference, which as someone who has worked in a carvery restaurant before seemed a little odd as we would have allowed the swap free of charge (providing the guest picked something reasonable and not a pricey steak) due to the poor offering which caused the change.

Issue two - Dirty/Poorly trained staff; The waitress that brought our drinks over handed all the drinks out by clawing the glasses by the rim (I rubbed the rim of my glass clean before enjoying my drink). They asked who was having the coke then proceeded to give one of them the Dr Pepper, there was a straw in the Dr Pepper to help distinguish which was which, which was clarified once we asked which was the Dr Pepper as it seemed as though they'd given it to the wrong person (the straw or lime trick is common so we saw it immediately). As well as this they forgot one of the drinks, although this was rectified immediately with no problems upon pointing it out. Back to the first point of this where they clawed the glass this was made even more disturbing after noticing dirty hand marks all over the waitresses shirt where it looked like they wipe the gravy off of dirty plates on it rather than washing their hands. I understand gravy will spill on shirts during a shift but the hand marks were very clear, especially on the back of the shirt.

Issue three - general low quality carvery; Alongside the meat issue mentioned earlier the rest of the carvery had some issues as well. One set of roast potatoes was hardly roasted and pretty much had the texture of boiled potatoes. The other roasties with beef dripping were all on the overcooked side, you had to pick through to find the ones that weren't rock hard lumps of charcoal. The boiled new potatoes were just barely cooked, they were pretty tough and not light and fluffy. The parsnips were the same as the beef dripping roasties. The rest of the carvery was pretty standard and of decent quality, I did like the boiled carrots and the gravy was nice and thick. Only comment on the rest of the offerings was the carvery has mushy peas and not steamed/boilet peas, this is more of a preference but proper peas suit a...

Went here for the second time today but should have learnt from the first time as that wasn't very good but thought we'd give the benefit of the doubt 🤦‍♀️ table booked for 1 o'clock, got there 10 minutes early, seated within couple of minutes so all good there. When she was leading us to the table she informed us that the carvery was no longer serving because they had no veg and their steamer had broke, ok fair enough, we went for the carvery but doesn't matter 🤷‍♀️ best friend and I ordered a buttermilk chicken BURGER (which we expected to be like anywhere else where it's actually a fresh chicken thigh or breast that has been done on sight) and pizza for little one, got told 20-25 minutes wait for food, even though weren't particularly busy as most people were already eating and still quite a few tables were empty. 10 minutes after we ordered, which was 5 minutes after we sat down, carvery was open again 🤦‍♀️ if we'd have known that we would have waited, but they just said it was closed. 40 minutes later (double the time we gpt told) our food finally came only for the chicken BURGER to actually be a frozen chicken STEAK that you can buy a pack of 4 from iceland for £3-£4 that I don't like and for the pizza to be a Chicago town microwavable pizza that hadn't even been nuked fully (needed about 30 more seconds) 🤷‍♀️ forced myself to eat the chicken STEAK as it would probably be another 40 minutes before I got a replacement (roll was nice and soft though). The carrots on the LO plate were rock solid and still raw that even she wouldn't eat them, and she loves carrots. Why is a restaurant that is on a marina serving frozen microwaved food? Surely, they have the kitchen/cooks/ingredients to do fresh food other than the carvery. Even weatherspoons do fresh pizza and chicken burgers. It's not that hard, and I know that as I've worked in several pub kitchens and the microwave is barely used. The chocolate sundae and the lava cookie/ice cream were delicious though which is the only reason for the 3 stars but again, I have a feeling chef mike had a hand in the warm cookie which was more than likely bought off site and frozen until needed. Wouldn't go here again for the main menu unless they actually started doing fresh as its not worth the money you pay, but would for the desserts.

Edit: came here for the 3rd time today for a spot of lunch and to give it another try and glad I did. Table was originally booked for 1.15 but had to rearrange it through app as there was a problem with the bus so rearranged it for 1.45 but it didnt go through? They gavw our table away but didnt really matter as the lady who was at the desk was understanding and thankfully found us another table. Staff were lovely and friendly. Thankfully carvery was open this time. Very generous portions, the toasties were light and fluffy in the middle, carrots were slightly hard but overall delicious. The garlic bread on the mains was hard as anything though and I struggled to bite into it so it got left. Desserts of chocolate lave cookie, choctastic sundae and child's ice cream with strawberry sauce were delicious and very moreish. Overall much better than the first 2 visits and will be...

Been here several times before with a large family booking and had a great experience with good food, so went back with my family, 15 of us in total. When we have been before and the reason l make a booking is usually they position the tables so we have one table for all of us to sit at, then we can all talk amongst ourselves. We had 2 separate tables this time. We asked a member of staff if we could re configure the tables but were told you'll have to speak to the manager. One of our group is dairy intolerant. A female member of staff came to our table and asked who that was. We pointed out whom it was, and she was then asked "what cant you have if you're dairy free? " my son replied, no dairy, to which the member of staff rolled her eyes, said ok then, and stormed off. What else were we meant to reply?? Everything thing we asked this member of staff was always done with a grimace from her, no smile and no customer service. The ultimate breakfast is advertised as dairy free apart from the butter for the toast, but when the food arrived, there were no mushrooms. We were told she couldn't have any as they were cooked in butter. Surely, as they already knew in my phone call, there was an intolerance, mushrooms could have been cooked without butter?? Why advertise incorrectly?? The food wasn't as nice as usual, dry muffins, overcooked sausages, and hollandaise sauce tasted very vinegary to say a few. We asked for 2 lattes and 2 hot chocolates at the end. After 15 mins of waiting, we were told that they were waiting for the mugs to be washed, and then when they finally arrived , the hot chocolates were barely warm!! It's such a shame as we felt more of a hindrance being there rather than receiving the good service and food we have experienced in the past. The bill was £165 so it was not a small spend. Plus, when l got home, l realised my deposit hasnt been deducted!! We won't be going again On one positive note.... the score would have been one but a big up to Heather behind the bar. Great customer service, great chat, and laughing throughout the many drinks she was preparing for us . ....