The Dabbling Duck Pub Great Massingham — Restaurant in King's Lynn and West Norfolk

In any European restaurant, with a budget of £112 for a dinner for two, starter, mains and a bottle of average wine, you might expect, at the very least, quick and courteous staff. You might expect to be shown to a table on your arrival by a professional, exuding confidence and expertise. You'd be given menus and a wine list and a drinks order would be taken pretty much as you sit down. The drinks would arrive almost instanteously, with a carafe of tap water and a bowl of bread. Your order taken, you might wait for 10 minutes, before it would arrive piping hot and plentiful, and, of course delicious. This is bog standard service in most countries. At the Dabbling Duck, a clueless and very young waitress wandered about confused about where we were sitting, until she was helped by a colleague. We stood in a cramped corridor clutching our bags and coats before being shown our table and left to our own devices. Eventually two menus arrived, and then a wine list. The specials board was next door, so we trooped there, then back, and eventually another waitress appeared and took our order, another wait, and we were told the order I'd given was no longer available, so it was back to the specials board next door, and then we waited for the wine to appear. We waited and waited and finally it appeared. No water of course. Eventually my starter arrived - a few small dabs of crab paste on a limp bit of lettuce. It was my wife's birthday, I did not complain, I was desperately hungry in any case and grateful for anything. The crab despatched in about 90 seconds, we settled down for another excruciating wait. We waited and waited. Eventually the waitress arrived with our mains and this time I did complain. A manager was summoned and I was told there had not been a wait, she was astoundingly aggressive, I asked for a reduction on the bill, she said - no, there would not be a reduction. Unasked, she gave me her name, which tells you that she is clearly a seasoned operator when it comes to telling disgruntled customers to bog off. The mains course hovered mid air while we decided what to do. It was 'take it or leave it' and pay the full whack please. So, we took it. It was at least warm, and it was modest in size, but not without flavour. So it should have been at the price. The Dabbling Duck is like many gastropub factories (its quaint and cutesy exterior conceals a vast operation stretching back behind it) with amateurish staff, slapdash service and aggressive managers who know that the business will keep coming no matter what is said on the Google reviews. I strongly advise you to read the reviews with one star - they are highly revealing and consistent about the dreadful service and aggressive response to complaints. I won't be going again, but I will be making sure that as many people as possible know about my experience. An awful birthday 'treat' - avoid, and don't dare to complain,...

What a nightmare. Let me start by saying that I always read reviews but I rarely take the time to write one, but our lunch today was so disappointing that I felt like I needed to write one. First of all, the service was some of the worst we have experienced in our 3 years in England. When our waitress came to get our drink order I asked her what was in one of their cocktails and she said it was “an alcoholic drink” and when I pressed her for more info she said “it may have rum and fruit in it” so I ended up ordering something else. I think good customer service would have been to say I don’t know exactly but I will find out for you and let you know. We ended up ordering 2 blood orange spritzes but they only brought us one and forgot about the other one so we had to ask and remind them we’d ordered a second drink. It took over an hour to get our food which that in itself wouldn’t be so strange on a busy Sunday afternoon, if it wasn’t for the fact that we saw several tables who were sat 15/20 mins after we were get their food before we did. Besides the poor service, the food also was a disappointment. We are huge fans of gastropubs but this pub restaurant seems to suffer from an identity crisis because they have a couple of really unique dishes the type that your expect from a gastropub but everything else on the menu is very basic pub food. I ordered the bbq shiitake mushroom dish because it sounded the most interesting, it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great either. My daughter ordered the kids pasta and when her plate came I asked if she could have a little grated cheese for her pasta and was informed that they’d be a charge because “it’s pasta with pesto, it doesn’t come with grated cheese on top”. I’ve never experienced this at any restaurant we’ve ever eaten at before and I can confirm we were charged an extra £1 for some grated cheese. We thought that was ridiculous and the equivalent of a restaurant charging you for mayo or ketchup when you order a side of chips. Last but not least, we were sat by a table that had 4 dogs. I have nothing against dogs and they were objectively very well behaved, but I think a restaurant should have a designed area to sit people who bring their dogs if they’re going to be allowed to sit inside. We left without ordering dessert because at that point the whole experience had soured on us. A real shame because the restaurant looks great and it’s in a really cute village...

My husband and I recently spent a night at the Dabbling Duck celebrating my birthday with an evening meal, bed and breakfast. Sadly there was a couple of disappointing issues that could most definitely have been avoided if the staff had more thought for guests. Firstly, as we arrived early, we decided to have lunch in the restaurant. However, it soon became apparent that the menu was the same as the evening menu. The staff were busy that afternoon so after a while I went up to the bar to ask if there was a separate lunch menu and explained that we had a reservation for an evening meal and preferred something different for lunch. I was told there wasn’t a separate menu so we ended up ordering a ‘starter’ for a light lunch. Then later, to my complete surprise, when paying our bill at the bar, I turned and noticed a ‘specials’ and sandwich menu board which unfortunately I hadn’t noticed earlier. Why wasn’t it mentioned when I queried the menu? Secondly, when shown to our room, (which by the way was extremely small), it would have been helpful if the member of staff explained the ‘milk’ situation to us because although there was tea, coffee and sugar available in the room there was no milk. Apparently, milk was in a fridge on a landing outside the room which we discovered when we noticed a small label stuck on the corner of a chest of drawers which had been concealed by a drinks tray, water, kettle, cafetiere and magazines etc. Unfortunately, we didn’t find the label until it was too late! Both of these issues could have been avoided had the staff showed more consideration for guests. Being busy is not an excuse and having concealed labels on furniture is not helpful. Two sentences was all that was required. “There is a ‘specials’ and sandwich menu board on the wall behind you.”, and, “You will find fresh milk in the fridge on the landing up the steps to the left of your room”. Nevertheless, Great Massingham is beautiful and we had a wonderful day there. Our evening meal in the restaurant was delicious, as was breakfast. Our room was small and the bed was comfortable but I would definitely recommend you choose a larger room if you plan on staying longer...