Ash Tree — Restaurant in Lichfield

We were very surprised by the difference in the quality of service compared to previous visits, especially the previous two occasions recently when one member of staff in particular couldn’t do enough for us. I believe he is an assistant manager but was not working on Sunday. We were shown to our table by a female member of staff who was quite curt. I believe she also is a manager/assistant manager. We ordered drinks which came within a reasonable amount of time. I asked the girl who brought them what the vegetarian Sunday dish was and she said she thought it was the sausages but did not offer to check, she just walked off. When I came to order, I asked if the cauliflower tart was available and she then went to check and it was. No major issue so far but clearly no training/interest evident. Half an hour later a couple of people out of our group of five had drunk their drinks but no one appeared to be waiting our table (we used to be perfectly happy going to the bar but last year you changed it to table service) so I went to the bar. The young man did offer to come to the table (which was a bit pointless at that point!) and these drinks came without issue but no mention of any delay on our food order. After over an hour after our reservation time, I asked a passing member of staff if we could get an update. She said 4 - 5 minutes. The food did eventually arrive 6 - 7 minutes later. The food was ok although my stuffing had not been mixed properly. However, during the entire of our visit, we had to keep shutting the door to the beer garden because my elderly mother in law was subjected to the draught due to staff keep leaving it open. We finished our meals and the plates were cleared. It became clear that we were not going to be offered a dessert menu or asked if we wanted any further drinks. Eventually we gave up and I went to the bar to ask for a manager. The woman who has seated us came over and we voiced our dissatisfaction with the service. She said that the young girl was new and was doing her best and “it wasn’t deliberate”. Thank goodness for that! It was not the young girl’s fault that the food took so long. Neither was it her fault that she had clearly received no training so I am not sure why the manager kept referring to her. It was the experience as a whole that we were dissatisfied with. When we referred to the draught, she said that it was “actually a very popular table”. If this was the case, then we could have been given the option to sit somewhere else as the pub was not busy when we arrived. Staff should have noticed that we had an elderly lady with us and they would have known that the door was going to be repeatedly opened. The manager’s response to our reasonable comments also showed a complete lack of training/professionalism. Nothing we had said was personal so her response was very odd. We asked for the bill, which she brought back quite quickly, saying that “Josh” would be with us. Josh didn’t arrive and finally I went to the bar to pay. He did not know anything about being supposed to come to take our payment. The manager had discounted the bill by 30% although she had not mentioned this to us. Neither had she actually put it through the till so the girl who was asking us for the payment eventually left in tears when she got that wrong. The experience was a shambles. We live 2 minutes’ drive or a 15 minutes’ walk away along the canal, which we like to do but we won’t be rushing back, sadly, until staff are trained or replaced and there are adequate numbers of staff cooking/serving. Little niggles such as my lime and soda not having been stirred and when I asked for a straw to stir it, this was held by the tip instead of the middle, would have been overlooked if the experience had been enjoyable. My mother in law likened it to being in a motorway service station so if this is your...

It has always been our local and we have had varying experiences all dependant on the staff of course. I am also a member of the Ash Tree Boat Club and we have have used it for meals as well. Yesterday my neighbour and I walked to the Ash Tree. We had booked a meal for 1pm. We decided on the Ash Tree because they had a 30% off mains offer. There were 5 cars on the car park. We walked in was told that the gluten free option which they had a menu for and which we had opted for on our booking form wasn’t available and that they in fairness had been trying to contact us but I had missed a digit out of my phone number on the form so they weren’t able to. It wasn’t a problem. We opted for two beef Sunday lunches. The waitress was very pleasant and I ordered mine with the gravy separate and that was exactly how it came. It was fine meat ok and gravy separate on the one. I’ve got to say I go to the Plum Pudding for lunch regularly and their Sunday lunch knocks the spots off the Ash Tree. It is more expensive but not a great deal more and is worth the extra. Pudding next . Had exactly the same but neighbour had gluten free option so no cake in hers. Not as many sweet choices as when the Ash used to have a blackboard full of choices. We paid for our meal and forgot our 30% off mains option. Nobody mentioned it either. So two roast beef £13.25 each two Rocky Road sundaes £5.50 each (one gluten free no diff in price) 1 bottle Zinfandel rose £58.95 in total. Obviously would have been less with the 30% off mains...

We were a party of 5 (2 of which are over 80 with 2 diabetics ) arriving at 13:20 for 13:30 Christmas Lunch. We were seated right away. No one advised us about drinks. Do we wait to order or go to the bar? Our starter came out straight away. Which was delicious. By 13:40 starter was finished so I went to the bar to get drinks. At 14:30 we still hadn't got our main. We had to tell the staff 3 times. I went to the bar to get a 2nd round of drinks. The poor guy behind the bar was quite stressed. He handed me a pint of San Miguel, as he did so it caught on the drip tray and spilled towards me. He got a towel to mop it up. I took it off him to help him out while he poured the rest of our drinks. When our mains finally arrived it was nice and hot and very tasty. When we finished our main the time was 15:10 bearing in mind we only have the table until 15:30. We were all getting a bit stressed out wondering what would happen if the time went over. The desserts came 15:35. Although the staff didn't say anything about leaving, while we were eating the dessert the staff came and collected the plates of those who had finished while other were still eating. As soon as we had finished, we felt pressured to get up and go. This upset my stomach as my meal hadn't had time to settle. The food was absolutely lovely and the poor staff worked really hard. I think the plan was over ambitious as serving times...