Wig & Mitre - Lincoln — Restaurant in Lincoln

Poor quality food, building cold, January Sales offer scam.

I would have eaten in the city centre but decided to walk up Steep Hill and check out Wig & Mitre January Sale offers on their A-board blocking the footpath.

Somewhat confusing. One side of the A-board main courses £10, the other side selected lunch time offers £8.

When I last visited for a drink some months ago, empty, not today, busy, or at least had been busy, from the evidence of the dirty uncleared tables. It must be the lunch time offers enticing them in.

As I walked in, I noticed tables were dirty, had not been cleared of dirty dishes.

I waited at the bar whilst drinks were ordered. I then asked of the offers. Barman rattled off less than half a dozen items, muttered terms and conditions, then brought me a board that listed the very limited offer. He had obviously been briefed, should a potential customer question the scam.

A scam. Does not include everything on the main menu. I was also told get my order in, kitchen closed in ten minutes. Outside it said open all day. That evening I checked on-line, kitchen open all day.

Scam.very restricted offer. Steak? No. Bangers and mash on the main menu a little over ten pounds. The same was true of the lunch time offers, only a few pence more than the offer price.

At this point, once it was obvious it was a scam, I should have turned on my heels and walked out.

I was at the bar several minutes. Whilst there, I noticed the door to the kitchen was open, sitting there an order of fish and chips.

I asked for a table by the window to be cleared. I was directed to a table in the gloomy interior.

Barman cleared a table. Apologised. Said he was the only one on. Serving drinks, taking orders, serving tables, cleaning tables.

My order of scampi and chips arrived within minutes. Disgusting. On a par with a greasy spoon cafe, only a greasy spoon cafe would have been cheaper and better quality. Frozen peas, poor quality chips, very poor quality fake scampi. Served on a cold plate.

The restaurant was cold.

The WiFi was blocked by the security on my phone, not secure, an untrustworthy connection.

Flipping through the drinks menu, no cocktails. Maybe for the better, as most bars and restaurants are clueless on cocktails.

The only positive. A lovely old building.

A chain and it shows. Begs the question, is this January Sales scam running across the chain?

There are far better places to eat local to the Wig & Mitre.

What would have happened if a group of people had sat down, ordered steak and chips, then when eaten, presented with a bill for the full price on the menu, not as they expected, ten pounds each? I would have refused to pay. I was wise enough to question the offer before ordering, but not wise enough once the scam exposed to turn on my heels and walk out. Had I walked out, at least I would have been spared the disgusting scampi and chips.

The start of the New Year has seen many pubs and restaurants close. With the abysmal low standards of the Wig & Mitre it is easy to see why. The only suprise is that they remain open for business.

--- update ---

It is bad enough, poor quality food and service and a scam. To lie about the scam makes it worse.

The large A-Board outside illegally blocking the footpath made no mention of terms & conditions on the offer displayed. I was wise enough to ask. Immediately 'terms & conditions' as though briefed or had many complaints, a small board was produced displaying a very restricted offer. There were no posters displayed.

There are far better places to eat nearby, where they care about what they serve, care about service.

--- update ---

RedCat, the pubco that owns the Wig & Mitre, has called in...

tl:dr: Had to leave after waiting 2 hours for food. Emails to the establishment regarding the experience ignored.

My sisters and I booked the festive menu for 4 people for Monday 23rd December. We were asked to email over which courses we planned on ordering in advance, which we did, and requested a quiet room as one of my sisters suffers from migraines. We had also emailed ahead asking about wheelchair access, but received no response. We also received no response to emails regarding dietary requirements. On arrival we were told that we'd "Unfortunately arrived at the same time as a table of 10 and a table of 12". Early red flags that we wished we had heeded.

We were seated around 6:30pm and after a rather inappropriate 30 minute wait we received our drinks. Despite being seated in a quiet room, the door leading to the room slammed every time it shut, banging loudly every time staff came in or out. 50 minutes after we'd been seated I enquired as to when we should expect to receive our starters. One hour after arriving our starters arrived and, once we had finished these, so began another long wait. We asked multiple times for updates as to how much longer we should expect to wait for our food, but on each occasion no one came back to us.

Another hour passed, two hours since first being seated, and we had still not received our main meals. Despite the fact we had emailed our orders in advance and pre-booked the table, we were still waiting at 8:30pm for our main meals. As my sister was now beginning to feel unwell and could not wait any longer, as well as the rest of us being now tired, hungry and fed up from waiting, I went to inform the wait staff that my party was leaving as my sisters got their coats.

The main bar area was chaos. A young man ran past me, out of breath and holding plates of food, saying he'd be with me soon. Another young lady came to the bar, stressed and out of breath, and in a panic said she'd also be with me soon. The atmosphere was tense and overwhelming. I'm not sure what issues were going on behind the scenes, but the team was clearly stressed, overworked and understaffed. It was actually appalling the conditions these young people were left to operate under. Eventually I managed to talk to someone and received a verbal apology. We were not charged for the food and drinks that did turn up - and I wouldn't have expected to have been - and left. Frustratingly we were told that we could not be reimbursed our £10 deposit.

I live in London and only manage to see my family every 4-6 months or so. When I do come home my sisters and I meet up for a family meal. It's a special occasion for all of us and requires a lot of pre-planning particularly as one of my sisters has two young children and the other two unfortunately suffer with long-term, chronic health conditions. This meal is the highlight of my trip home. On this occasion we looked at many restaurants specifically for a celebratory Christmas meal and were so excited at what Wig & Mitre had to offer, especially as I'm vegan and often struggle to find an establishment that caters to a plant based diet. It was therefore gutting that our evening turned out as it did and that we ended up leaving hungry, tired and disappointed.

After our ordeal I reached out to Wig&Mitre via two separate email addresses and after a month - including a follow up email to give them an opportunity to respond - I've not heard a thing from them. Please don't go here. They really don't care about...

I recently enjoyed visiting York, a charming city with stunning architecture.

On the way back home, I stopped at Lincoln. After enjoying the sights at Lincoln, I stopped by to see my sister-in-law, who is expecting next month. It was a delightful visit, likely the last before she welcomes her new baby.

We decided to cap off the visit with a drink and some nibbles at a local pub. Upon arrival, the bar staff instructed us to head to the second floor and choose any unreserved table. We found a cosy corner, perfect for relaxing. However, our initial contentment was soon disrupted. A bartender on the second floor unexpectedly shouted across the room to acknowledge our arrival, startling us and other patrons.

After waiting about 5-10 minutes without receiving menus, I approached the bar to inquire, only to be accused of rudeness for not properly checking in upon selecting our table. Despite my attempts to clarify the misunderstanding, citing the instructions we received downstairs, the bartender argued rather than explain the establishment's policies and assisted us.

Not wanting to cause any stress for my pregnant sister-in-law, we decided to leave the pub.

Having travelled extensively across the EU, the US, and other regions, I've never encountered such an unwelcoming experience simply for following seating instructions. Travellers visiting this pub should be cautious of the bearded bartender, whose lack of professionalism and courtesy significantly dampened our experience.

Thank you for your reply. I truly appreciate your response and understand the importance of supporting your team. I just wanted to clarify that at no point did we intend to cause any disruption or misunderstandings.

When we arrived, the bartender downstairs didn't instruct us to check with anyone regarding seating. A gentleman at the lower bar kindly informed us that we could grab a table and make ourselves comfortable, and that we would be served. The table we chose wasn’t dirty, though it was missing two sets of forks, which we didn’t think was a problem.

If we did make any mistake in terms of seating, we would have greatly appreciated a polite approach, perhaps explaining, “Sorry, this table isn’t quite ready yet,” or something along those lines. That would have been helpful and easily understood. But he didn't, he just ignored us until we approached him at the bar after waiting for 5-10 minutes as I have mentioned before. He could politely tell us to move elsewhere and do not cause any issues by just nicely explaining the situation, but again, he failed by raising his voice and getting in to argument.

While I understand the need to support your staff, we were left with the impression that we weren’t welcome, and that is the main concern I wanted to raise. I hope this feedback can be useful for future situations.

Feel free reviewing CCTV, or provide me with the phone number for further explanation

Thank you again for your time and...