The Mary Beale Restaurant — Restaurant in London

Hair in scone! Was really looking forward to coming to West Lodge Park Hotel for an afternoon tea as we hadn't been in over a decade. Knew from the off that it wouldn't be perfect when we asked the bar person to make a mocktail. Only 2 choices avail and even then he had to look at the ingredients online to make it! Got seated and when my wife's Earl Grey tea came, it was way too strong and undrinkable. Fortunately the replacement green mint tea was much better. What really cheesed me off was initially finding a hair on the white table cloth, but this was compounded but seeing a hair on one of the scones (see photo). When my wife asked one of the male workers to change the tea, he never came back again, so we had to ask our initial server to do this. Luckily she was good at her job unlike a couple of the others we noticed who were shirking. I must not forget to mention the piano tuner. Although the hotel will call him the resident piano player, the tunes he played were mainly Elton John & Queen tracks and on occasion he would try and sing a chorus from each tune. Piano person and muzak, both out of time and not comforting to hear in the 21st century. Don't get me wrong, I'm over 50 but I'd prefer to hear something from this millennium. Will I come back here, not for a long time, and trying to forget about the hairs will...

It is some time since my previous visit and sad to say the restaurant food leaves me cold compared with the past. There was a set lunch menu as well as the full menu to choose from but in both cases the six of us felt that the menus were pretentious, with descriptive terms that not many would understand, thereby creating a false impression of superior cuisine aimed at the aficionados of quality dining. Needless to say, some of us chose from the set menu and some from the main menu which so complicated the billing because the staff had no means of charging the set price menu costs without charging for each element. Needless to say the bill was wrong and some embarrassment was created by having to call the attention of the manager to a substantial overcharge. Nevertheless the service was reasonably attentive and with sound absorbing carpet on the floor, conversation was possible without having to raise voices which I personally treasure these days when eating out. We felt that the menu was somewhat limited and the food presentation and quality was alright although not up to expectation bearing in mind the content of the menus as...

I would like to formally file a complaint against this restaurant.

The manager who was on duty on 24/10/2023 at 12:30 was disrespectful and arrogant. He refused to allow us to sit in the main restaurant area on three times and insisted that we sit in the coffee/bar area, even though 90% of the tables in the main restaurant area were unoccupied.

I specifically requested a table in the main restaurant area, not the coffee/bar area, but he provided numerous excuses and continued to insist on seating us in the coffee/bar area.

On the third time, I made an online reservation right in front of him, as his last excuse was that we had to book a table through the online system. He claimed that he couldn't arrange a table in the restaurant area without an ONLINE BOOKING.

Subsequently, the manager told me that we could sit in the bar area and that he would attempt to change our table from the coffee/bar area to the restaurant area since someone had just made a restaurant reservation before us.

I hope this restaurant can find a more competent and accommodating manager. Don't waste...