The Prince Albert, Twickenham — Restaurant in London

We had a group booking of 25-30 people. Originally I organised with the restaurant manager that we would pay by table names (which was fine with the manager) as people would be paying by couple or seperately. I have worked and grown up in the catering industry for 15+ years, where the restaurant seats up to 80 people, holds function nights and have multiple seperate bills. I understand this system can be somewhat annoying, however, if managed properly, there should be no issues at all.

On the day, my sister arrived before me and a lady (maybe head waitress, not sure) informed her we need to pay by table number. Fine. So we all sat on our own tables that we were going to pay.

When ordering food, I made it clear to the waiters and waitresses what food was for which table. Everything seemed fine at this point. Waitresses customer service was mediocre, nothing special.

When my table (biggest table) finished eating, I decided to go up and pay straight away to avoid any confusion and purposely checked with the waiter that all was ok for our tables bill, and it was ok.

We had one friend on my table (big table) who wanted to pay seperately (her order was; one lemonade, vegetable spring rolls and phad Thai for £17.50). She paid her bill first and then I paid the remaining amount for our table. All was fine and the waiter confirmed all was ok.

Then everyone paid for their food and drinks as they ordered and/or after they had finished their food and drink.

However, there was a male waiter (short guy) who had confused himself and the head waitress (who was clearly getting frustrated with him because she kept asking us (the customers) how many of what dish and drink was ordered, when the staff should know this) because he did not tick off/cross out people's orders on their paper order bill against the computer or printed bill when they had paid. As I said before, if managed properly, this system should have no issues.

(To be frank, the waiter's attitude was bad and made a nice afternoon turn sour because of it. We didn't even want to stay in the pub area because of his attitude and facial expressions.)

He kept shaking his head telling me that I still had food and drink to pay for my table, which I had already gone through and paid my bill with him. He clearly could not cope under pressure. He did the same to my guests as well, even though everyone had payment receipts and showed him their receipts of proof of payment but he was still adamant money was still owed.

The head waitress had to step in and explain to him that the bills were paid but he chose to carry on implying we did not want to pay (even though all was paid for).

It was a shame a manager was not present at the time because you could clearly see there was no management/system there, the waiters and waitresses started to argue amongest themselves because there was so much confusion.

I would like to add that their allergy menu/tick list needs to be updated. Apparently their chips has fish sauce in it.

Update: 25-04-2019 Emailed manager when review was posted, just to express how the afternoon went etc (not for anything else). And the manager hasn't bothered to respond. So clearly he...

Edited to add: We were really impressed with how Ken (the owner) got in touch after my review and the way he handled it all. He really seemed keen to make it right and invited us for a meal on the house. The atmosphere and the experience this time was completely different and welcoming. The food was absolutely decilious (one of the best we have had since moving here) and so was the service. We happily offered to pay for the food but the deputy manager insisted it was on the house this time. Loved how Ken and the restaurant manager took our feedback on board and ensured we left happily. This will be our regular go to Thai place going forward :)

After reading the wonderful reviews, we went to Prince Albert for dinner on Sunday (Father's Day) for what we expected to be a nice little celebration with our 6 year old. It turned out to be a very dissapointing experience. The service was absolutely shocking. There was no food on the table for 1 hour 15 mins from placing the order and even after repeatedly asking multiple staff members, there was no update on how much longer it would take....just a curt response "we are very busy". If it was going to take so long, any courteous restaurant would warn the customers at the time of seating, especially when they have a child. After 1 hour 20 mins, my husband got up to tell the server to cancel the order as our kid was starving by then and we decided we would just pick up a pizza on the way home instead. The food miraculously appeared on the table but only PART of the order. Assuming the rest is coming, we decided to eat as our child was really hungry. 20 mins in, we had almost finished the food and there was no sight of the remaining order. We asked the server again and she went in to check....came back and asked us what we ordered as they didnt take the order correctly. By this time we were really frustrated and obviously couldnt be bothered, so we just told them to cancel it. So even after such a long wait, we didn't get to eat proper dinner and ended up picking up a pizza on the way.

The bar staff was really great and so was the food but the service from the restaurant was very shocking (especially the lady servers, who had absolutely no courtesy even for our child). Atleast a man came in the end to apologise and offered the dinner on the house....but we had already paid for what we had. Very disappointing experience for a...

I have been coming here for a while every week or so for lunch menu; I’ve always enjoyed however every single time I order something with chicken I cannot eat it!! The taste and texture is so foul I cannot even swallow. It tastes like the cheapest possible peices of gone off frozen chicken to put it simply. I have mentioned it a few times but they have not acknowledged at all and I know I shouldn’t have gone back after first time I politely mentioned about the taste and visuals of the chicken. To conclude I went back to get an afternoon lunch menu firstly we waited around 10/15 for someone to take our order AFTER leaving the table to go and find someone to come and take our order I found her sitting at a table. Normally they take our drinks order at the same time as food at the table but today she said no go up to the bar and order and walked away ( nearly 5 years weekly customers never been asked to do this ) Anyway, once again I made the mistake of ordering Thai green curry with chicken, after the first bite of a peice of chicken I spat it out!!! I can’t express how disgusting it is and I can’t fathom how they have the cheek to serve it. The curry was tasteless and watery, such a shame. I did mention it once again very politely and discreetly at the end of the meal when I was paying so it did not cause a scene, I did not expect anything such as refund but maybe just an apology as I did not eat any of the curry, just rice. I showed them all the chicken and curry of course left in the bowl and told them about the chicken, she stared at me for about 6 seconds and said can’t you choose something else next time like beef or prawn. No apology, empathy or customer service skills whatsoever. My mum whom I was with and witnessed this was also a very loyal regular customer and we have agreed we would never return after this.

On the other hand the lady behind the car in the pub area was so sweet and friendly. Made such a difference to the other end of the pub in the...