Cast Iron Grill — Restaurant in Maidstone

I booked the Afternoon Tea at Cast Iron Grill for a treat for my Mum and Nan for Mother’s Day, and overall, we were not impressed. On arrival, we were sat in the Lobby area rather than inside the actual restaurant, as the restaurant was full of customers that had booked the Sunday Carvery. That’s fine and understandable, however we were sat in a booth on sofas, and our table was a very low coffee table style, which we had to hunch over to eat. Being 5 months pregnant, this was not ideal for my back, but clearly all of the other tables in the lobby area were also very low, so no other options available. As soon as we had sat down, we were not shown any menus of the selection of tea’s/ alcoholic additional options, and the waitress just came straight over to ask what tea we would like. We were then told our food will be out shortly, even though they hadn’t checked for any dietary requirements etc. I had my 4 year old with us, and asked if there was a child’s version, or a child’s menu we could see as she would obviously not be having a full adult Afternoon Tea- They looked quite put out by this request, but did then bring us over the child’s menu. Our afternoon Tea food came out very quickly, and I put in the order for my daughter’s child’s meal- a main, and an ice cream for dessert. When her main meal did finally come, the ice cream was brought out at the same time- Not ideal when its starts melting, and also trying to tell a 4 year old that they have to eat their main food before having their ice cream! The actual Afternoon Tea provided was quite underwhelming, and I also noticed that they were missing the ‘homemade sausage rolls’, which were on the menu online. When I questioned this, the waitress went to the kitchen to check, and returned saying there were no sausage rolls, but some sort of ‘ham hock’ thing instead. I said ok, that would be great, thanks. They never arrived. We had been there for 35 minutes, when one of the waitresses hastily brought over our bill and said ‘here’s your bill, when you’re ready, please pay at the bar’. Obviously we had the sense we were being rushed out, but I asked if we could have some more tea, as we had all ran out and we were all still eating. When I checked the bill, I couldn’t believe there had been a 12.5% service charge added, meaning an extra £10 something added to the bill. With the service we had received, I asked to take this service charge off when paying, and no questions were asked. Overall, we were all very unimpressed, dissatisfied, felt rushed and as though we were an inconvenience. A real shame on what should have been a nice Mother’s...

Absolutely appalling. Seated at 19.20, ordered nibbles and main course at 19.30. Nibbles arrived at 19.40 with no plates! No drinks order taken. Had to wait until a waiter passed our table to ask for a plate and drinks. Waited another 10 minutes still nothing so asked another passing waiter. Eventually a plate a drinks arrived. Still waiting for our main course at 20.38 was not offered another drink, completely ignored by all staff. Watched as diners who arrived after us were served their main courses while we sat still waiting. Asked for the bill as we were no prepared to wait any longer, all ready waited well over an hour. Waitress disappeared and didn't return. Went down to reception to ask for a manager and was told they didn't know who was on duty! Eventually the restaurant manager came down and said our food was ready now and claimed that we had only ordered it 30 minutes before!! This was at 20.50. The manager was trying to blame us claiming that we hadn't ordered our food until 20.20. She was implying that we had waited an hour to order our food!! Absolute rubbish! We ordered our main course at the same time as our nibbles which was 19.30. Is anyone going to believe that we sat there for an hour before we ordered our main course? To add insult to injury, Karen, the restaurant manager was not at all apologetic. On the contrary she tried to blame us for the delay! Today is our wedding anniversary. We chose this venue for our anniversary meal because we married there 13 years ago today. We have celebrated our anniversary there every year since. We'll I can assure you we will never step foot in there ever again. Not only has the service gone to the depths of beyond appalling but the restuarant itself is on par with a transport cafe! Not only wad the table we were seated at was falling apart and the chair was about to collapse at any minute. Clearly the marriott brand we entrusted our wedding day too has long gone and been replaced by shoddy decor, decapitated furniture and staff that have no interest what so ever of ensuring you enjoy your experience. Never...

Because of the bad reviews here, i didnt wanted to dine in this Grill... so i had no expectations and expected the worst. We had both the burger and a salad. We asked for the size of the burger and surprisingly the staff told us, the patty had around 210 grams... wow, thats a lot and i tell you, the burger was delicious. The staff was really friendly and caring, the salad was crispy and fresh and i had a tasty local IPA lager. Everything was really fine. I cant comprehend the...