The Park Gate Inn — Restaurant in Maidstone

Shocking!! Booked a table weeks in advanced and arrived early thinking it was going to be busy due to the Leeds castle event....but to my surprise it wasn't. Wheeled my nan into the bar to order pre meal drinks which after 10 minutes of being ignored I went and put her on a table so I could stand further round the bar..I counted 3 bar staff serving roughly 10 people but still waited a further 10 minutes to be served. When the rest of our party arrived we were briefly shown our table, booked for 8, set up for 6.. we had to rearrange the seating and hunt for cutlery ourselves. Order for food was taken within 15 minutes of seating and drinks arrived in good time..the wait however for the starter was appalling and only the beginning of a long wait for everything else.. There was no waiting service during this period and by the time the starters came glasses were empty with no offer from staff to get more...in the end we deemed it quicker to go to the bar, but we're assured it would be quicker to Order from the table..Finally! (I did wonder round to the busy bar, again 3 staff 8 patrons at the bar, most with drinks anyway) Drinks arrived but another hour and half passed before mains.. this was after several complaints not only from our table but another party table next to us who had been waiting a further half hour. Again during this time no offer of drinks and the staff seemingly no where to be seen. When the mains finally arrived and by this point we were on our 3rd member of staff...1 order was completely wrong even though they had come and double checked(on the rare occasion we did see someone) and the rest of the food was really bad quality that most of us could not eat it. Expect the kids who by this point were starving and inhaled it,(chips,beans,sausages...not a lot to go wrong there).. the wrong meal was taken away...it was a further 15 minutes before the correct food was served by this point we'd all pushed our plates away in disgust. The duty manager came to speak to us as she did the other table and offered her apologies and blamed how busy they were and short staffed... I had already wondered round the restaurant to see... 6 tables!! And some walk-ins in the garden. Not busy at all.. If they can't cover 6 tables and walk-ins then what the hell they going to do on a busy night! And to also blame the Leeds castle event, something that's planned well in advance, every year...is a joke!

We were offered 33%(staff discount) off and 1 meal removed from the bill, to be honest this was not enough. The quality of the food and the service was so below par, if I was not in a group of people I would of expected a drinks bill only or walked out...

Won't be recommending this place or...

I booked the full all day menu, but was only given the festive 2 or 3 course, not great for two kids, I asked for a child menu, and I had to ask for one course for my other son, and still was not offered the full menu, reluctantly I ordered turkey dinner, this was the worst meal I have NEVER eaten. The Brussels were dehydrated and I could squish flat as they were do were sponge air filled like. I love Brussels normally, carrots were not much better, the potatoes were either hollow or tasted like soap. I was looking forward to the veg. The turkey was OK under the thick gravy but after trying the veg I actually felt sick at the thought of eating anymore. The waitress didn't ask when she took my plate, if everything was OK. As I clearly left everything but the Yorkshire pudding. The check back was far to quick so I didn't have chance to say anything. We were charged more than the 2 course and I don't know why 34.5 for the steak? 2 course, not 30.5, was there a premium on that? Our dining experience was also rushed because we were told 20 people were coming in so we needed to be quick. Why is that my problem? The set menu didn't have much choice, Just because it is Xmas doesn't mean we want to eat brandy sauce and mince pies, I was very disappointed not to able to see the full menu and feel we paid way more than what is was worth. Just before we left we overheard the waitress telling another couple they could eat off the normal menu but it would cost more. This annoyed them and they argued, I wish we had as we had no choice. Surely the customer is paying they can choose and should not feel goaded into the set menu which was clearly leftovers judging by the quality...

Just came home from the park gate inn Maidstone and feel very let down. Was there for my mums birthday. She had a voucher for a bottle of free Prosecco for her birthday, but we was told it has to be in your wallet for 24hrs. I said it does not state this on the voucher, so she put it through and we was correct, so got the free bottle. Onto the meal, I had beef and at £17.25, I expected more than 2 slithers of beef. The potatoes were awful, nothing like as described, very waxy. The knives are so blunt, they cut nothing including the hard potatoes. Everyone’s potatoes were like this and the broccoli was so hard, you couldn’t get your knife through it. Then the bill, I was racking my brains looking at the extras 20% for this and 20% for that and £10.18 for something called wet!!! I asked is this 20% figure a service fee, she said no. So I asked what it was and she said it’s what the company add on??? I then asked what the wet figure was for and I was met again by it’s something they add on?? What kind of explanation is this. When times are tough, we need to know what we are paying for!!! We did leave the waitress a £5 tip as the poor lady was run off her feet, serving all the tables in the restaurant. The last point I have to make is, it’s fine having dogs in the bar area, lots of pubs do this, but to have our Sunday roast surrounded by dogs in the restaurant is not really on and is not what is stated on your website!! Such a shame as was looking to have an enjoyable meal for my...