The White Horse — Restaurant in Maidstone

Before I begin my review I just want to say both my partner and I are both very easy going, having both worked/currently work in the service industry. We understand things can go wrong, and don't take it to heart as mistakes can happen - we're all human.

This is a long rambling review, piecing together my thoughts on this poor evening so apologies if I stray between topics but I felt the need to provide this feedback.

We've just had quite possibly our worst dining experience in memory.

We originally visited a week ago and the service was fantastic, hence the revisit tonight.

When we arrived it took a little while to be seen but we understand, it's 7pm on a Sunday and you're busy. The lady that served us to begin with (in a chequered shirt) was very friendly, even though she was obviously very busy.

It was once we were seated that the issues began. We were seated near two very loud and rowdy intoxicated men, and it took the staff almost an hour of us being sat there before they eventually told the guys to quieten down despite complaints from several groups.

The main issue we had tonight was with our server. They were incredibly inattentive, taking a very long time to provide service despite the table being clear and both of us quite obviously waiting to order. We eventually had our order taken for drinks, which took around 15 minutes to arrive. Once our drinks arrived the server took our starters order and then disappeared. The starters took around 15 minutes to arrive (absolutely fine), we finished them and then waited for our server to return, clear the table and take our mains order, but our server didn't return to our table despite walking past us and locking eyes with both of us on separate occasions. We eventually then had to ask someone else for more drinks and our mains order. Our original server returned to our table around 10 minutes after we asked the other person for assistance to ask if we needed anything.

After our mains, the lady with the chequered shirt cleared our table, and we then waited half an hour (again with the server walking past seeing that we were waiting and not bothering to come over) despite us clearly attempting to flag her down.

After our mains we were ready to order a round of desserts and another set of drinks, but decided after half an hour that we were fed up.

I found the server, and asked her for the bill.

When they came over to our table with the bill (around 10 minutes after I had asked for it!) they asked if everything was okay, to which I replied that we just wanted to leave now as it had taken 2hrs just to get starters and mains. They handed me the card machine after just remarking in a sulky tone "we've been busy". I put in my PIN and handed the machine back, but she was too preoccupied looking to the other side of the restaurant so around 10 seconds after handing the machine back I simply took my card out of the reader and tore off my own receipt.

After this the server simply walked away leaving us to make our way out the restaurant.

Look, I totally get it if you're busy but on several occasions we spotted our server dawdling around the restaurant whilst everyone else was running about attending to their business. 3 other sets of couples remarked how slow she was, and that they were fed up.

This restaurant could quite easily have had another £30 out of us but we had decided after 2hrs that we were fed up and wanted to leave.

We also had remained polite throughout our entire exchange with the server so there really was no need for her poor attitude.

All in all a very disappointing experience, and we won't be returning. £80 to walk away with a sour taste...

Where to start. We were a party of 11 and had booked a table for 7.30pm on a Saturday night. We arrived and waited a while to place our food order, the waitress looked stressed. As we placed our order, she proceeded to tell us that several starters and mains were unavailable some of which we had chosen. Four of us in the group had to change our main choice twice after being told our second choice wasn't available. We settled on fish cakes. Three members of the party choose vegan burgers, 2 vegetarian currys, 1 fish dish, and 4 fish cakes. We waited for a while, when a chef approached our table reeking of stale cigarettes, for him to announce the chef has burnt two of the fishcakes so can two people choose another dish. Two members of the party have now had to change their mind three times, they settled on the chicken and chips main. The chef appologised and promised that the food would be no more than 5 minutes. The mains turned up. One of the fish cakes had a raw egg on top, so sent back, the vegetables in the vegetable curry were hard and the sticky rice was so sticky that you could pick it up in one lump, they were sent back, the fish dish was bland and went uneaten. The vegan burgers were okay as was the last standing fish cake meal. The two ladies who ordered the chicken and chips were served a small silver frying pan, like something you would find in a kids kitchen set, no chips or side. Instead of the expected quarter chicken they were given 4-6 chicken bites in a sticky sauce. We asked a member of waiting staff if chips or sides were coming to accompany the chicken only to be told no because it's a starter dish! Despite the chef full well knowing it was a main dish because he had asked them personally to change the dish! The manager and assistant manager stepped in and took charge, appologisng. One chicken dish was taken away and replaced, the other wasn't because the person was so hungry by now and couldn't wait any longer, so shared someone's chips. The raw egg fishcake was not replaced with anything nor were the vegetable curries or the bland fish dish. We ordered dessert, the manager took our order and personally took it to the chef. They arrived. Generally they were okay, however the crumble came with a small ramakin of custard, the size of a McDonald's sauce pot, I asked for extra it never arrived. Two of the sticky toffee puddings left an odd after taste, while another member of the party received two of her dessert order. The evening was a comedy of error, it was so bad it was funny. The manager and assistant manager kept appologisng and told us we wouldn't be paying for anything, drinks included. They said they knew what the issue was and would be dealing with it. I felt sorry for the waiting staff because it was clearly an issue with the kitchen and not them, they unfortunately were at the front line. One of our party had eaten here the previous weekend and had amazing service and food. We did not. This was my first time visiting and will be my last time unfortunately. The food that I had was tasty, but the fact the kitchen couldn't get their act together and the chef reeked of stale cigarettes is not acceptable. What a shame because the décor and environment was very nice. I laughed lots last night because it was so bad. I half expected Gordon Ramsay and a camera crew to appear at some point because clearly Hells Kitchen was going on behind the scenes. Needless to say 11 of us left not paying for a thing, which is unheard of and a big loss of money for...

Been before and was satisfied with our experience but Monday evening was so disappointing. Booked as a party of 15 for my father in law's 70th and he so wanted a good evening! There was hardly anyone in there. We were asked to pre order food before the day. On arrival were told no sea bass, so chose lamb but then told no lamb so chose fillet steak but then told no fillet steak. Father in law had two pints of Doombar then told no more Doombar left. Having sat down at 6.30 with young hungry children and starters and main pre ordered we were surprised we had to complain by 7.20 when we still hadn't had our starters. Plates and glasses were left on the table so we cleared them ourselves as noone came to tend it. Mains arrived at 8.20 so nearly 2 hours after we sat down and majority of food was ok but 3 baby prawns in a king prawn linguine wasn't impressive! No service yet again to clear the table, we were just left to it the whole time having to go and find staff ourselves to get a drinks order. After the main we complained again about how poor the service had been and said to forget dessert for the adults and just to get the children theirs. Whatever was going on I was just amazed at the managers complete lack of customer service. No apology, no attempt of an explanation, just a blank face. I'm keen to support local restaurants given the hard time they've had through COVID but I've never experienced anything like this before. Literally couldn't care less about the business they worked for and still delivered us a full price bill to pay. Having kept my father in law calm despite the bad time we were having he gave the manager a mouthful on the way out about how it had put a downer on his birthday and I can't blame him for it. It was shocking! And even then just a blank face...