Part of a group of about 50 (Inc about 8 young children) who'd booked a Christmas meal in the function room next to the car park.

Good points: own bar for function room, access to child friendly bathroom, reasonable space, warm.

Bad points. Evening ruined by shambles of food arriving in dribs and drabs and the detached attitude of staff.

Despite the pub knowing what was ordered weeks in advance and also delaying the food on the night to make a list of who was sitting where so that orders came out together, guess what... The kids food arrived 35mins late (and only after much prompting from the parents), and then we had to chase where the kids' ice cream puds were a further 30mins after their dinners were finished. They arrived with no spoons. When grown ups' meals were finally arriving, some people had finished by the time our mains arrived on same table. Then, a sudden rush of wrong desserts.

Some of the group left a tip, I chose not to.

The young staff on shift on the Saturday afternoon were not very good. When food did arrive late there were no apologies to the adults, just attempts at jokes to the toddlers - when all they wanted were spoons for their ice cream.

There were two tables served after us too, suffering even longer delays. The food tasted okay, but it was the sub standard service that really stood out on the night. No one seemed to be in charge and complaints fell on deaf ears. And no one said sorry.

As a parent attending on my own with two kids I felt unable to adequately address staff on the night to raise issues, particularly as my kids were already ravenous and out of sync as a result of the delayed food and needed attention. Luckily I had fruit to keep them at bay. When the delay was raised no one bothered to own the problem or apologise for it. "the food's just coming now" we were told, then waiting a further 15mins. No one had the common sense or customer care skills to think, 'our service has been below par here, let's at least say sorry'. Staff were nervous but unable to own their own failure / mess up.

So what have we learnt about The Bowling Green?

If you like eating together as a family, don't come here. If you value friendly customer service, good luck.

The Bowling Green was unable to cater for our large group. You'll need three pint sized drinks to get you through one elongated delayed meal (££) You may not get what you ordered. Management may be elusive resulting in junior staff messing up. Serving Staff will look past you, unable to engage with the words 'sorry' or 'is there anything we can do to fix this'. You will have an agitated visit that you will regret.

All in all a stressful unenjoyable experience. I thought about ringing up to complain after the event, given I was limited in how far I was able to complain on the night... But the sheer indifference from staff (not a single apology from any one on the night ) and underlying theme of incompetence finally put me off.

Our Christmas Dinner at the Bowling Green is best dismissed as an unfunny joke - like you get in a cracker. We wont be returning.