Widecombe Fair — Restaurant in Mansfield

Shant bother eating here again, portion sizes are very small for a premium price and the food isn't exactly derivative of high quality; Just normal 'pub grub' I suppose. Came in here one lunch time and ordered something off the lunch time menu's that were placed in front of us. The food was cheap and when the meals came they looked 'ok'; just enough for a cheap price so I wasn't complaining. My friend's food arrived and his looked a lot worse than mine and was on a cheaper plate so I was curious whether or not my food was actually from the lunch time menu or from the Main menu which I hadn't even bothered to peruse. I called the waitress over and raised my query and she confirmed my suspicions that my Burger was from the main menu, which is fine if that's what I ordered, and it looked like it justified the price which was nearly double that of the lunch time deal, all that was different to my friends meal was a 'fancier' plate and some burger relish, no way worth the price hike. So I told the waitress I ordered the burger from the lunch time menu and there was confusion as there is a burger of almost the exact same name in the main menu... And it was lunch time... The waitress told me this time she would honour the lower price but next time to specifically order from the lunch time menu. I thought that's what's I did as I had the lunch time menu in front of me at the time of ordering and I'd requested the exact burger from that menu, the burger from the main menu had a slight different name. Oh, well. It's sorted now. I finished my meal and then a young lady who I assumed was the manager came over and told me I would have to pay full price for my burger. I argued against it and mentioned that I didn't want the burger from the main menu and that wasn't the burger that i'd ordered. She rudely exclaimed that because id finished my meal I had to pay for the whole thing. I thought this was ridiculous, I only finished my meal because I thought my issue was resolved when discussing it with the waitress, and if I had to pay the premium price I'd have gladly swapped my meal. She wasn't having any of it and said I had to pay. I begrudgingly paid for my sub par lunch and the waitress apologised for the confusion. I accepted her apology and proceeded to leave the restaurant at which point I hear the young lady (manager?) Then say to the waitress that she didn't have to apologise to me in an incredibly arrogant tone. I never complain about anything and I was made to feel like I was a bad customer, whereas all I wanted was a quick lunch and to eat what I ordered. 2 stars because the waitress was genuinely sincere, but you lose 3 stars from the managers...

Sadly left disappointed. We had tried to eat here earlier in the week but unfortunately were too late and the kitchen was closed. We made the decision to head back out there later in the week having looked at the menu and liked the look of a lot on there.

We arrived and ordered our drinks, which took about 10/15 minutes to come. We ordered our starters and mains as the drinks arrived and the set to enjoy our evening. Our starters took roughly 30 minutes to come out and once finished with, our mains then took a further 30/40 minutes roughly to come out. We had been waiting for so long, that we had both finished our drinks before we had even finished eating our starters. We therefore had to order a second round of drinks when the main came out, which isn't something we usually need to do when we eat out.

The food was edible, however lacking in areas. The onion rings were over cooked and rather too crispy (the waitress even had to fetch the extra onion rings we had ordered 5 minutes after bringing out the mains as she had forgotten them) however these too were overdone and my own meal was very dry as hadn't come with any form of sauce.

Both meals were warm at best, not hot, but as we had already waited so long and were hungry, we simply ate without complaint as didn't want to wait any longer than we had already and the food was edible, though not really enjoyable.

We would have had desert, however given the quality of the food so far and the 2 hours we had already been there, we decided it wasn't worth the wait (not sure they would even have allowed it, as the kitchen closed at 9pm and it was 9.30pm before we had even finished our mains) despite arriving at 7.30pm.

I wouldn't have even considered the restaurant busy, with more tables empty than full!!

When the bill came we were shocked to find it was £64.94 however we had our 20% NHS discount added bringing the total down to £54.21. We eat out regularly and felt it was a steep bill for the quality of food served. We have deffinatly paid less for better in other establishment where we have really enjoyed our meals.

We don't usually leave a review, unless somewhere really exceeds our expectations, however we were so disappointed in what we were served we couldn't not leave a review to warn others.

We didn't complain in person as that isn't who we are and felt that given the late hour and the fact we simply just wanted to be out of there having delayed our evening more than expected, complaining wouldn't have resolved anything.

Sadly we won't...

I came here years ago for a works Christmas do and it was lovely. I’ve recently just moved back into the area and my fiancé wanted to go out for food so I suggested we come here. The pub is beautifully decorated, I especially love the flowers round the beams and columns, they look so beautiful.

The waitress (I’m so sorry I didn’t get her name but she served the table with the man, the woman and the 6 month old baby, who wanted to keep the dessert menu on Saturday 7th May at around 3pm. She has brown hair if that helps?). She was absolutely lovely! Really attentive and friendly, interacted with our baby - it’s really nice when the babies are acknowledged as being at the table to! She apologised for our desserts taking a while to come out and wiped them from our tab which she absolutely didn’t need to do! We were happy to wait but it was really nice of her to do this. Her customer service was impeccable.

The food was served really quick and piping hot! My steak was cooked to absolute perfection!! My fiancé always orders a burger when we go out and he said the burger he had here was the best one he’s had in ages!! That’s a real big compliment from him!

The desserts were gorgeous and our lovely waitress said she would pass my comments along to the chefs that that apple crumble was really really tasty! - definitely worth the wait!

Our experience was unfortunately ruined slightly by other patrons in the pub for things beyond your staff members fault. A particular lady sending back food multiple times and feeling the need to announce it to the whole pub rather than discussing it with the waitress privately. I felt so sorry for the waitress but she handled it brilliantly. Having worked in hospitality myself I know it’s really really difficult and it’s sometimes a thankless job but all the staff members we encountered on our visit are truly an asset to your company! Give them all a round of applause from us!

We will definitely be back and Widecombe Fair is now our new favourite and our go to place for excellent food...