Old Beams — Restaurant in Milton Keynes

We had a table booked for last Saturday. Arrived and the waitress (short brown hair and slim) asked us to follow her to our table. She took us to the far end of the pub (not restaurant section) and showed us our table. I thought it was strange as I saw few empty tables in the restaurant. Next to our table was a big fluffy dog that was barking, so I have asked whether the dogs are allowed in the restaurant. She said, not in the restaurant, only pub. So I asked for the table in the restaurant where I originally booked the table for. She plainly said: we are very busy today! I asked if we could sit in the restaurant and she said let me check if we got any tables. She came back saying that they got one table available but it is very near the bar. We took the table, nothing wrong sitting next to the bar. She made us feel very unwelcomed, like she didnt want us to sit in the restaurant in the first place. My husband went to the bathroom and she came to our table asking us what we wanted for drinks. She could see my husband wasnt at the table, strange...I asked if she could return when my husband is back. As soon as my husband returned, she was back asking us what we wanted to drink. He didnt have a chance to look at the drink menu. She was clearly rushing the orders, we felt like she wanted to quickly serve us so we could quickly leave. My husband asked for a beer, they didnt have it, he asked for a different beer, again didnt have it. In the end he settled for whatever they had. She then brought us the special pie menu and mentioned they didnt have first two pies on the menu. Great! I asked for curry, again run out of curries. At that point I didnt want to be there, but didnt want to ruin it for my husband and my daughter. I ordered a chicken burger, and it was a disaster. The brioche bun was stale and hard. It looked like it was taken our of the freezer, heated up quickly and after 5 min the bun got very hard. She then threw desert menus on the table, without us asking for it. She just said: ''here is the desert menu, I overheard you talking about the deserts!''. The whole experience was unplesant and uncomfortable. The two tables that were available when we first arrived were still empty when we left, so why didnt she want us sit in the restuarant is very,...

We made a booking online and then called to check everything was confirmed and request a birthday cake/dessert with candles for our friend. We were told (a male voice on the phone) that they even do the birthday singing, so I was looking forward to it. We booked for 8 30 pm abd arrived by 8 40 pm and were rushed to our table and told we had 4 minutes to place an order. The other waitress (young, short brown here) came in to take our order and told us we didn't need to panic and we can have more than 4 mins to order. We were a group of 8 ladies—and as you'd expect—there was some confusion in the order here and there. The food arrived—friend found hair in the soup—in like 30 secs of its arrival—at the bottom of the bowl. We were told the hair cant be the staff's as no one has dark hair among the staff, implying one of our hair fell within 30 seconds of arrival and managed to settle well inside the soup bowl. The bread with the soup was covered in some sort of cheese initially—not something we are used to with soup. My friend asked for plain bread—she was given a slice of bread straight out of the refrigerator.

The Drinks. The drinks order was taken super late (understand that the only waitress was quite busy), but then the drinks stood at the bar ready to be served. We had already been 30 mins at the restaurant without any water/drink at all, and I went to the bar lady/manager asking if I could take the drinks tray myself, and she said no (rather bluntly) and that her staff would bring it over when they can. And the drinks arrived at the table some 7 mins later, even though they were in our plain sight (we were almost right next to the bar). We were served our food with zero smiles—but only rushed "here it is" "I am just going to put this here". I understand its not a fine dining restaurant but a pub but a smile is the bare minimum, especially as we shelled out £200 for the whole meal as a big group and booked in advance. We wanted to take some pictures in the end as it was gallantines / valentines evening and gosh, were we given cold hard stares and smirks while we indulged in a couple of group pictures! Overall, horrible experience—never am I ever stepping in this place again.

P.S. THE BDAY DESSERT WITH CANDLES OR THE SINGING OF COURSE...

Having not been to The Old Beams for many years, and going by the reviews I thought we would try it for lunch. Trust me in this day and age where you can get exceptional food at less money than charged by this outfit. Do not waste your time. Having ordered the roasted veg salad with haullomi cheese thinking this will be easy and tasty, it was the worst plate of food I've been served in a restaurant for many years. Then the 2nd order was just as awful. I'm sure they are not qualified chefs working in the kitchen as my 16 year old son is able to produce a higher level of cooking. Whoever, runs this outfit needs a rocket up there ..... Such a lovely building internally but the menu is out of date, who serves jacket potatoes unless it's a roadside cafe! The quality presentation of all the food served and returned left uneaten was literally shocking. I would not even serve it to my dog!

I will not be returning, those who gave 5 stars I do wonder what they eat at home.

Take yourself to the Betsey Wynn or The Garage in Buckingham. Both better value and food you actually want to enjoy when you go out. The whole lunch was to catch up with a good friend which was ruined by the rubbish served up, it's expensive frozen poorly executed food. The person running this pub let's it completely down. The two young ladies were highly remorseful and didn't fail in offering apologies.

The Old Beams is clearly in need of a major overhaul.

ROBERT, I am certain I'm not the only customer who's been heavily disappointed, you see the whole point is YOU should please every single paying customer. It wasn't one meal that was diabolical it was two....take yourself off to the Betsey wynn, The Garage see how it should be done. It's not rocket science, you have a beautiful set up par the plastic furniture yet its all ruined by the menu and...