Greyhound — Restaurant in North East Derbyshire

I usually come to the greyhound with my partner and sometimes the children, and we have more often than not had a great experience in regards to the service and the quality of the food. Unfortunately, yesterday's visit fell well below not just my expectation, but the standard expectation of any hospitality venue.

I booked a table for 16:30 and arrived on time, when we arrived a young lady with blonde hair proceeded to come to us, and then turned around to speak to her manager behind the bar to confirm that they weren't accepting walk ins. She then proceeded over to us, and explained that they weren't accepting walk ins, which I though was very presumptive. I explained that I had booked a table, and then she took us over to the table, only to return 2 minutes later to ask what name the table was booked under. We then had to wait 15 minutes for a drink order to be taken, and a further 10 minutes for the drinks to arrive. When the drinks were brought out, we were told there was no Sunday roasts available, which was the main reason for our visit yesterday. We had to then wait a further 15 mins before a different lady came over to take our food order. This lady was in her 30s with mousy coloured hair, she came over and asked what we would like. My partner is currently pregnant and not eating meat, so she asked if any Sunday roasts were available without meat. The reasoning behind it was that she would be happy with mash, veg, gravy and maybe a Yorkshire pudding if possible, if not, she was happy without the Yorkshire pudding and had a craving for gravy. Before my partner could elaborate she was shut down by the waitress who said "no, were not serving any" in an aggressive manner, which took us both back. The 2nd option was the vegetarian pie (as it was served with mash, gravy and veg), the only problem was that the pie was cheese, leek and potato, and my partner isn't a huge fan of cheese, so this meant that we had to order the pie for the sake of ordering the pie. The food came out, we had starters and mains, and as usual the food was fantastic, I have no complaints around the quality of the food, it was really nice and the high standard I have come to expect from the greyhound. The disappointment lies within the service received yesterday. I used to be in retail management myself, and I understand hospitality is a busy, fast paced and stressful environment, but it felt like that frustration was taken out on the customers yesterday. We weren't the only couple that felt like that, 2 other groups/couples ordered drinks and then proceeded to leave despite booking in for food. I don't know if we will be returning in...

The overall experience we had was okay. The pub is beautiful and decor is lovely. There were a few issues with service and food I will mention below.

I had trouble booking a table via the Google services. It declined the reservation and then when I rang asking why as it didn’t provide a reason, the hostess explained that they’re fully booked in the dining area all evening but can sit at the bar. Now she didn’t specify that there’s actual sit down tables in the bar area, so we assumed we’d actually be sitting at the bar.

My partner then decided to try book via the website which accepted his booking. So when we arrive the same hostess has told us that it was cancelled. To which we said we never received that email or phone call. Now when we arrived, she clarified that there was seating in the bar area, and the only difference is we needed to go to the bar to order food. Which we were happy with. We were sat in a nice quiet area in the back.

Now all staff were very polite and friendly but the wait we had on the food was just a tad too long. They did disclose that when we arrived the wait time for food is half an hour as there’s only two kitchen members of staff, again we were happy to wait. However I think because of where we were in the bar, we were somewhat forgotten and the waiter didn’t collect mains for around 15 minutes, which did delay us getting our mains. When we questioned this, the mains were out within minutes.

My theory is, the food had been ready and was waiting under a hot plate the entire time. The waiter forgot to mention to the chiefs that we were done with our starters. The food we had was good, my potatoes on my lamb and mini lamb pie were very dry, and the skin not crispy (which gave me the suspicion it had been left there) that and the temperature it came out was like molten lava.

The flavour of the food I had was good and they complimented each other well. It’s just a shame about the dry potato’s, they were also quite stingy on the gravy in my opinion as well. I think if I had more gravy I wouldn’t have noticed the potato’s as much. The lamb I had also wasn’t seasoned to the extent of the other components, I would’ve almost liked this to be minted or have another seasoning on. It was rather a small piece and quite fatty (but this is normal with lamb, so not a big issue with me).

My partner enjoyed his mixed grill, and said in his opinion the pork was the best bit of meat on the plate (I found this particular cut quite salty).

We would eat here again but try to make it to the dining area so we’re not ans forgotten and would like to try other food...

We have been several times to the greyhound and on this occasion we was very disappointed. We had 3 children dining and had to ask for colouring crayons to go with their menu/activity sheet. When they eventually found them they were all broken. We then asked for a sharpener and they didn’t have one. All they could offer was 3 wax crayons (2 the same colour) and 1 biro pen. This has been an ongoing issue when we have come. I think this is a small cost to get more crayons and a sharpener. We had been an hour and half and only drinks and starters had been served. We had to chase the main courses. The kids garlic bread starter was hardly anything. Wouldn’t be enough for a toddler. The starter of chicken tenders were not tenders. It was a cut up chicken schnitzel that had no flavour. When the mains eventually came the main chicken schnitzel had no flavour either. The signature burger was described to have brisket on it but what we actually got was more like a chilli on it. Gravy on the kids sausage mash, lamb duo pie and beef and Merlot pie was just discoloured water. When we asked for a thicker gravy they brought out the southern fried gravy which was not nice to have with those dishes. The chicken burger we had to ask for a new cob as it had been left under the heat lamp for far too long so was rock solid. We did decide to have dessert permitting it wouldn’t take too long as 2 of the children were very tired (been there nearly 2 and half hours). Asked to have the apple and cherry crumble with pouring cream and it was told this was no issue to then at the point of serving desserts saying they actually couldn’t do it. This resulted in this dessert being cancelled and no other dessert ordered. Staff apologised for the wait and took 20% off the bill but this did not make up for what we was expecting. The Greyhound was chosen for a birthday celebration (even mentioned at time of booking) and no effort was made to make us feel it was an occasion and left with very disappointing food. Value for money was certainly not there either as recently dined at the Chilled Pubs chain for another birthday and worked out better value, better food and better service. Really disappointed and don’t think we shall be coming back...