Running Horse — Restaurant in North Norfolk

The message below was sent directly to the pub via their chat function on the 2nd March - and this has not been acknowledged or responded to at all. I think this further highlights the pubs lack of importance surrounding the serious issues I raised. It's reflective of the poor customer service we recieved on the day as well.

Hi there. I just wanted to feedback on a poor experience that we had with you as a family last weekend. We had a 4 year old with severe unusual allergies, and 2 adults with type 1 diabetes. We have eaten with you many times before but on this occasion we were met with challenges. Some constructive feedback for a better future experience is as follows:

1. ALL packaging that any food comes in should be available. We were not put at ease by the following explanation of the roast potatoes 'they come in part prepared, are rinsed, and then fried in sunflower oil'. The original packaging was not available and there could have been something used that could have triggered severe anaphylaxis - regardless of the fact they are rinsed. Food allergies are serious and we feel should be treated with diligence and not with the attitude we felt of 'you are wasting my time here' from the server. Also being told the gravy is vegetarian when one of the allergies is pea starch was not helpful - but full ingredients were reluctantly checked for us.
2. Your team MUST be made aware of the difference between 'no added sugar' and sugar free. The initial response to this question was a response about sugar tax!!!! Again - due to serious medical conditions this does make a difference. The packaging was checked (unfortunately again we felt with attitude and reluntance).
3. Language used needs to be inclusive and not derogatory. Sanitised cutlery was bought to the table (this was a very nice touch - thank you) but when being delivered we were asked who was having the 'special,' roast. There was confusion as we all had different roasts amounst us - and it turned out these were for the little boy with allergies!!! We would encourage the use of language such as ' these have been sanitised for the young person with the allegegies'. He has different needs. Not 'special'.

Having said all of this we did have a very enjoyable meal, so thanks is given where it is deserved.

But the teams knowledge and attitudes around allergies and dietary needs that can have an impact on life when people require the use of epi pens, need training and full education.

Had we not been time bound we would of walked out and found an alternative, as we were made to feel very nervous and unsure of your control measures. Which is sad - as like I have said, the food was very nice.

Please take this seriously. You are a good establishment and I would hate to see your reputation spoilt by poor practice around food allergies and dietary requirements.

Thank you for taking the time...

I booked in to the running horse for myself  and my family at 12:30 until 2pm on the 30/03/2025 and travelled from Norwich to Fakenham as we have done many times before.because in the past it was been great value for money and very good costumer service.

We have been regular customers over the last 5 years and have nearly always enjoyed our experiences however this weekend was the worst experience at the running Horse I have ever had.

We arrived on time  and  ordered our food around 5 minutes after arrival. We ordered 2  x bees roasts 1 x large beef roast. 1 x steak with a jacket potato. Our food took around an hour to arrive.  So arrival of food to the table around 13:30. Our beef was extremely tough to the point I nearly asked for a steak knife to cut it. It was hard to swallow and at one point I thought I might choke.. Genuinely the toughest beef I’ve ever seen and if a waitress had actually asked how my food was I would have told her it was extremely tough. She didn’t though which is unusual. my food was also cold and their weren’t many potato’s on the plate. Our Yorkshire puddings were not properly cooked and very mushy / anaemic.

My large beef  didn’t appear to be any larger than anybody else’s. My mums steak included  onion rings and these weren’t served straight away with the food in addition she was only given two small onion rings  and she was disappointed her food was also cold.

My son who is 4 was served a roast turkey kids meal. Maybe I’m to blame for this but the kitchen had already poured the gravy over his food so he refused to eat it. I did maybe think it would have come in a gravy boat / pot and that could have been optional or upto the individual as to how much if any gravy they wanted and where.

After this we ordered deserts for my mum and niece. The deserts took quite a while to come out and at this time whisky waiting the waitress told us we needed to hurry up and leave soon as the table was only booked until 2pm.

Were were pretty annoyed about this as the food had taken to long to arrive we barely had time to actually eat it. They did eventually come back and allow us another 20 minutes to eat our food however at this point we felt under pressure to eat quickly. We were made to feel unwelcome and it was all round a bad experience. Had the food come out within a decent amount of time this issue could have been avoided.

Overall a really poor experience after few years of fairly good experiences. It’s definitely not the same place as it was a couple of years ago and it’s no longer on my list of places I would think about for small special occasions as it was before.

The value for money aspect feels like it has been lost. The customer service and food are a million miles from previous experiences . A very...

We booked in for 5pm a family of 4 2 adults 2 teenage kids for mothers day. We arrived 10mins early and were seated straight away the place was very busy, and were told there was a 20/30min wait for food. The menus were covered in sauce and the table was covered in salt. I ordered food from the bar 4 starters 4 mains and 4 drinks, the bill came to £89 less a few pence and the time stampnon reciept was 5.02pm. The starters came out at 5.15, daughter Garlic bread with cheese was burnt all round the edges, my wings were cremated , sons chicken bits were fine, wifes prawn cocktail was fine. We had finished starters by 5.25, we sat with the dirty plates and bowls until 5.45. At 6.20pm i had to go to the bar and ask where our main courses were, the girl appologised and went to see our food came out at 6.25. The wifes Thai curry with Prawns was hillarious the 5 prawns sat ontop of the curry STONE COLD and clearly had been deforsted and just placed ontop of the thai curry AFTER it had been microwaved. My daughter just had fries. My sons plain burger was as cold as the wifes prawns, my cowboy burger WOW i coukdnt chew through the bacon and the top of the roll had been toasted and left to go cold so was like eating charcoal. My daughter fries, my fries and my sons fries i woukd say had been fried and then refried atleast 3 times because they were just dry and had no insides.

Not once were we asked if everything was ok.

We didnt even ask for a refund or anything because had i have gone to the bar again i dont think i would have been polite.

The issue was NOT the staff, the issue was the sheer lack of staff, we saw 3 girls doing the bar and all the waiting on tables. The staff looked like they had been run ragged. On Mothers day with a place that size the staffing level was a joke, as an ex publican i can only say this must have been down to poor management.

Listening to one of the girls chatting to 2 regulars at the bar i was shocked to hear her say she had no real break since opening and probably wouldnt get one for the rest of her shift.

We have NEVER had a bad experience here during the day mid week but this was just horrendous from start to finish and we will NEVER return...