The Bell Hotel - JD Wetherspoon — Restaurant in Norwich

I don’t usually leave negative reviews but I had a really disappointing experience here.

I was meeting some friends who were already inside, and since it was after 8pm, they were doing ID checks. I couldn’t find my provisional that night so I brought my expired passport instead. I figured it would be fine since it clearly shows my date of birth and photo and I've used it as proof of age plenty of times before with no issue, even at this Wetherspoons. I've even used it to board domestic flights, so that just makes this reaction feel all the more over the top.

When I got to the door, one of the staff turned me away because my passport was expired. At first I genuinely thought he was joking. It didn’t seem like that big a deal. I asked why that mattered when it still shows I’m 21, and he just acted really rude and condescending about it. He kept saying it was “Wetherspoons policy” but made no effort to explain anything properly or treat me with any basic respect. I wasn’t being rude or argumentative, just confused and trying to understand.

I work a job where I have to check ID too, so I completely get that rules are rules and staff have to stick to policy. But there’s still a way to talk to people. I wasn’t demanding to be let in, just asking a question, and the way I was spoken to felt really unnecessary and demeaning.

I may look younger to some people, but I’m 21 as it shows on my passport, visibly tattooed, was completely sober, and on my own. I wasn’t part of a big rowdy group or anything, so his behaviour just felt completely unwarranted. It's not like I was some 14 year old with a fake ID trying to get in.

To be fair, another staff member at a different entrance was much more respectful. He explained the policy calmly and said he understood I was clearly over 18 but couldn’t risk his job over it. I completely respected that. If the first guy had spoken to me like that, I wouldn’t have felt the need to write this at all.

We ended up going somewhere else and had a great night, so my disappointment isn’t about being refused entry. At the end of the day it's just a pub. - But it’s just how poorly the situation was handled that left a bad impression. A bit of basic courtesy goes a long way, and unfortunately that was completely missing...

Went in for lunch Friday lunchtime, pub was already quite busy with drinkers and there was virtually nowhere free to sit upstairs.

Not too many staff around and basically had to clear our own table in order to have somewhere to sit.

In one corner of one of the upstairs rooms was a table piled high with approx 30-50 dirty plates, glasses, knives and forks etc from where other customers had also cleared their own tables over several hours - everyone had stacked the dirty plates onto the same table. In general the eating area wasn't being cleaned.

Staff can't keep up, and don't seem organised in such a way as to take responsibility for particular areas. This means they're repeatedly serving food to tables that can't have been cleaned - but they probably don't realise and assume someone else cleaned it if new customers are sitting there.

As customers pay through the app, there's also no staff to gradually move people on as they take orders, deliver food and check if meals are ok, clear tables and offer desert - meaning the seating gets full up because people stay at tables for ages. When someone finally leaves the next group of people just jump into the dirty table because they're desperate to have somewhere to sit - as we did.

Food was acceptable otherwise, cheap and cheerful, adequate portions for the price.

Wouldn't be in much of a hurry to go back during peak...

Lovely pub with lots of nooks n crannies to sit in since their expansion a few years back. Drinks reasonably priced thou getting to normal pub prices now (actually union pubs are undercutting them). Food is where I've knocked the stars off. You used to be able to get a fairly good meal there but now it's like a takeaway menu with 90% with chips, all day breakfast removed now after 11.30am, nothing with veg. Now I know some ppl will say well they've problems with staff and getting covid and pinged but this change started well before that and has only got worse. Anyone remember when you could get a Sunday lunch or bangers n mash? Other problem is (across the board with wetherspoons) is they can't cook eggs the breakfasts I've had to send back in the past where they've either been over done to have the consistency of a joke shop egg or worse underdone so parts of the white were still transparent and slimey (also the two part refunds I've had to get at the William Adams in gorleston due to absolutely dripping in oil poperdoms) I'd have got a better meal down the greasy spoon

In short you really need to sort out the kitchen side of the business as it's...