The Earlham — Restaurant in Norwich

Do not deal with the Ear;ham owner Rose.

Hired the Earlham for my wedding reception a few weeks ago. Staff on the night were great but the owner has soured our expeirience completely.

Minimum spend of £3,000 wasn't met on the night and this was not communicated to us until 5 days later, when, had we known, we could have ordered additional items on the night to make up the spend. No issue with paying it, we knew the spend threshold, but it was agreed in writing by the events manager, that the balance of under-spend could be used on take-out products. (Image of the email comms attached to this review to confirm)

As soon as I paid, the owner who we have never spoken to before and had no previous involvement in any of the arrangements whatsoever, e-mails us out of the blue introducing herslf as Rose Hanison the ower, and immediatley backtracks on the agreement, claiming that no agreement was ever made, despite the fact it is all in black and white on emails. She even contacted us using the same e-mail address, and on the very same thead with the agreement on it!

Now having to file a small claim just to get Rose Hanison to honour the agreement.

Outside electrics were also insufficient for our caterer had to rush home and hurry back with a generator to save the day for which we are very grateful.

Staff great - owner cannot be trusted at all. Please learn from our experience and do ot use the Earlham for your special day.

Happy to share further details of our experience by private message. I will update this review as things progress with the small claim.

Edit: More lies from Rose.

There were 72 guest at our wedding ceremony, all of whom attending the reception along us, a family of 5, and with a further 30-40 evening guests. We had invited 118 in total, and made your event manager aware from day 1 we would be close to the maximum capacity of 120. We had approx. 10-15 invited guests who didn't attend.

There were only 4 staff members on duty. Staffing levels had already been confirmed a week prior at the final meeting with your events manager. Unless you only planned to have 2 staff to serve 120 guests, this is another lie.

Regardless, no-one is disputing the minimum spend or why it exists. That is not in question.

The only point in question is the broken promise to use the underspend balance as clearly, had we been made aware on the night, we could have offered our guests/the band/your staff some nice champagne or similar to use up the spend and hit the threshold without allowing it to go to waste.

It is rather convenient for your business that we were not made aware of any underspend, until 5-6 days later when we received an invoice, despite the ability existing on your told/card terminals to bring up a total spend instantly at any time.

I did not decline takeout Products, why would I ? That would make no logical sense whatsoever. Who in their right mind would prefer to have nothing than £800 of takeout products? (Probably equates to £200-300 at cost for your business)

As you are fully aware, a discussion took place between myself and your events manager as to an alternative possibility to takeout, of using the underspend towards a future event.

Your events manager agreed to discuss this with you first on her retunr from holiday,as a possible alternative, reverting to takeout products in the event an agreemtn could not be made.

You then decided that not only were you not open to this idea, which could have brought your business a further booking and more revenue, but also to rescind the already-agreed takeout products agreement too! Outrageous behaviour, terrible service and shoddy business practice.

This is 100% factual and is the basis of my complaint and is the basis of the small claim I shall be lodging, and this review which I stand by 100%.

Please don't accuse me of slander for telling the truth, I am perfectly entitled to share my experience...

Have been to this pub before with friends as it was known to be dog friendly and had great food. Lovely to see it at the time chock full of families and pets, but sadly today we found that dogs are no longer welcome "due to an incident". They are allowed outside and a lovely waitress brought them water and fussed over them, apologising about the new policy. That's all fine and dandy in good weather but though it was a gorgeous day in Norwich wirhoads of people out on a Bank Holiday weekend the inside of the pub was virtually deserted. I suspect this bodes ill for the fortunes of the pub which is a real shame. Please Earlham Arms, reconsider this kneejerk decision. There are few enough recorded places where one can take dogs and you earn a good reputation if you welcome them. BTW, the wallpaper in the Ladies...

Summer wedding at the Earlham

The staff were so accommodating throughout, from our original booking, food and drink choices/packages and letting us visit the venue the day before the big day to decorate - but most importantly, the team behind the bar were amazing - thank you for looking after oursleves and our guests so well!

As for the food... The chef catered to our dietary requirements and it was banging! Loads of compliments from our guests too. We asked for some evening snacks (sausage rolls) to keep everyone going and these completely exceeded expectations.

The shape of the venue worked really well for us too, with areas for dancing, eating and tables set up to the left of the bar for those who needed a moment off their feet.

We wouldn't hesitate to recommend the Earlham as a...