Holly Tree Farm - Dining & Carvery — Restaurant in Nottingham

Won't be back! First and last time visiting this place and for several reasons. Usually go Riverside farm but thought change would be good has it had been recommended by others, BIG MISTAKE! Initial greeting was warm and welcoming and acccommodating, I was impressed that they moved out table more to our preferred area, spot on Drinks and food order, quick, efficient and I thought straightforward, I WAS WRONG.Having specifically ordering 4 drinks and 4 meals given 4 carvery tickets. Get seated, go up to food counter, this is where it got interesting, embarrassing & the very reason I wont be returning. Handed over 1st ticket where we had (or so I thought) a child's carvery with extra pigs n blankets, oh no, o be told very loudly that ticket was wrong, I said we had paid for 4 meals, here are the 4 tickets to be shot down by the meat chef Sheldon in no uncertain words that I had not paid for a meal this was an extra, bearing in mind a queue was forming behind us and to save further embarrassment and arguing, my daughter went to check this out at the bar while I helped my grandchildren get there food, obviously I wasn't happy being accused of trying to get a 'free carvery' and Sheldon went to check what my daughter was upto following her to the tills, while waiting I asked for meats for children and was meet with a stare and you will have to wait! Customers behind me was empathetic and patient but I was totally embarrassed and upset so we quickly put food on their plates, daughter returned to say we had to pay for another meal has bar staff had got the order wrong. 'Sheldon' was actually glaring at me has we was being served to which I retaliated to be challenged by him asking " was I OK?" Startled by this retort I replied "no I wasnt" service is disgusting and he just laughed and his helper just rolled his eyes and looked at chef for advice, do I serve or nit, I wasn't aggressive but was met with worse customer interaction ever! We quickly chose our food and got seated, upset and somewhat angry I didn't enjoy our meal and left most of it, waiter came and asked if all was OK halfway thru meal and I just grumbled OK thanks for asking. He clearly picked up on this and has we eneded our meal a lovely waitress called JULIE, came over and asked if all was well, I feedback our experience and reason for not returning. She was most apologetic and couldn't express her disappointment that our experience had been such a negative. Offered us free desserts which we declined has we wanted to leave, but she insisted, so we just said OK thank you. On her return she handed over the selection of cakes with her apologies, I replied that she had done nothing wrong and she shouldn't be apologising but we appreciated the gesture, she then went 1 step further and had arranged for us to be refunded, which we a little shocked but accepted gratefully. This is how you treat your customers right. The chef would learn alot from this lady and I would suggest he stays in the kitchen rather than front of house has it customer care is non existent! Thank you JULIE AND MICHEAL for your amazing service, you would be the only reason we would return, but sadly it...

UPDATE AT THE BOTTOM OF REVIEW.

Firstly, I want to mention that this is for the collection of "too good to go" of the carvery. We turned up just before 20.45 on the Saturday evening. We went up to the carvery counter and waited......and waited....and waited. I wouldn't have minded, but plenty of staff walked past us and we were completely ignored. Eventually someone asked us if we were being served, but when we told him we were here to collect "Too good to Go", he seemed put out. Anyway my partner showed him the code, but had swiped it to collect, which apparently you're meant to wait until a member of staff sees it. We didn't know that and rather the guy explaining this, we were basically accused of trying to scam them out of the food, "as they have people doing it all the time, with screenshots". Not very nice being tarred with the same brush as everyone else. So we come to the food. This guy (obviously with some sort of chip in his shoulder), found a scraggy, dry piece of beef that had been at the end of the joint and had already been cut off and put to one side, picked it back up and carved it as thinly as possible and gave us three slices each (which was mostly gristle). We then had a small choice of the dried up vegetables and to add insult to injury, we had to argue with the guy for pots to put the gravy in as he said "they didn't give them out". Thankfully, there were two other people waiting with us and also said they did give them out. Begrudgingly he gave out the pots. Quick question...why would you have takeaway pots, if they weren't meant to be given out??? Needless to say, the meal wasn't very nice and irrespective of not paying as much as you normally would, it still has to be edible. Basically £4.59 for some dried up vegetables, as the beef was inedible. In the interest of fairness, we did have a "Too good to Go" from here a few weeks ago and the experience and food was fantastic. What a difference friendly and polite staff make and when the food is prepared properly and not left to dry up under the serving counter. Needless to say, we won't be going back, either as a collection or to dine in.

UPDATE:

After getting contacted by the management of the pub and explaining our experience, we were offered a complimentary carvery each. We went back in on Sunday and although there was a 30 minute queue for the carvery (not the pubs fault, everyone wanted to get back for the England game!), the food and service were excellent, especially the service. Although they were busy, all the waiting staff were very friendly and had a smile on their face. I had beef and pork, which were very good. Take from this review what you want, but I always try to be fair with my comments,...

Arrived and there was a large queue of people at the food ordering point. We were sat quickly but nobody explained what to do or gave us childrens menus so we had to get up and find someone. We went up to order and despite there now being no queue we waited for 5 mins as the staff ignored us. Our order was placed finally and we went and sat down. Shortly after a waiter came and told my mum they didn’t have fish so she couldn’t have the fish and chips. I asked, I have the fish supper which has fish so what about me. He then said yes it probably applies to you too then. My mum chose an alternative but there was nothing else I wanted so asked for a refund. I was told I needed to go up to a till so got up and walked towards the tills with the waiter, he then just walked off in to the kitchen and left me. I looked at the tills and there was an 8 person queue again. After waiting a while I spotted someone in a shirt that may be a manager, let’s hope not as didn’t act like one. I explained I needed a refund as there was no fish and the carvery chef spoke up saying “there must be”. He went in to the kitchen and the manager just carried on without me. A few minutes later the chef came out and said they’d found fish so could do our food. Now wondering if they ran to Aldi next door. The food finally arrived later and everything was over done. Our fish, my daughter’s steak, my dad’s gammon. The food was either average or poor. After eating the food my children and I all decided we would have a desert. We all wanted chocolate fudge cake. I went up and ordered, paid and then guess what!? A kitchen person came out and said they don’t have any fudge cake. I just said I’ll have a refund. At this point I’d given up. It took ten minutes to get a refund as they needed a manager but then the most unbelievable thing happened. Right in front of me the kitchen guy told the barman, do your self a favour and don’t accept desert orders after 8pm. The manager spoke up (at this point there was the kitchen guy, barman and manager). He said you can’t say that. Why the kitchen guy said. Because you can’t say that in front of me. Not you will accept orders until our food cut off, not we are here to serve the customer, not because your talking inappropriately in front of a customer! The whole experience was awful and I would suggest you avoid! No surprise at 8pm it was almost empty and by...