Iffley kitchen @ The Tree

Groupon all you can eat buffet-misleading! I am only giving it a 1 due to nice nan and the fact that the food was hot; however I would have left a 0 if it was for the service and lack of food hygiene standards! Let me explain: Limited menu; certainly not buffet although you could ask for extra portions of set menu if you wanted. Food was ok, dessert consisted of fresh orange segments or a tired looking shop brought cheesecake, not at all what was advertised on the website....but what really did it for us was the waiter; who on two occasions helped himself to one of the main meal side dishes (a kidney bean dish) from the buffet table; after each mouthful he placed the spoon back into the serving bowl contaminating the food!!!!! Buffet table consisted of some sauces, slices of lemon and a couple of vegetarian sides; chickpea and a kidney bean dish and the sad looking dessert options....you then chose a starter, main, side dish, rice and a plain nan off the set menu. The best bit of the meal was the nan which was light and soft and freshly cooked. On arrival I stated to the waiter that we had a groupon booking at 1pm for the all you can eat buffet.....on the delivery of the bill (full price) I stated that I had already paid via groupon as stated on arrival; he said the manager wasn’t in and so he wouldn’t honour it; I then told him I was not going to pay twice and I certainly wouldn’t be paying the full price for what we had even if I didn’t have a groupon.....he tried again to ask me to pay the bill which I declined. I showed him both the groupon voucher and booking confirmation and I wrote the codes etc on the bill; paid for the drinks which I feel was generous considering the grumpy disinterested service we received from entering the establishment until the end, also considering the fact he helped himself from the “buffet” table and replaced the spoon in the dish of food which was for paying guests-disgusting! The whole experience was very disappointing and we will not be visiting again.

Edit: email sent to the management.