The Mad Hatter — Restaurant in Oxford

I have been coming here for years for cocktails and it's always been great until my experience of dining here for a friend's birthday. My drink was forgotten to be delivered to me. I had to go to the bar to get it after waiting 15 minutes with no sign of it after the waiter took the order. Then after nearly 1 hour, the waiter took our food order. When it arrived, the burger was difficult to cut with a dinner knife. So it looked like it was over cooked on one side and lacked flavour. So I went to the bar to complain about it. The staff took it away and the chef came out to talk to me. This shocked me as I had never spoken to a chef about my food before in any restaurant I ate in. He explained to me the chicken burger was cooked perfectly and doesn't understand why I am complaining. I asked if he could bring the burger back so I could show him physically what I was complaining about. But he said it was put in the bin because he thought I didn't want it. So I asked what can be done about it now as I am still hungry and wanted to eat something. He replied back saying if I don't like the way he cooks, what else he can do about it. My friend overheard this and was applauded by the way the complaint was dealt with. After discussing this matter with the chef for over 5 minutes, he said we could talk to the manager. The manager apologized and offered a different dish. I have never experienced anything like this in all my years of going out to eat and was so disappointed as it was my friend's birthday celebration. I didn't want it to taint her day but at the same time I wasn't prepared to buy 2 meals as it wasn't cheap, I already spent over £15 on something I only had one small mouthful of. I hope their customer service will be improved as I wouldn't return back after being a customer...

I really love Mad Hatter's and have had some great evenings in their karaoke rooms, which I regularly use as part of a group of 10 or so. The staff are great. The recent addition of food has been really nice - their pizza is worth trying.

There's room for improvement however as niggles that I originally chalked up as teething issues are very much still there, a few years later. Really want to stress that I very much love using this venue so the following should be taken as constructive feedback as it'll be great if these could be sorted.

The karaoke kit is looking very tired and the last two or three visits have been interrupted by technical issues. Microphones are battered, and the ones that do work are not the same volumes.

From the karaoke room it's often hard to get drinks ordered, as you're at the mercy of staff coming up to take orders. At busy times it can be difficult to get staff away from the bar. Our solution is to order yourself two or three drinks at a time but it's not ideal.

There's usually an element of confusion when it comes to settling up the bill, and it's time consuming to sort out. Our last visit took about 30 minutes.

A really great solution would be to order drinks via an app or website, letting the correct people pay up front for their drinks.

Another recommendation is to charge people for damaging your kit so it can be replaced. It's unfair on...

Come here for the worst service that makes you feel bad for coming and inconveniencing staff by being there!

Came a week ago for a birthday celebration. What a horrible time. Me and my friends arrived promptly and 15 minutes early. On arrival we were greeted with potentially a person with a vile attitude and extremely hostile. We said we knew we were early and thought we could grab a drink before (aka spending more money. ) you would think this would be welcomed but instead they told us they will make them when we go up to the karaoke room. The woman explaining the kareoke was well informed and blunt. The bartenders seemed offended any time we ordered a cocktail, and made all of us feel guilty for asking to order drinks. Had a lovely time in the dusty kareoke room alone. But when it came to any interaction with the staff it made us all feel guilty to be there. Luckily the birthday girl wasn’t too bothered as she was more happy everyone was able to be with her. But in all honesty, we all work in the service industry as we are all 20 years old university students, and the way the team made us feel was appalling and disappointing. From one hospitality worker to another. Don’t be a rude person it made us all...