The Golden Goose — Restaurant in Redditch

What has happened to our favourite carvery pub? Is it under new management or what? The taste of the food was good but it could have been hotter. Admittedly we visited in the middle of the afternoon which is inevitably a down-time but the service: Slow only begins to describe it.

We walked in and asked for a table for three and a fair haired man tells us the the system for booking has changed and directs us to an unmanned welcome table with a computer on it for us to wait to be attended to. We were then left there for well over five minutes while the three staff flitted between the bars serving drinks. Eventually I leaned over the table to make the point that we were still waiting in case they had forgotten or not realised. On checking in I was asked for my name. Why? We have come to eat a meal, not for a counselling session.

We were shown to our table and ordered 3 of their 2 course carveries plus drinks. I never asked what the choices of dessert was: BIG mistake. Neither were there any notices of this displayed. The carver was slow off the mark but at least she apologised so forgiven. We had handed in our ticket identifying that we had ordered a sweet as well so had no proof: this is bad for us and bad for the pub too. While walking back to my seat there was a pinch point where the fair haired man’s and my paths crossed. I waited for him; he didn’t even politely thank me. After our meal we asked a waitress how we chose our sweet as we were ready. Raspberry frangipani was our only option, although we could choose ice cream or custard to go with it. My wife asked if she could simply have ice cream without the frangipani. The waitress went away to ask. To ask! She didn’t know! Neither could she make the decision. Nor did she return. We later asked the clean shaven headed man in there. He had to go and ask too! And like the waitress, he asked and then never returned either. Is there only ONE person who can make this sort of decision?

Eventually the same fair-haired man came and took our orders: two frangipani with ice cream and a serving of two scoops of ice cream. I don’t know what frangipani is supposed to taste like but on the strength of this one I won’t be ordering it again.

Sorry guys but a real disappointment this time. You need to get your systems sorted pronto. How about a board stating what the dessert options are? How about adding plain old vanilla ice cream as an alternative to the sponge type pud? It’s not like it’s expensive and doubles your appeal. And you have it in stock anyway!

On customer service, it’s ok to send customers to your reception desk, but then RECEIVE THEM! Don’t leave them hanging there! If we hadn’t had our grandson with us, we’d have walked out. I don’t care whose job it is to man the computer; it’s not my worry but it looks really bad to see staff flitting about behind the counter acting like we’re invisible.

The worst of it is that they weren’t even busy; maybe 25% occupancy.

This time we were in the area and looked forward to dropping in. You won’t be seeing us again this year following this performance.

Looking down the other reviews I note there is a significant lack of replies to comments from the landlord/management or whatever. That is to both good and bad reviews. Somebody needs to point out this fact...

This establishment has just lost two regular customers. By regulars, we are talking at least twice a week to visit for a carvery.

This changed on the 30th July '15.

Myself and a relative visited for our usual carvery for £4.45 and were stunned by a new member of staff's idea of meat portions. I asked for pork and beef, followed by gammon - I was met with "I need to take some off" - this carvery is ludicrously now based on weight. Bearing in mind I visit at least once a week for a carvery, I was shocked by this statement of loonacy, having never encountered this before. The weight limit, confirmed by a cook/manager, was 6oz - or ca. 150 g, which equated to 3 slices of meat. This was after another customer had complained that there was not the quantity of meat(s) on the plate as previous visits and in terms of the beef, was largely a fat and grisel "nugget". The new member of staff's idea of carving was also poor and reflected poor training. Instead of good, hearty slices - he cut very thin/gathered bits up with his carving knife. When challenged, he stated "it's all about profits" - 50% in terms of business accumen - the other 50% is customer satisfaction and returning trade. The server was adamant not to add more and summoned his manager when questionned further. It is not as if there were not four, very large, joints of meat at 18:00 - it is not as if all this would be used by the end of service and extra would not have been anyone's skin off their nose.

The manager seemed more concerned about this fat nugget than making two regular customers happy and content, on par with previous visits.

When we asked for either more meat or a refund, we were presented with a refund. This is classic bad customer service, and, moreover: bad business. Two regular customers will not be returning.

There is no mention of carvery by weight anywhere within the establishment, and it is the first we have come across this half-baked idea.

Big disappointment and big thumbs down - expect...

Table booked on a Sunday for 16.30 for 14 people, we all got there for 16.25 to be told our table wasn't ready, got some drinks and waited in the bar, at 17.00, table still not ready....we finally sat at 17.25. We had a 10m old baby with us waiting for food,and getting tired, 1 of our party had another appointment to be at. The table we were sat at was an L shape so some of our party were sat with their backs to each other. We asked for a round of drinks for our inconvenience....we were told 5 drinks and free ice cream for the kids, so was a lottery in who had a drink and who didn't! When we had eaten our carvery we asked for the children's ice creams....they took forever to come, my daughter who is 15, technically a child wanted one so we went to the bar and bought one, we were told 15mins, over 30 mins later still no ice cream, the young man behind the bar was quite rude when I asked where it was saying....u were told it would be a while! I understand it was a Sunday and they were very busy but I feel the times we had to wait were unacceptable. This is a great shame as the actual food was beautiful, piping hot and well presented. The service however fell very...