The Blue Ball — Restaurant in Reigate and Banstead

To begin, the starters were lovely. My table were impressed by how much range and how tasty it was. There was no complaints there. The drinks were quick and the glasses for draught were refrigerated, which is always a bonus!

However; mains were incredibly disappointing. We ordered 5 steaks (different cuts) and not a single one was cooked to what we asked for. They were all overcooked and was like chewing rubber. The peppercorn didn't do much to help the flavour. The fact that most of us asked for medium rare, and they all came out as well done was shocking. Some of the steaks went up to around £26 as well!

We only sent 1 back as a lot of us were hungry and didn't have time to wait for 6 new dishes to be made. The place was practically empty so the especially long wait times for food to be served didn't make sense with the quality that was produced.

The burger that was ordered, the brochie bun was burnt and the meat was overcooked. The person who ordered it left most of it on his plate as it wasn't enjoyable at all.

I will give credit to our server who rectified one of our steaks and took a round of drinks off our bills. The steak that was recooked had no complaints, and was cooked to the expected standard and was enjoyable. But it's a shame that the chef was able to cook the dish but didn't put the time, care, or effort to get it right the first time round for everyone.

The waitress did explain the kitchen was overwhelmed with our order (7 people, starters and mains) and they were understaffed, but we waited a long time between when the starters and mains were served. I would have understood the long wait times to ensure our food was up to par, but to have long wait times for food, joint with it being poorly cooked, was unacceptable. As someone who's recently left hospitality, I can fully appreciate the pressure and stress the industry is under but I can't accept the rushed, and complete lack of professionalism in the food

It's such a shame as it's a beautiful pub with a large outdoor garden area, and the purpose of our visit was to celebrate a birthday, so the experience unfortunately left a poor aftertaste...

Nice interior but greeted by a pile of sick close to the entrance with a slippery floor sign next to it, 2 hours later when we left it was still there, lovely first impression!!

Booked a 5.30pm table for Sunday Lunch so expected some roast options could be limited. No chicken, pork or mash potato. Not sure how you run out of mash however, just peel some spuds boil and mash them up with butter!

Took 30 minutes for starters to arrive cold, sent back. Staff didn’t have much personality or customer service, abrupt and lacking any enthusiasm. Another 40 minutes for main course and had not cleared the starters aways before they arrived or collected empty glasses so table got a bit cluttered. Looking around the place and quite a few disgruntled looking customers, sending food back and waiting a long time……

Roast beef main courses (only meat available) were luke warm, roast parsnips way over cooked , big dry and cold Yorkshire pudding and just like warm cabbage as the main veg. Roast potatoes barely warm and a bit hard. Gravy was lovely but again almost cold. Not once did anyone ask how the food was, say sorry for the wait or if everything was okay when paying the bill, like they knew it wasn’t good and didn’t want to ask! Didn’t charge us for a round of drinks, but honestly came here for food so extra drinks didn’t really cut it. Lots of other nice gastro pubs and restaurants around the area delivering far better food and service than this place, so would 100% not return and recommend you go...

Having visited this venue once before and whilst the food was enjoyable and the staff friendly the actual service was not that great, in terms that it took along time to receive a our main course.

As the food was good I decided to gamble a second visit for four of us.We encountered the same problem as before but this time it was far worse. After waiting 45 minutes for our main course order which arrived after I had "chased" the order. Having finished our main meal we were given the dessert menu. After waiting for 15 minutes I had to ask for some one to take our order.

In looking around the tables close to us it appeared that we were not the only diners having service difficulties.

Finally the poor service was recognised by a staff member who did offer us compensation in acknowledgement of the poor service that we received and made a subsequent deduction in our final bill.

While we were pleased with this approach would we bother going back and the answer would be no. There are much better gastro pubs locally which offer a much better dinning experience.

It is a shame really as the atmosphere and the dining facilities are quite enjoyable. It is therefore with much regret that I would say do not take the gamble in dining here chose another...