Just come home from Matchstick Man, first and last time there. We pre booked a table for 6 adults and 2 children approx 4 days in advance for my daughters 11th birthday so they were aware there was a booking in for 6pm.

We arrived and were told to all book from the same table number on the app by someone on the bar which we did. 2 combo starters. 6 adult meals and 4 side of fries. We requested on the app for the combo starters to come out AS starters. Fairly quickly 2 mains arrived. Then another 2. At which point I pointed out we had ordered 2 starters. We were told she could take the mains back to put under the light and wait for the starters but that "we would be waiting a while". Like it was our fault and were ready to penalise us. I told her to cancel the starters and just bring the mains at which point she pretty muched dropped the food on the table and stormed off. No apology. When questioned why mains were arriving before starters we were told the Greene King app doesnt allow you to select starters and will all come through as going out together despite anyone who uses the app knowing the app does in fact ask wether you'd like it as a main or starter. 40 mins later 4 of us had finished eating and 4 were still sat with no food. Waitresses back and forth hadn't thought to question why 4 people including 2 children were sat with no food. We questioned why our food hadn't arrived and were told they were unsure and they would look into it! 2 waitresses had zero idea where our food had gone. We were told they had let a chef leave early as it was quiet so it was busy. There were about 40 people in the pub at this point including ourselves. My mum and daughter went to the bar to question what was happening as about 10 mins had past with no update and were met with 3 people with absolutely zero clue what was happening. At this point my daughter commented to her Nanna one of the girls on the bar was swear word beginning with F rude. This apparently caused this girl to run to the kitchens in floods of tears. Next minute the manager comes into the pub with an attitude asking who swore. The other girl behind the bar had no idea anybody had swore. The manager wasn't interested in the fact that she had 8 people who were in the middle of an absolutely abysmal experience in her pub. Only that one of us had supposedly made her grandaughter cry. Bear in mind she wasn't there but was 100% certain her grandughter wasn't rude. When we began explaining what was going on and the fact the comment was made to another person not directly to her grandaughter quiet enough to where 2 others stood beside her hadn't even heard it and that she was in fact rude. We were pretty much called liars! Once she realised she was getting abit wobbly on her moral high ground she asked us to leave and if we would like to write to head office her name was Tracey! If we were the type of people to kick off and be rude, surely this would have happened alot earlier than this, when sat watching tables of food arriving to them over 30 mins after we had ordered? And surely would have been apparent to everyone in the pub not just 1 of 3 people behind the bar. There was a comment made from a frustrated customer being met with incapable staff. The manager was absolutely uninterested in anything other than her grandaughter had supposedly been made to cry. She was unprofessional and rude herself.

The correct way to deal with this coming from a hospitality manager would have been to have got the facts together and made a professional decision. Not walked into a business establishment and act like a scorned grandmother with absolutely no interest in resolving the issue at hand.

This pub is clearly run where compliments are welcome, complaints are met with an attitude, hostility and opinion of grandiour that has no place from a manager running a business, who sits on her moral high ground as a grandmother and not as a professional receiving critique.