The Bull Beefeater — Restaurant in Sevenoaks

I wasn't expecting Michelin star service but I was still disappointed.

Table for 9 booked for 5:45pm on a Sunday, - a busy period, yes, but even so service was very slow. Were asked twice about drinks before everyone was present, yet once we had all arrived orders were not taken for at least 15 minutes.

Almost all dishes had bacon in/on them, which many people don't eat. I feel this could be an optional "extra" rather than you needing to ask for them to prepare without. Added to that, one of the only things without it (the chicken) wasn't available. More disappointingly, we were only told that one ordered dish was unavailable some 20 minutes later, instead of this being advised by the kitchen as soon as the order went in.

After order, starters took around half an hour to arrive and mains even longer, such that we were some 1 1/2 hours in by the time they were served.

The "Loaded Nachos" were bland, with very little cheese and crumbled too easily. The dips came in three tiny pots, barely larger than a £2 coin, too small to dip the already small nachos into them. For an item on the menu supposedly for two to share, a dessert spoon's worth of dip is an insult.

As a main, I ordered the "Surf and Turf Combo", described as a "lean and juicy 8oz sirloin steak, grilled to perfection, with lightly coated calamari and topped with jumbo king prawns drizzled in garlic & parsley. Served with triple-cooked chips and garlic mayonnaise". What I received is in the photo.

Again, not expecting fine dining but if I'm ordering one of the most expensive items on the menu for over £20, I can't fathom why they can't fork out an extra 10p for another potato's worth of chips. If I can count them, there aren't enough.

The prawns may be "jumbo" or may be "king", but they're certainly not both, and inadequate both on quantity (yep, just 2) and quality (bland, most certainly frozen and not fresh).

As for those small brown things - that was the calamari. No golden rings of tasty squid here, just tiny pieces of mostly batter.

I just don't understand the stinginess. Charge an extra couple of quid and give us a proper serving of prawns, and some decent squid rings. No-one will mind especially if they see there's a real attempt to serve something tasty and filling. The limp "rockety" stuff is at best a garnish, and you need to order a salad separately.

The onion rings I ordered never arrived. I wasn't charged when I pointed it out, but I just couldn't risk another long wait while food got cold.

The steak itself wasn't bad, with a good texture and taste. One star for that.

The other star is for my dessert, the Chocolate Churros Sundae, which I enjoyed. Everything came together well, the cream, ice cream, brownie and the actual churros, which were very slightly hard but not by much. They didn't quite have that "fresh doughnut" texture/taste, but I don't think they were freshly made, so, ok.

I understand that staff can be under pressure so I always allow some leeway, but I didn't feel they cared enough. There was a mild enthusiasm to help, but after making a point at the beginning of being "there to look after us", they really didn't. One of my group even heard the waitress make a quiet comment implying that we shouldn't have called her over, as we were not all 100% ready with our dessert orders.

You can't refill your own soft drinks, so you have to get their attention (if you can!), and they bring them to you. It's woefully inefficient and instead of going up to a machine and getting a drink in seconds, you end up all re-ordering at once, and waiting 15 minutes for a "refill". Doing it ourselves would mean less work for them, much quicker drinks, and as a bonus we'd reuse our glasses and create less washing up.

No serviettes provided with the desserts, even after a not so subtle hint from one of us. We shouldn't have to hint, or even ask - again, basics.

I'll give most venues a second chance, but I'm in no hurry to return and will struggle to actively recommend it unless improvements are made. ...

As a foodie blogger for Bromley disability services within the community, I thought it would be a good idea to try out the Beefeater experience for a change. We pre-booked Two separate groups at different times. This meant both parties were placed in different seated areas from each other. Some may find this to be somewhat rather on the sneaky side. Personally, I always think it's the best way of info gathering; basically to get an all-round feedback of the general service via differing opinions etc. Upon our arrival for our 3.30pm booking, we were disappointed to hear they were no longer serving Sunday roasts. Nevertheless, we were more than satisfied with the look and the feel of the remaining menu options on offer. The building itself had excellent entry/exit points. The bathroom facilities were also very good. The main courses were standard-fare, nothing special nor unique but served nice and hot and in a timely fashion. Two of our group had ordered apple pie, one with custard, the other with ice cream. It was noticed that one portion of apple pie was somewhat considerably larger than the other. This was brought to the attention of our hostess who was very reluctant at first to engage us about the subject. The lady took the plate away saying she would bring back another portion. I then texted our other table who were situated more closer to the serving area than we were. We told them to look out for our server. Some 10 or so minutes passed when the server came back with the very same portion... ABSOLUTELY NO CHANGE!!! It was the same plate of food she had taken away the first time, only now, it had come back with melted ice cream. The lady in question made no apology whatsoever. She quite clearly had some kind of issue about the potion size and being questioned about it. Our friends later revealed to us, our server had placed the plate of food near the serving hatch area and had left it there unattended without making any kind of change. Having not been to a Beefeater for many years, I found this to be rather soul-destroying in terms how vulnerable adults would fare given this very same situation. In our opinion, the server in question would have probably made our guys feel uncomfortable about making any kind of special requests regarding the food itself. As for sending food back to the kitchen...forget asking this particular lady! As a foodie blogger, I am given a healthy budget to use while out in the community. Given I was not happy with the portion size, I was still more than happy to tip the the server, until the parent of one of my group said she felt it would have been inappropriate of myself to follow-up with a tip of any kind. The other group had stated their service was good, food OK. Maybe we just had a bad server on the day. Unfortunately, the people I speak for spend a lifetime being taken advantage of by the sort of person we had to deal with today. As usual, they are never made accountable, just the same lack of...

Have been coming to this particular location for a while. It's always been a bit shabby decor wise but seems to be going from bad to worse, not just decor but cleaning wise too. Today we were shown to a booth, the upholstery looks like it's been clawed by a rabid wild animal. The carpet was sticky, with food on the floor and 2 dirty knives. I picked one up but noticed another later. The hard flooring looks like it hasn't seen a mop or any industrial floor polish ever. Carpets and upholstered chairs are stained and sticky, with linings of chairs hanging down. The wall next to us was filthy. We opted for roast dinners, portions of veg are always poor, and generally so undercooked you can't get cutlery into them. Today we asked in advance for the parsnips to be cooked fully, they were better but my cabbage portion was just a stalk of cabbage, it was replaced by a meagre amount of cabbage about the size of a teaspoon. The outside area is tired and dirty, weeds everywhere and the membrane that is meant to be covered by stone chips all on show and ragged. Cigarette butts round the uncleared tables. Do they not possess a broom as it looks like this whenever we go. The booth we were shown to today, I would have been embarrassed to offer any customer. I am sure your Chairman Adam Crozier would be physically repulsed to be offered such a dirty place to sit in nice clothes. The staff are lovely and rush around as they're always understaffed but they are always helpful and polite. I think Beefeater are deluded these days in calling themselves a restaurant, I've eaten in cafes with better cleanliness and food. The food is overpriced and portions cut back hugely ( our last visit involved a portion of mushy peas with the fish and 8 chips. We asked the waitress for a portion and she went and spoke to the chef who argued with her. The peas were added to and only required a little sauce dish to transport them back to our plates. Max 2 teaspoons of peas each I would estimate. Today is probably our last visit, which is a shame because it's local and convenient. Management seriously need to nominate this restaurant for a refurb, it's actually embarrassing. From your corporate blurb I can only assume that funds are diverted to further branching out into Germany. The place is dirty and cleaning needs bringing up to scratch. Hygiene wise how do you adequately clean seats that are fit...