Forum Sheffield — Restaurant in Sheffield

I recently went to Forum with some co-workers and had a quite unpleasant experience.

Upon sitting down, a co-worker who eats gluten had looked at the hand held menu and it had indicated that there were only 2 gluten free items, both of which were small starters costing about £4. I'm disbelief she checked the online menu which indicated similarly, and then went to the bar, and the staff there confirmed the same.

At this point, members of our team had already ordered food, so she ran across the street to get food that she could eat. Upon returning she was caught finishing off her food by another member of staff, I assume a manager. This individual had already raised their voice bringing attention to our table, and told her off for eating food from another restaurant in forum, stating that it was not acceptable. I interfered and expressed that under normal conditions I would understand, but Forum did not offer a suitable sum of gluten free food. Before I could continue to explain the situation, they interfered and adamantly disagreed with me, stating that they had plenty of gluten free options and expressed anger at the look that I was giving them.

My coworker apologised and was quite shaken by the experience. It was not until a few minutes later that the manager/staff apologised that the other staff at the bar had actually misinformed us, and there were other items of the menu that could be made gluten free despite neither menu (handheld/online) indicating as such. At this point he said this information was available online, and suddenly it was. However upon checking 5-10 minutes afterwards it no longer was, which was very bizarre?

Regardless, It is key that Forum update their handheld menus, ensure their online menu is correct at all times, and ensure their staff team are well versed on what they offer in regards to dietary requirements. This will prevent very unpleasant situations as such. A little bit of empathy demonstrated by that particular member of staff would have surely prevented the situation escalating.

We had not intended to offend anyone, four out of five of us sat at the table had ordered full meals from their menu, and were peacefully and happily eating, in quite high spirits I might add!

Fortunately, they host a rather nice Guinness to soothe the bitter taste in my mouth from...

Great location, brilliant place to sit outside when the weather is good, great selection of drinks and food, clean, and the staff are friendly. Only thing that lets it down is that the staff don't tell you in advance what they dont have on the menu. I went twice in the month of June and both visits i found that the staff are happy to wait for your entire table to look at menus and decide what you want and then come to your table and wait for you to order before they tell you they don't have multiple items on the menu. Another annoyance I found is that the food doesn't seem to come out at the same time. On my last visit my sister had almost finished her food by the time mine came out! Also at my last visit i sat at a table for 25 minutes before a member of staff came to explain that table service is offered and to ask if i wanted anything to drink... I was pleasantly surprised to hear that table service was being offered midweek for drinks, however waiting 25 minutes to be sat with no drink when the bar wasn't busy seemed a bit lame! The food is delicious, as are the drinks, and I really do rate the place- I've been going for years, but I just found a few things that happened the last 2 times I went that really wound me up because it's bad customer service and I've worked in bars and restaurants all my life and know that these things aren't...

I always thought forum was just another bar / chain / burger joint and so never ventured inside. Recently I met up with some friends here for lunch and I was decently surprised by the service, atmosphere and quality of food. My friends ordered the falafel burger and I ordered a toastie. The toastie came with chips included in the price but the waitress also informed me that I get extra salad of my choice with it as well. This wasn't obvious on the menu and came as a nice surprise, and extra value for money to boot. The choice of salads was superb, each being significantly different then the last and offering its own flavour and style. The meal itself went down well until one of my friends found a hair in the food. Not great, but my friend works in catering and was unphased. She let the kitchen staff know politely, and they knocked her meal off the bill and reduced the rest of the bill by 10%!

I'll be...