Plough Cambridge — Restaurant in South Cambridgeshire

1 star is even too much to rate this pub. me and my boyfriend decided to go for a sunday roast yesterday (18/08/24) bearing in mind on their website it doesn’t state anywhere that they ‘may run out of roast dinners’ / ‘they close at a specific time’ for this so we assumed booking for 7:30pm would be fine to still grab a roast. arrived and was seen to by a younger waitress, she sat us on a TINY two people table with very uncomfortable chairs & little room to move. we noted there was a LARGE 14 person table next to us but didn’t really bat an eyelid as we assumed that they wouldn’t place 14 drunk, loud people next to two couples trying to enjoy a nice meal. on arrival, we were given menus & given some time to browse and over them, 25 minutes to be exact. in this time, i realised there was no roast menu, my boyfriend asked a passing waiter (gentleman who was very nice) and he noted to us that they still both ‘chicken and pork’ roast dinners left. i had come for the chicken roast so i was happy, this is now 30 mins after we’ve been sat down. NO drinks, NO order taken, NO body checked on us. we then realise they’re actually all a lot more concerned with the 14 person table and how it’s being set up rather than the two couples sitting dining at that current moment, at one point 3 waitresses were all focused on that 1 table (bearing in mind, there wasn’t even anyone dining at the table yet!) as we realised that people would soon be loaded onto that table we asked to move. we then sat around the corner by a fireplace on more, VERY uncomfortable seating with a pillow which just slipped around underneath you. after being told twice previously by our waitress she would take our order and then once again when we were moving table, she still failed to come back to us and take the order. the loud table was then seated and all of the staff FLOCKED to their every wish and command, us? we were on the back burner, they didn’t even remember we were waiting. my boyfriend had to call ANOTHER waitress over to explain we hadn’t had our order taken and we had been waiting for nearly 40 mins now. the girl who was BLONDE, TALL and wore BLUE JEANS was extremely rude, looked at us at though we were aliens and proceeded to ask if we wanted her to take our order. we proceeded to tell her what we wanted & when i said i wanted the roast and explained a waiter had told me there was still a chicken roast left, she screwed her face at me, and in her most patronising voice said ‘ ummmm who told you that?’ (as though i was lying to her, how could i make that up? i don’t work there) and then told me she didn’t have any. at this point me and my boyfriend were beyond fed up, annoyed and just beyond unimpressed. we’d instead asked for the bill for our two drinks which took 35 mins to arrive, we had no apologies no smiles no customer service at all. the men here seem to be a lot more on the ball than the women & if we had gotten a male server then maybe our experience would’ve been different. it’s such a shame considering how excited both me and my boyfriend were. i literally went to the plough the day before this with my parents and had no issues so i feel like it could be an age thing? and if staff are going to continue to treat younger people like this (me and my man are 22&23) then you really to employ better staff because we shouldn’t have been subjected to the ‘customer service’ or shall i say lack of last night. completely ruined our evening & was hard to find somewhere else to eat as it was 8:30pm on a SUNDAY. won’t be returning, nor recommending to anyone else. a real real shame. it asked for a star rating for the food & we didn’t even get to try the food. it’s just a joke honestly. your main female server is the main problem, she is rude, pulls very rude faces which i noted both days i was at your pub, she isn’t welcoming nor accommodating. she has some sort of like ‘superior’ complex it’s very noticeable when you’re dining, she thinks she’s better than you and it’s...

We recently visited the Plough for a booked Sunday lunch. Seated promptly and left for a couple of minutes before being asked by a young staff member whether we wanted any drinks or not, as if we had already been asked. It seemed he was unaware we had only just arrived. Ordered some drinks which were brought to the table by another staff member. The young lad came back to take our order but didn't seem especially confident or competent...

Starters came which were good, but then had a long wait for our plates to be cleared. Whilst we were eating our starters my partner saw what looked suspiciously like our mains be brought out by yet another staff member before disappearing again. When we had finished our starters and eventually had our plates cleared, our mains arrived. They had clearly been sat on the hot plate for a very long time - the plates were red hot and the food all dried out. Furthermore, my partner's linguine was burnt - the chef had literally managed to burn pasta. Safe to say it was sent back. When another came it wasn't burnt this time, but the pasta was overdone and the dish had little flavour, certainly not what you expect from a dish costing almost £20. Service was shambolic throughout and the lad serving us seemed completely clueless and his customer service was poor.

At no point whilst we were waiting for the issue to be sorted were we offered any more drinks despite having two empty glasses sat on the table, and nothing more than a "sorry about that" before he disappeared again. He came back to say he'd speak to his manager "to see if we can do something to compensate you", then came back with the bill (which we hadn't asked for, and hadn't been offered the dessert menus yet either) saying they'd taken 20% off the food for us - how generous! The least the manager could've done was come out to say this to us themselves and offer a proper apology. The bill still came to over £60.

If one staff member had looked after us from the start it is unlikely that these mistakes would've been made. However, because so many different people dealt with us it meant that nobody knew what was going on and whether we'd been served or not, which led to our mains coming out too soon and then being left on the hot plate for ages. Additionally, the burnt pasta should never have left the kitchen, so it's clear nobody bothers checking the quality of the food being served. It may be a pub, but you pay restaurant prices so expect quality food and attentive service - we received neither. The attitude of the staff was poor - half-arsed apologies and an invisible manager leaving a clearly inexperienced junior staff member to sort the issue without taking any responsibility. 20% off the food was frankly insulting, but our afternoon had already been ruined by this point so I chose to just pay the bill and leave.

In summary, a nice setting let down by shambolic service and poor food. I feel absolutely ripped off to be honest, and won't be bothering to...

Unfortunately, too many things just weren't up to standard. We booked a table, arrived promptly and saw who I presumed to be the manager at the reservations computer delegating to a staff member about reservations and tables. Fine, I won't interrupt. We stand there for another few minutes, waiting to be acknowledged with even just a 'hi, I'll just be a second' or something along those lines. No. We stand like lemons waiting to be seen, already feeling awkward that the manager is right in front of us but doesn't seem to see us. Already a red flag. Eventually, she noticed us and took us to our table where we waited.....and waited. Since no one came to ask for our drinks after twenty mins, we flagged down a server and they took our order. We wait on our two glasses of wine. And wait. And wait. After half an hour we flag down a server again and ask politely if they could follow up on our drinks. Suddenly our starters arrive. Still no drinks but they arrive while eating. We finish and mains arrive. Food is tasty and interesting with unusual combinations of ingredients so we were quite happy with the lamb and steak we ordered (also the padron peppers were a winner!). It's now two hours later and, although we weren't planning on having a long dinner, it was a warm night so weren't too fussed. We ask for the bill and wait. And wait. We see the server we just asked for the bill proceed to have a long conversation with a table they obviously favour over others. After their conversation we see the same server begin to clear tables around her at the other side of the restaurant. They've forgotten but it's not a big deal we just ask another server. We never see the other server again. After waiting another fifteen/twenty minutes to see if anyone wants to bring our bill we decide to go inside and pay at the bar. The bar person was friendly, smiley and had good customer skills which was a small win but not enough to redeem themselves from the rest of the experience. We paid and left no tip. If a service charge would have been included we would have asked for it to be removed. As someone who has worked in hospitality at all levels for 22 years, I completely understand that sometimes things mess up and places can just have a bad night which makes this a difficult review to write but serious FOH training is needed if they want to avoid more bad reviews. Overall, if you wish to have a long drawn out dinner and be mostly forgotten about then I recommend The Plough. If you want the standard friendly welcome, prompt, engaging service, tasty food and good value then I DO NOT...