The Rose — Restaurant in South Cambridgeshire

We visited for a family meal in memory of my late dad's birthday as the Rose had always been one of my mum's favourite restaurants in the past. I had booked in advance so expected a table in the restaurant. We arrived to find we were seated in the bar although the restaurant was almost empty. There was no table service and no wine list but this could all be accepted. However as we began to order our starters, we were advised that several options we wanted were unavailable. We were advised that the nachos were available so went for this option. On ordering our mains, again 2 of the 4 meals ordered were unavailable so we ordered our second / third choice. When the nachos came out they were stuck so hard to the bowl that we couldn't even wedge them out using a fork. I explained to the General Manager who grabbed the bowl and walked off, no apology at all. Another bowl of nachos were brought out which were stone cold, the cheese wasn't even vaguely melted. Again we explained to the manager who asked if we wanted to cancel our mains. In hindsight we should have given up then but wanted to give the mains an opportunity to improve what was becoming an awful experience. My sisters third choice main course of sausage and mash came out and was again stone cold. At this point we could take no more, my mum was extremely upset on what should have been a celebration of my dad. She explained the situation to the Assistant Manager who responded with 'don't try to guilt trip me'. I told him this was not acceptable and we would be leaving immediately. He asked for payment of our food and drink which I was shocked by considering it had been inedible. I asked to speak to his Manager but he said she was in the kitchen and wouldn't come out. He finally went to ask her to speak with us as we were extremely upset, she immediately demanded that we pay the bill. I explained that we weren't willing to do so after such an upsetting and disappointing experience and that we would be leaving. As we walked out she was shouting at us across the car park. Overall this was disappointing service and unacceptable behaviour...

Poorly managed and average food. At the fourth time of trying, actually managed to get a table for the following night. Ordered promptly on an early Saturday evening (6pm). The menu is basic anglicised Thai food, nothing you won’t find in any other place. The small starter showed up after about 5 mins but was tiny for the price (£8 for 6 bits of tempura veg) and mediocre quality with thick and soggy batter.

What followed this was a 50 min wait with nothing happening. I asked the person who looked like the manager who ran off to check. He came back and said the food would be another 20 mins. Completely unacceptable to wait 1h10mins for a main course to arrive after a starter. Apparently we “ordered after a large group of 26 and everything is cooked fresh”.

Firstly, if there’s a large group then you should be warning smaller tables to get their orders in and going to them first, especially if those small tables have young children. Secondly, the excuse of everything is cooked fresh is just plain confusing. It’s a restaurant, surely most dishes there are cooked fresh?!?

We cut our losses and just left to go home and get our 4 year old some dinner before bed.

At least the manager was somewhat apologetic, but that doesn’t make up for basic management errors. If you can’t fulfil orders in a reasonable time then don’t take bookings. Despite it being just around the corner we wont...

First visit to The Rose since it changed to Thai. I've been to The Navigator in Shelford many times, so had high expectations as their food was always great & of a high standard.

We ordered Chicken satay and prawn crackers to start. The chicken satay was awful, they clearly use very cheap, factory farmed chicken that has that watery, shredded & weird texture. Not nice at all. Sadly I'd ordered Chicken Panang for main course which had the same awful chicken in it. The sauce was nice but lacking any depth of flavour or heat. Sadly I couldn't eat it, and left most of my meal. Husband had the Tamarind Duck with crispy noodles. The duck was nicely flavoured, but only one end was crispy, the other hadnt had the fat rendered properly and it was soggy and not at all nice. The crispy noodles were not pleasant to eat either. The waitress did ask us after each course if everything was OK, and I told her no and explained. Her comment was 'really?' in a quizical voice, before zooming off to the kitchen, where I thought she was going to relay this to the kitchen for further feedback. Nothing came back, and nothing was done to address our concerns. We left, after paying full price for a very poor meal. Beyond disappointed & will not...