The Dragon — Restaurant in South Derbyshire

My wife booked a table here for last night, Friday 20th August for 19:15 our son's 23rd Birthday. When we arrived we were greeted by a lady hostess and we confirmed our booking details and party size which was six. She looked at her table plan, looked slightly puzzled and after a few moments paused to consult with a gentleman behind her. We were then offered a table within an area where a private party was being held, somewhat strange and suggested they had not in fact reserved a table for us after all. She did say that the party was a bit loud and she wasn't wrong. Shortly after we were seated a pleasant young man came in to take our drinks order, although it was difficult to hear him over the noise. As he went to get the drinks, I went back to see the hostess and asked if there were any seats outside as we could not here ourselves talk. There were plenty of seats available in the main pub none were set up for six guests. She showed me a number of tables and we relocated outside. Shortly after the original waiter came with our drinks. A different waiter asked if we were ready to order and three of us ordered starters. I asked if it was best to order the mains at the same time, and he replied this would be quicker. The starters arrived some considerable time although no cutlery came so we used what had been provided for our main course. Unfortunately between the starters and the main course there was a very significant wait. A waiter passed our table some considerable time after our starter and said they were serving a larger party and our meals would done be after theirs? Later still a different waiter came to the table and said the food would be with us in a further ten minutes, it wasn't. We asked on a number of occasions when our food would arrive and finally it arrived just before 9pm. Given we had been there since just after 7:15 this was some hour and three quarter later. Remembering three of the party had not had any food at all since arriving. We had mostly passed the point of feeling hungry by this stage as you will appreciate. Strangely during our visit, at no point during the meal did anyone approach us and ask if the food was alright. Given it was quicker as we had ordered starters and mains at the same time how much longer would it have taken if we hadn't? When the first lot of drinks arrived a coke tasted funny, like there was dish soap taste on the glass, this was tested by three of the party who confirmed it was not right, but this was changed for us once this was raised. When the meal arrived it was dark as there were no table lights, so we had to use our phone torches so we could actually see the food we were eating. Once we had finished we were not approached regarding any further orders or to pay the bill, so we decided to go inside to settle up as we had had enough by this point. Again when paying no one asked how the meal was, we paid went back out to our party and left. I have never had a meal before where no one has asked if the food was okay. Maybe they were worried about the response given the overall experience, which they would clearly have been fully aware of. This was our first visit to The Dragon and despite booking online, receiving a telephone call to confirm an indoor table reservation and a text the day before confirming our booking, day, time date and party size clearly our booking had been overlooked as far as an appropriate table was concerned. Not the best experience and I really don't think just under two hours for some of the people in our party to wait for food is acceptable. This was our son's birthday party, which even though it was stated on the online booking was not mentioned during the entire visit. Clearly more bookings were taken than they were able to cope with. If were you offered us a free meal, I would decline, so I guess that says it all really. So I suppose you could say the wait for food certainly did DRAG-ON. Very disappointing visit/experience. Would have scored lower if not for the better...

Booked for my birthday and was excited as been once before for dinner but also had breakfast there recently. Welcomed at the door by what appeared to be the maître d and quickly shown to our table. The waitress arrived a 1 minute after seating and took our drinks order, this was a positive. The drinks arrived, some water, 2 lie cordials and bottle of wine. The maître d then committed a cardinal sins of serving and passed all 6 glasses by grabbing the rim of the glass, a big no no. Pick the glasses up from the bottom, i don't want your finger prints around the rim of the glass. Moving on, we ordered 2 fish and chips, garlic chicken and I ordered the loaded burger. After our starters our food took approx. another 10-12 minutes to arrive. The fish and chips looked nice but I was not impressed by the loaded burger. The patty looked like it had been reheated, it was tough, over done and burnt in places. Not the juicy fresh patty I was expecting for £15.95. I explain to the server, Liv, who was very good, she didn't argue and took it away and I had the fish and chips instead. The maître d approached me and tried to tell me it was freshly cooked, but there's no way. It had clearly been reheated or murdered while cooking as it was tough and dry. Anyway, no fuss was created and their response was appropriate. The location and ambience of the inn is very warm and welcoming with good service at times. I did catch some staff just hanging out by the reception desk instead of monitoring the dining room to see if any patrons needed service. That being said the service was about a 7/10 and could be improved. Our dirty plates stayed on our table for approx. 8-10 mins before i had to request the to be moved. All in all, i think the location, decor and parts of the service warrant the price point but unfortunately the food didn't deliver and we left feeling dissatisfied as the whole night cost approx. £115 of which they added a discretionary service charge of approx. £8. Unless the food drastically improves I don't think we'll be returning. Overall I'd give it 6/10 for a...

A nice pub, which we've eaten at many times, but sadly Christmas Day dinner was a disaster. Firstly, we were cold, the place was really cold and the toilets were freezing. The service was really slow. The appetisers were awful, inedible, then we waited 1.25 hours for our starters. The starters were all cold and not great. Two of our table had them reheated, but the rest of us ate them in part. The cold chowder was particularly awful. When the starters arrived no-one had cleared the table from the appetisers, we had to point out that there was nowhere to put the plates! We cleared away the paper from the crackers ourselves. The main course took ages to arrive. The turkey roll was chewy and really hard to cut, we needed steak knives! The fish looked uncooked. There was no cauliflower, no yorkshire pud, no stuffing, no suede, in fact everything you love about Christmas Dinner was missing! When the gravy eventually arrived ( we'd eaten most of the course) it was cold, sadly we only realised once poured on. We were asked if we wanted to wait for dessert, or have it straight away. We said straight away, but then they took nearly an hour to deliver. The deserts were the best bit, although the warm brownie was cold. Coffees were very strong and unpleasant, but we didn't have time to finish them anyway. At the end, with all their delays, we were asked to vacate the table, but they'd kept us waiting for hours! The bill arrived with a load of vouchers by way of an apology, but when you've paid £99/head for a table of 9 and have had your Christmas Dinner ruined and you're not even happily full, I think a verbal apology and a refund are in order; why assume we'd want to come back! Catering for Christmas Day was clearly beyond the capability of both the staff team and chef. Not a...