Tulip Queen — Restaurant in South Holland

This was my 1st experience of the Marstons brewery hotel chain. My impression is that there are areas that need improvement ! I arrived on Sunday evening at around 20h30 ; I was informed that the carvery service had ended ; that I would need to order my meal ASAP before the restaurant closed ; recognising my limited mobility my room was changed from 1st to ground floor - thank you ! The room was clean, the facilities all more than adequate except that the bedside lights were far too feeble for anyone like me who wanted to indulge in an old fashioned activity like reading my book ! I returned to the restaurant and bar : In spite of notices saying that table service was available, I was asked to order my food and drink at the bar ; that would have been fine had the one and only barman not studiously ignored me while continuing with his conversation with a friend/customer who was not actually requiring his service at all ! Propping myself up on my crutches for 10" waiting to be served in a far from busy venue was both uncomfortable, unnecessary and annoying. I ordered my food and a pint of 'Pedigree' which I took to my table. The beer was in good condition and the service of the food was effected by a friendly and courteous waitress who fetched me the mustard that I requested ; the sirloin steak was entirely satisfactory in spite of the unimaginative accompaniments. Thereafter the promised table service ceased again and I had to go to the bar for my 2nd pint. The bar and dining area looked dirty because of the badly stained upholstery and carpets ! A refit is required ! On Monday morning I enjoyed my shower in the clean en suite bathroom and my largely self-service breakfast ; the requested bacon and eggs were brought to the table well and freshly cooked BUT since the waitress specifically asked if I would like the eggs served on toast and acknowledging that I'd like them served on brown bread NOT toast served them on the plate without ANY bread which I had to go to the buffet to collect myself ! It was not fresh ! While at the buffet I also took a very attractive looking croissant, unfortunately its look deceived : what minute amount of fat used in its preparation was unequivocally NOT butter and it too was not very fresh ! With improvements this could have been a very good value experience ; in reality it was yet another example of an English business owner not giving a damn and being interested in profit at the expense of happy staff and...

I'm sorry but if I could give 0 stars I would. We visited tonight after pre-booking short notice on way back from the seaside 6.30pm. A family of 4, 2 adults with 2 children under 10. When we arrived the place was absolutely heaving, not a problem, we'd expect that on a bank holiday. Shown to our table straight away. Table was clean but floor was dirty (again understand its quick turnover, these things can't be helped sometimes. ) We were told to order at bar as they don't take orders at table. My other half ordered, paid , only to be told after paying that there would be a 45 minute wait. 😳 this should be told before money was taken. However we were fine as it was bank holiday and they were clearly busy, we'd be happy to wait . Our first order of drinks was wrong. 2 of the lemonades or whatever it was could be soda water, could be gone off lemonade 🤔 Anyhow they swapped our drinks. Starters came out super quick, fantastic. Then it all went wrong. 45 minutes came and went and other guests who'd arrived much later than us were all getting their mains. We gave it an hour before we asked the waiter. He promptly went to kitchen, came back with one of our children's meals and told us the rest would arrive in minutes due to be plated up. Fair enough. Another 15 minutes went by, still they hadn't arrived. Again I asked the waiter , who again promptly visited the kitchen, came back empty handed and gave exactly the same response about them being played up. My child finished his meal after another 10 mins went by. So I asked a 3rd time about our meals 😳 Eventually the food arrived after an hour and a half of wating. And the worst thing is that the food genuinely seemed like it probably was plated up much earlier and sat there for half an hour under a heat source. My food was barely warm, the gravy was congealed. The sausages were almost unbreakable by knife they were that tough and chewy. My other half's burger was dry, barely any fries . My other child's meal he left most of it, and he left the restaurant in tears. £70+ later and we just couldn't even be bothered to argue the point with staff anymore. Honestly could not be more disappointed and would absolutely not recommend this restaurant. There were barely any staff. They were clearly over booked for the amount...

We visited tonight on a family meal out. We received a voucher which meant that it was quite busy. I have worked in hospitality for a significant portion of my work life and can sympathise with the volume of customers coming in and using the voucher but this should never ever affect the quality of the food or service.

Firstly, when we first arrived we were not warned that a lot of the stock is running low. One of the guests in our party wanted the Mac and Cheese which was out of stock, she then chose the Beef and Lamb Kebab which was also out of stock, then when contemplating the curry she was told there would be no naan bread. Ultimately she settled on the Steak Americana but then was told there were no rump steaks and that she could have it with sirloin which they charged an extra £2 for without checking this was okay with us. Two of the party wanted the mega mixed grills which we were told were out of stock but told we could have the smaller mixed grills to which we agreed. One of the mixed grills came out (supposed to be rare) and was very overcooked and was served well-done. Another one of the mixed grills (supposed to be medium-rare) also came out well-done. Both of these steaks were sent back and we were told that they can replace them but would be with a sirloin instead to which we agreed. The steaks returned and whilst both cooked correctly on this occasion, they were full of more fat and gristle than there was meat. Given no opportunity to query this and not receiving a check-back throughout our entire visit, we just ate the food and cut around the fat which shouldn’t be an issue we would have to overcome.

As stated before, working in hospitality I can understand the fast pace and quicker turnaround time to get guests in and out the door but this shouldn’t ever affect the food quality. I expect this to be fully investigated and responded to with more than just ‘we were busy’ and I will be expecting a compensatory offer before raising this to your...