The Goat Inn — Restaurant in St Albans

Very, very disappointing carvery experience.

First of all, when we arrived the staff immediately projected their stress onto us despite the pub not really being that busy. Paying by cash proved troublesome since not only did they have to once again leave us at the bar to process the payment they also gave us the wrong change.

When we finally paid for our carvery and 4 drinks which were served in dirty glasses, we were told where we could sit, but then weren’t told what the process is for getting the food. We were given a wooden spoon in a dusty bottle handed to us, but weren’t told what to do with it. In the past we remember having to wait until our number was called, but this time after waiting 5 minutes we decided to ask and were told that we can go up whenever “but give it a couple of minutes because there’s a queue”. What’s the point of a numbered spoon? Shouldn’t that be used to control the queue?

Anyway, since there was a queue we waited a bit and then went up individually to get food. For some reason, the person carving was unable to cut the meat at any reasonable speed. I’m not sure if the knives were blunt or whether they’ve just never used a knife before but they were basically trying to saw bits of meat off by making very tiny movements which meant it was upwards of 30 seconds per slice of meat. The meat was quite cold once served and I wouldn’t have touched the grey looking beef. I ended up having lumps of turkey served which was dry and cold.

Waiting for the meat to be cut was already a bad experience made much worse by how sticky the floor was where you have to wait. Honestly disgusting enough a reason not to return despite the rest of the issues, not all of which I have yet mentioned.

After finally getting my lumps of turkey, I was just handed the plate with no Yorkshire. Turns out there weren’t any and I had to wait. Which I guess was good timing because I also had to ask and wait for roast potatoes to also be brought out.

When I spooned myself some somehow luke warm but over cooked veg onto my plate, sharing the serving spoons between dishes because there wasn’t enough, I had to pull a very long hair from the broccoli.

Once my plate was full and I finally got some roast potatoes and a Yorkshire pudding (at least these were hot) I tried to ladle myself some gravy using a comically large ladle which ended up just making a huge mess since the gravy was far too thick and gloopy, and also not very hot.

Just to top it all off the table itself was dirty with bits of food stuck in the grooves. My father in law was quick to point out that the whole place needed cleaning top to bottom which I agree with but am disappointed by since it was only recently refurbished.

We’re locals and used to come here regularly with a much larger group. (13 people) and it was fantastic before the pandemic, we were proud to take people there because it was good food and felt well organised. Today was a far cry away from that and I felt like we wasted our money and was embarrassed taking my in-laws there, who also paid for the meal.

Very disappointing and I hope it can return to how it used to be, but we won’t be trying again until next year at the very earliest.

UPDATE: They think we should have to talk to staff to make things improve rather than them just being aware that the floor is sticky, serving food with hair in and that they’re serving drinks in dirty glasses.

Perhaps they could just take some responsibility for the state of the place rather than expecting patrons to have to confront staff face to face before anything improves.

As I mentioned in my original review the very first thing we were faced with was staff projecting their stress onto us; not very approachable so hardly surprising we didn’t talk to them about our issues is it.

Another updated reply from them suggests they’re unable to take any public criticism in their stride and just apologise and promise to improve. Not everyone is going to leave a 5 star review, especially when they have as many issues as we did. It’s part of being on...

I strongly recommend that, if looking for somewhere to stay, you look elsewhere. My experiences were very poor. Most of what was wrong did not become obvious until during the night and as I had to leave by 8:30 am I had paid up front on arrival and there was no one about in the morning.

First of all, for £45 I expected an en -suite room. I discovered that this was not the case immediately but as it appeared that there was no alternative, there was no point going down to ask for a change of room.

There was an empty crisp packet on one side of the bed head and an empty electronic smoking refills pack packet, on the floor on the other side. The pillows were untidy and the top one at the window side smelled unwashed. The sheet was crumpled and I lifted the duvet at the bottom corner nearest the door to look and saw several hairs. All this coupled with the long hairs and dust on the mantelpiece suggested to me that the room hadn't been cleaned and the linen changed after the last occupant.

It was late and I was dressed for bed when I noticed this so I decided to sleep in the single bed, which did look fresh and tidy, with clean linen. This proved to be a bad decision as it was very lumpy and uncomfortable, as well as sloping sideways, so that I kept being unable to lie centrally. I slept badly and only fitfully.

I was also disappointed that the wifi was too weak, when connected, to be able to use.

In the morning, it was bitingly cold in the room, with no heating on and I would have loved a hot drink but there was no mug, coffee or milk. Even black tea with sugar would have been welcome but there was nothing to drink from. I looked in the fridge to make sure they weren't in there, and being thirsty, I might have enjoyed the bottle of water in there but for the fact that it had obviously been opened and drunk from.

I looked forward to a hot shower to take the chill off me. However the bathroom was unheated and, like the water in the shower, was also icy cold. The shower controls were very complex with 5-6 knobs with no instructions as to what each does. Only the temperature was obvious. I prefer to get in only when warm water is running so I put one arm in and tried turning one. As the shower head was pointing at the open part of the doors, I got an icy full -front drenching and a soaking floor before slamming the door shut with the water of full force. I tried again, going for the temperature control this time, and got another icy blast. Not nice! Miserably , I decided to wash at the sink. There wasn't even a bath mat to stand on.

When travelling with my husband, we would not have stayed anywhere at £45 each (£90 per room) with no en-suite (which I did not know) and no breakfast (which I knew). I think the price was far too high - it led me to expect more than I got. It was very poor value for money. I have emailed twice but there has been no response. An apology would have been nice; a refund better.

(Having to give one star as it will not...

Very disappointed with the food and the service. We booked in advance for 12 of us to enjoy a family meal to celebrate a passed loved ones birthday, to be called up a couple of days before and have our booking pushed back by 2 hours. This meant our booking was now at 14:30 instead of 12:30. We arrived to be told it was carvery only yet this was not stated to us when making the booking. We waited a long time to be served the carvery so by the time we had all finished it was passed 16:00 of which apparently is when the kitchen closes. Again this was not specified to us when making the booking. When asked if we could just get a couple of bowls of ice cream for the kids, we were spoken to very rudely and told no as the kitchen was closed even though there is no cooking involved in those desserts. When we questioned as to why this was not possible as it is just ice cream the lady continued to be rude. We advised the lady that we would not be returning to which she replied "do you want the ice cream or not" of which we said yes. She kindly said that we wouldn't be charged for the ice cream but that didn't make up for the rest of the experience. Overall very disappointed, disgusted and upsetting to have our special family meal ruined by...