The Butler's Bell By Davenports — Restaurant in Stafford

Unbothered, unapologetic and unacceptable.

This morning me, my partner and our friend went to go and have breakfast. We live just over the road and used to go to the butlers bell a lot when it was the Wetherspoons but haven’t been in much since it changed to Davenport’s.

I arrived at 10:40am, found a table and we placed our order around 10:50am. Initially, I was concerned by the service (or lack of). The bartender, who we later discovered was a manager, input the order wrong a number of times and had to be corrected on several occasions before getting it correct. They then haphazardly splashed some orange juice in a glass and slammed it down on the side spilling it around the glass. We weren’t off to a great start but we went and waited for our food.

30 minutes later and the food hadn’t arrived so I went inside just to ask how long the wait time was. I was met with “the kitchen did say it was a 30 minute wait”, new information to me but I was reassured they would go and check where it was.

20 minutes later the food finally arrived… or some of it did. One of the meals was completely missing and we were told it had mistakenly been taken to another table. When the two of us who had meals looked at the plate we were missing a number of items from the advertised breakfasts. Eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms. There was very little attempt at an apology with just one of the members of staff claiming responsibility for the mixup but nothing further from the “manager”.

We were told the other breakfast would be out in 5 mins so we waited… 10-15 mins passed and nothing had come so we decided we would leave and get a refund. Nobody checked if the food was okay or if there were any issues so I had to explain to the “manager” who was signed in on the till system as ‘Jacob’ but I’m assuming this wasn’t their login given the complete lack of apology or professionalism. I explained we had missing items and one breakfast which never arrived after being there for an hour so I wanted a refund for the breakfasts. I was told that because we’d accepted the other two breakfasts they would not refund them but only the one which didn’t arrive and that it was not possible for them to refund the other two.

I was then handed cash from the till in the total of about £11, slightly more than the cost of one breakfast. I explained that I had paid on card and wanted the refund on the same method of payment, again I was told this just wasn’t possible for them to do.

First time going there to eat since it changed hands and it will definitely be the last. Poor service, poor quality food and generally a total lack of care or compassion for...

I've been here a few times over the years and it's always been busy but efficient. Popped in Friday afternoon for a bit of lunch and it was busy which was to be expected on a Friday lunchtime however no one was clearing the tables so we walked out and came back 15 minutes later and they still hadn't been done. The wifi wasn't working and I also had no signal in the building which made it difficult to place my order (I almost had to go to the bar) Eventually the wifi started working again, I placed a drinks order and waited nearly half an hour for a pint and a spirit, this wouldn't have been as annoying if it wasn't now incredibly quiet in there. When the drinks were brought over the server did apologise for the wait which was nice.

We ordered food, the guy that brought our food over was very friendly however dropped one of our side orders. He was quite embarassed about it but it wasn't really a problem and I said not to worry. However, he radioed to the kitchen for another portion and he was verbally abused over the radio for a small mistake which clearly embarassed him more than he already was and he was trying to cover up the speaker but the person on the other end was being quite loud as there was issues with availability and they only had enough onion rings for the orders that they had on. I didn't catch his name but he was very friendly and polite and stayed professional throughout and resolved the problem in the end.

Other than that, the food was good and the drinks were good. Usual Spoons standards. Just felt disappointed by the service and the attitute towards a fellow team member for something that wasn't really an issue and speaking to him like that...

My sons birthday today so decided to go for breakfast. Wasn't overly busy 1 person serving behind bar and 2 working on the floor. 35 minutes we waited for our breakfasts 1 of our party of five had to go so got a refund of £4.50 for traditional breakfast. Then the lad working the floor came over and gave us the breakfast that was refunded as a kind gesture until the other breakfasts came, I'm not sure how this one breakfast was ready before the other four. 5 mins later all the other breakfasts came 2 large and 2 more traditional. The eggs were hard and looked like they had been mashed up, no mushrooms on the large. We complained and we were given 2 soft drinks and a small glass of wine and told we will received more eggs and the mushrooms, but we did not receive any of these. We waited as long as we could but our breakfasts were cold. I complained again again as we left, about not receiving the eggs or mushrooms and the lady, ( I assume is the supervisor) just said " I'm sorry, you have really had a bad experience today haven't you? can I get you anything to take out?"I just replied "No" and then walked out. This is not the only bad experience I have had there and swore I wouldn't go back but thought I'd give it another go. But now I really won't be returning and will only go to weatherspoons, Picture house down the High Street. Same chain, same food but a whole lot better. Great stuff, clean tables food is pretty much on time , hot and...