The Wayfarer — Restaurant in Stafford

We had reserved the small function room at 3pm for a special birthday, which costs extra but the website states "you will receive attentive service" and "all your needs will be attended to". We'd also ordered a bottle of prosecco with this. If you knew the birthday girl, you'd know this is the least she deserves and we wanted to make this a super special day for her with all the family.

When we arrived the room wasn't ready, and we didn't get in until just after 3:35. These things happen, so in we go still upbeat but there were dirty glasses on the bar and a half eaten corn on the cob under my chair. A waitress said she would bring us some glasses for the prosecco. 4pm rolls round, still no glasses for the prosecco and no one to take our orders so we had to go looking and ask 3 times for someone to come and see to us.

By 5:20, we're starting to get agitated now that we haven't had our mains, bearing in mind we were expecting to sit down at 3pm,so we went to ask for the manager. The food then arrived but one of the meals was wrong (serving chicken to a vegetarian) so then that guest had to wait longer for something to be cooked. She decided to use this time to go to the bar with our drink orders, since no one had come to the room to ask if we wanted drinks. At this point, a waitress came in regularly to see if we were OK, take drinks orders and ask if we were enjoying our meals. This was great but should have been the service (that we'd paid extra for) 2 and a half hours ago.

The food was delicious, and we're the sort of family that makes the most out of any situation, so that's what we did. But it was really, really disappointing service which took the edge of what should have been a perfect day. The most insulting thing, was that we then asked if some of our bill could be discounted on account of the above, and the manager offered to take off the service charge. Now that's just silly. Service charges should be optional anyway, and we tip generously where deserved but we then had to haggle for some of the room charge to be discounted (would you pay extra for what we experienced?). Sort your service out and we'll be back, otherwise perhaps change the website description to "all your needs will be attended to after 180 minutes waiting and a complaint to the manager" and I'll happily pay full price because I've received exactly what...

This place was recommended to me and my partner as being “a lovely place to eat with a lovely beer garden”. This is half true. The outside seating area is lovely along with the meals themselves. My poor review stems from the staff members. Never in my life have I heard of starters and mains coming out at the same time if you order it through the QR code on the time, and to not be told that this is the case makes it even better. Fortunately for my partner I had gone inside to ask for his focaccia bread to come out as a starter as it was not part of the starter section, but didn’t think to ask for my ‘starter’ to come out as a starter as it was in the starter section. When my partner had finished his starter we asked when mine would come out and we were told it would come out soon, to then be told when the his plate was cleared everything comes out at the same time. The lady then said she could leave our mains on the heated pass and bring my “starter” out, I said not to worry about it. It then took nearing 10 minutes between mine and my partners mains to come out for the “starter” and fries to come out. If you decide to eat here, either order at the bar or have table service like everyone else in the outside seating area other than us. Will not be coming back here again, the staff need to be more vocal in explaining how things work to customers as personally I’ve never heard or seen...

Booked a table in advance for a Father’s Day meal -7pm - polite staff shown to our table and ordered drinks and at about 710 ordered our food - been coming for years to the Wayfarer so a no brainer to book for a special occasion and always recommended friend's etc Wow what a difference no steak at all on the menu left and the only VG option a potato pie!!! The burger with blue cheese over £21 counted 7 chips and no garnish - far better quality and presentation at McDonalds!! The skewer burnt chicken no garnish and the rice was tasty 👌🏼daughter just had to have a salad with side order of chips!!! Looks as tho youve got the market and now ripping us off - had booked for 29th with friends but cancelled and will now not be a regular customer - oh and waited over an hour for our meal and had to chase - told there was a back log Greed has taken over the paragon pub brand I’m afraid and since this was the only one left of the 5 that we would go again to will be giving them all an mis. We did mention all the above at the time and was told there had been a change of menu- well there certainly has been and in our opinion not...