The Drapers Arms — Restaurant in Stevenage

I hate to say this, but this pub is a disgrace. Went there on Satuarday trying to enjoy a brunch with the women's World Cup (England vs Colombia) starting at 11:30am. I am aware that Arsenal is starting premier league match at 1pm. We were enjoying our over burnt English breakfast (Mushroom is burnt and Tomato is cold), at around 12:30 one of the staff deliberately turn off all women's football game and try to get Arsenal match on all the TV, and they have like 8 TV in the pub. There are roughly 20 people enjoying the women's match and we were shocked. After we asked to get two of the TV tune back to women's football, he turn up the volume for the Arsenal match so that we couldn't hear anything from the World Cup match. I found it very silly and disrespectful, we are just trying to support our national football team in a small corner of the pub and we can't even watch football without some toxic attitude from the manager. We asked very nicely twice for them to turn down the volume (didn't even ask him to turn on the women's audio, but just less Arsenal audio on our side) he then said " Oh I am very sorry" walked into the back room and turn the volume up even more so all we could hear is Arsenal blasting in our ears. Mark that the Arsenal fans are at the other side of the pub and have separate speakers on already. End up we have to finish the match without audio from 12:30-13:00 and very very loud premier league audio over our head.

Sadly we won't be visiting this pub again, I did not except this level of disrespect towards our national women's football and such horrendous attitude towards 20+ of your customer watching women's football. It's an unpleasant experience and also a wake up call that we still need to fight sexism in the year 2023.

Add a photo just to show I am actually there that day, so sad I could not add a video to show how they try to turn off the tv and blasting the premier league audio. Also the food...

This is the fifth time that lunch for me at Drapers Arms Stevenage has been a non starter. Unfortunately friends and acquaintances like coming here. Came to lunch on Sunday this week I had ordered a chicken and bacon salad with waffle fries. My companions ordered burgers and wraps. I was near last to be served my meal. My salad should have come with tomatoes, spring onions, cheese and dressing. What arrived was a few leaves of lettuce, one slice bacon and one slice of chicken. No dressing; spring onions , tomatoes or cheese. Sent back and in the mean time my companions had all eaten and those customers who arrived later were served and eating their lunch. Several times I asked the young female server where my lunch was as all they had to do was add the missing items to a salad. She seemed put out and made me feel like I had no right to complain. All I got back from her was it's 5 minutes later with no show I cancelled the order. The young trainee bar manager James looked stressed but managed to issue a part refund on a salad, drink and waffles that cost £19 plus. Yes, I had cause to query this price also. He couldn't issue me with a refund on my payment card so offered cash instead which I accepted part refund. Prior to this several times I had to return food that was obviously microwaved as the centre of the meal was still frozen. Unfortunately my companions like going to the Drapers, so I'm stuck. That day I got a baguette from Simmons for lunch. Please please train your staff properly. The young female server had a shocking...

Ordered doritos chilli jacket potato, came with a teaspoon amount of sauce with a few kidney beans, little bit of cheese and a sprinkle of spring onions...looked like a plain jacket to be honest. The jacket was not cooked, Rock hard on one half and nearly soft on the other, it had butter on it but tasted just plain. Definitely had been microwaved, which I don't mind if fully cooked. My partner had sausage and mash, was very dry. Sausages appeared to have been microwaved. The mash was packet mash and rather chewy. The gravy didn't even make it seem wet, just like a very thick chewy consistency throughout. My son had burger and waffle fries (asked for no lettuce as my son has autism and is an extremely selective eater) his food came with lettuce on his plate, I quickly dashed it off but assumed it had been pulled off his burger as was only a small amount. Unfortunately he saw this so didn't touch the burger, which if I'm honest I wish I had ordered as his kids meal had more food than my adult meal. The waffle fries were nice also. He ate his garlic bread so can only assume that was nice, basic garlic bread slices. The pudding that came with the kids meal however was a huge let down too. Perfect amount for a child but the brownie was inedible, couldn't get a spoon through it. It was cremated and the ice cream had large lumps of ice in it. For the price, 30 pound it was definitely not worth it. I can go to witherspoon and pay half the price for at least...