The Holly Bush Inn — Restaurant in Stratford-on-Avon

I’m normally reluctant to leave a negative review as working in a public facing industry myself I would rather any issues be dealt with direct there and then rather than online, but when they decide to walk away & ignore you I feel it’s the only option. Having booked for Lunch we were shown to our table. After 15 minutes we got someone to take our order as no one had come over we had to call someone across to do it. After waiting an hour for our food & seeing several tables around us being served in all this time we were never check on for drink so we politely raised a concern about our order & wanted to see how much longer it would be, as we were dining with children they were beginning to become impatient. The girl who came wasn’t our server but she was friendly & said she will go and find out. On returning from the kitchen she went over to the manager, who was the same person who took our order & was conversing over by the bar area for a while. The manager, then flustered came to our table to double check our order & asked us to repeat it again. I did ask the question ‘Has it not been put through?’ Which the response was ‘I’m just going to check on it.’ This began to aggravate me, as you could see the order hadn’t reached the kitchen but rather than just owning up to the issue they had created and apologising instead he scuttled off to the kitchen. By this point we had came to the conclusion that we were going to be waiting even longer & to not be kept in the loop of the issue & fobbed off just made us unhappy. We decided now we were just going to pay for the 1 drink we had & call it quits. The manager returned shortly and informed us that he has put our order to next in the queue followed by an insincere sorry. We told him we decided against waiting and could we settle up for the drinks a leave. His attitude changed instantly & seemed like he couldn’t see what the issue was as he’s ‘bumped us to next out the kitchen’ & said ‘what else don’t you you want me to do?!’ Again we politely repeated we just want to settle our bill as by now our son was beyond hungry, to which the manager said ‘ I’ll get him some bread if he wants it’ Again we simply declined and prepared to leave. The manager then stormed back off to the kitchen & shouted for everyone in the restaurant to hear ‘Cancel it they don’t want it now!’ I’m sorry if you’re angry cause we refused to stay. But the only reason we cancelled was due to your incompetence to begin with. When he returned with the card machine, his bolshie attitude was disinterest and kept saying ‘I don’t know what you want me to do, mate’ Firstly if you are in a managers role, don’t go calling disgruntled paying customers ‘Mate’ it’s not professional at all. As we left we remained calm but aired our opinion that how had nobody bothered to come over once to check on us. Our table was right in the middle of the restaurant in the walk way. He kept telling us that he had 2 trainees he was training today and it was busy & also it’s sunny. I mean I don’t know what the weather had to do with it. With about 10 people sat outside most were going to the bar themselves and by the looks around the restaurant there can’t of been more than 10 covers in. When making our way out, we did state to him that we thought he was rude & had a bad attitude to which he turned his back and exclaimed ‘So do you’! I mean who says that in-front of other consumers and for someone in a leadership role this is not a way to deal with the public. On leaving we followed him to his console station and ask for his name twice which both times he didn’t answer to which we asked to speak to the manger to which he replied with an arrogance ‘I am the manager’ A manager sets the tone for any business and this one made it clear they don’t respect their customers. A good restaurant isn’t just about food—it’s about service and respect. If the person in charge can’t handle basic customer service without hostility, then this place doesn’t deserve your time or money. Save the frustration and dine elsewhere. 0 stars...

I do not often leave reviews but feel compelled to do so in this instance. I recently visited the Hollybush Inn for a family meal. The food was very nice but the service was adequate at best. We waited a long time after finishing our main courses for the plates to be cleared from the table, despite several of the waiting staff glancing over to our table and seeing that everybody had finished eating. We then waited a long time again for the waiting staff to take our dessert order. At the end of the meal, it felt that the staff were keen for us to vacate the table quickly as they had another booking for our table, ironically a situation caused in part by the slow service! As a result, I did not feel able to speak to the staff about our experience at the time. BEWARE IF BOOKING FOR A LARGE PARTY. As per the terms of booking, the restaurant takes a £10 per person deposit. According to the website, 'more than 48 hours notice of changes can result in a full refund or exchange for a voucher'. We cancelled two of the people on our booking with two weeks' notice but were only offered a voucher and not a cash refund. On the day, my partner was also unable to attend due to illness but the restaurant retained her deposit. Whilst this is as per the terms of booking (I'm not sure how it is possible to give 48 hours' notice of illness), I do not feel that my partner's non-attendance would have caused any significant loss to the restaurant (we would not have been seated at a smaller table) and instead has resulted only in the loss of goodwill. Overall, a disappointing experience and I will not be returning. EDIT: After contacting the manager, he has sent a voucher for the value of my partner's deposit. Overall, a reasonable resolution given the...

REPLY TO OWNERS RESPONSE

In reply to the owners comment following my review, I can categorically say that that wasn't what your waitress informed us back at the table after she'd spoken to the chef. So perhaps it wasn't made clear to her or she didn't understand and relayed it back incorrectly. Therefore my daughter, who's birthday we were celebrating and who has the gluten allergy, then felt very restricted on what she'd have liked to eat - both for her starter and the main course - due to the incorrect information given from the waitress.

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We recently enjoyed a lovely meal at The Hollybush. The only concern we had, which was a major concern for us was the limited knowledge that the chef had regarding his gluten free items. My daughter has a gluten/celiac allergy and asked about an item on the menu that stated it was gluten free. After the waitress went to check with the chef to find out whether the gf option was fried in the same oil as the non gf option, the chef told her that it was fried in the same oil as the gluten is burnt off/destroyed by the heat over 180°. Seriously.......had someone taken the chef at his word who had a gf allergy then this would have made them seriously ill. It is known that the temperature needed to destroy gluten are so high that the food would be burned, charred and inedible.....so definitely not at 180°. Please get your chef to take more interest in the options you are claiming to be gf when some of them...