Armstrong's Bar & Restaurant — Restaurant in Tendring

We came as a group of 10 for my Mother in Laws 60th birthday, and I must say it was a shambles.

Firstly, please let me say, that we have been many times prior to this and have had excellent food and fantastic service, so not sure what has happened.

Firstly, my Father in Law had to pay a deposit for 12 of us, which was absolutely fine, however, one of those was for a baby who would not have been eating. Unfortunately the mother and baby were unable to attend due to illness, so we lost £10 of the deposit. I would like to Firstly ask, why was we charged for a baby, who was never going to be eating?

Secondly, we asked for a pitcher of beer, and when this was served, we were given 3 (out of 4) of the most dirtiest glasses. The beer from previous drinkers was still in the bottom, hence the staining of brown at the bottom of the glass. This is totally unacceptable, and this could actually cause serious health issues to people drinking from them.

The waitress brought the first two starters out, prawn cocktails, and dumped it infront of a person who didn't even order it, and even after we told her who they were for, just left it there.....would you not have picked this up and actually served it to the correct person?

We then had the mains served. Out of the 10 orders, were four full racks of ribs. One of these came out as a half. We asked the waitress if this was correct and she said, sorry, she would get the other half out. This came out AFTER the person had finished their dinner, which meant they had to take this away in a take away box. Seemed like there was no urgency to correct the error immediately.

The burgers, I am sorry to say, are an actual joke. The burgers themselves looked like the small ones you get from Iceland. But yet, are being charged at nearly £14. Just shocking. The chips, were edible, but burnt. Please think about putting it on a plate (or atleast asking the person eating it what they would prefer) and not a wooden chopping board. A chopping board is for chopping after all......

We then asked for our cake to come out, so we could sing happy birthday and blow the candles out. We got told "yes no problem, but you will be charged £2 per person for eating there" at no point had we mentioned we wanted to eat it there, and had actually already mentioned this prior to handing over the cake.

We opted not to have a dessert as we felt quite deflated to be honest.

When the bill came out, I asked if the 3 for 2 drinks had been deducted and she said "no, thats only Friday's". I think you need to make that clearer on your menu, as it just states Monday... Tuesday...etc and the Friday's. But your drinks deal just says "Evenings" you need to amend that to specifically say "Friday evenings" as it is in fact false advertisement on your part.

The bill came up, minus the £50 deposit (still baffled why you charged £5 for a baby) and to my surprise a £27 service charge. I asked for this to be removed, as I find this quite shocking to put on any bill. A service charge is not a given, it is a discretion by those who are paying. You cannot expect anyone to pay a service charge if they feel the service has not been up to scratch.

As I previously stated above, we have been here multiple times before and always had great service and exceptional food. Last night, just was not the same. It is a shame, as we come here for birthdays and we will be thinking twice now, due...

Well, where do I start...? I visited Armstrong's Restaurant on the evening of 23rd February 2019. Having visited this site on only a couple of occasions in the past - once for bowling, and once for an informal coffee at the restaurant.

On arrival, my first impression was that the place seemed to have had a bit of a refurbishment since my last visit, and the decor, including the sight of a Grand Piano, situated opposite the dining area was reasonably aesthetically pleasing. However, as time went by, it became obvious that the refurb was only skin deep.. 1, The waiting staff were inattentive and altogether, without any sense of urgency. 2, The waiting time to be attended to was excessive. 3, The waiting time for food to be produced was even more excessive. 4, The food was of a less-than-average quality, and therefore very much overpriced (the "Creamy Mashed Potatoes" were anything but - being lumpy/crusty in places, tasteless and very clearly repeatedly reheated). 5, The lavatories were disgusting, with a strong urinary smell to greet you on your approach to them (having had to negotiate your way through many intimidating teenagers, who populate the pool tables and such like, around that area), in order to finally reach them. My guess for the residual unpleasant urinary odour, is that it is probably just a special design feature, especially for the benefit of their blind customers, because, in order to locate the lavatories, they'd only simply need to "follow their noses".. The lavatories have clearly seen some sort of refurbishment since my last visit, but the general hygiene and appearance of them is clearly being left to fall into decay. Aswell as the unpleasant smell, it was noted that there was urine all over the floor, both at the urinal and in the cubicle. The disabled access furniture in the cubicle is either broken, missing or corroded beyond belief. My highlight of my visit to the lavatories was the super hand-dryer on the wall in the cubicle - it works very efficiently and effectively, and was a delight to behold after watching how the rest of the restaurant, as a whole, seems to carry on. Perhaps the entire staffing team (including management) could learn from this hand-dryer "member of staff" ?? Alternatively perhaps a nomination for Mr Gordon Ramsey to pay a visit, as he could use this establishment to make one of his "Kitchen Nighmares" programs ??

On a serious note though, there are many far better eating establishments in Clacton - some of which are virtually, only across the road, so I would question anyones motive in going here, unless you actually like overpriced, poorly produced, cold food, which takes an excessive time to reach the table, together with a general lack of duty-of-care within the establishment as a whole.. I,d be particularly interested in what any wheelchair users might think of the signage and facilities in and around the site, as my partner struggled with the damaged/missing disabled facilities and signage as to which route she should take... and whilst my partner has limited mobility, needing walking aids to get around, thankfully she is not yet wheelchair bound... Come on Armstrong's, time to get your act...

On arrival at this venue, our first impressions of the actual restaurant area was okay, despite having had to negotiate our way down a long set of steps (one of our group has limited mobility), and through a gaming area which was full of rowdy teenagers. On arrival at our table, we found the table staff inattentive and after a long wait to place an order, we ended up having to send one of our group to actually track down a waitress to serve us. Orders were taken... and then the wait began... from time of placing our orders, it took over an hour-and-a-half for a food to arrive. We were a party of 10, and were to quietly celebrate an 80th birthday party.. but found during our wait, that the table next to us was suddenly occupied by a very noisy party of around 20 to conduct a baby shower... complete with loads of babies and children.. this table, despite arriving a considerable time after us, got served before us.. this had the effect of also putting a dampened on things.. On arrival of our main courses, the food was average at best, and in some cases quite poor. I myself, had for my starter, the Garlic Mushrooms, which to be fair, were quite nice, but the portion size was paltry in comparison with the inflated price of them. For my mains, I had the Beef Burgundy, which was okay, except a) It was served on a cold plate, which made the food go cold very quickly. b) The price of it was extortionate at £13.95, when you could achieve the same effect with a £1.00 jar of shop-bought sauce. c) The mashed potato was by far and away the worst mashed potato I have ever had the misfortune of tasting.. Yes, even lumpier, blander, than the old fashioned school dinners I remember from the '70's, and had clearly been repeatedly reheated. d) The toilets were dirty, smelly and clearly unhygienic and unkempt. e) The disabled toilets were just the same. Over all, the whole experience was a complete let down.. the only thing that saved it, was the company we were in at the table, but we pretty much all agreed that there are much better places to eat in and around Clacton. I for one won't be wasting any more of my...