Roaring Donkey — Restaurant in Tendring

My review will have to be taken with a pinch of salt as I fully understand that night I had visited it was extremely busy.

I last visited the roaring donkey on the Sunday the 9th of December, I was taking an old friend out I hadn't seen in about a year. We arrived without reservations and was seated next to the bar, I had a word with the lady who sat us and she was kind enough to try and find us a more comfortable area to sit.

When first arriving we noticed that there was a 45 minute wait for food, so all starters were recommended to have with the main course as there would be a long wait! This was acceptable, however, I ordered a burger and she had ordered a mixed grill. We both requested the chips to have toppings (macaroni and cheese with bacon & pizza). When the food finally arrived, my burger was quite underwhelming to say the least compared to the image showed on the menu, but the issue wasn't how it looked. It came without the onion rings as stated on the menu and also my chips were normal. I had a word with the waitress and she realised the mistakes and quickly went back to the kitchen to fix up the missing items. Unfortunately, while waiting for the items my burger had gone cold what could only mean that when arriving to the table it was lukewarm at most. Once the chips (macaroni and cheese with bacon) and my onion rings had arrived I had no feeling for eating a cold burger so I only had them. My guest's meal was also very unsatisfying, we had asked for the steak to be well done, however, at most it was a medium which she couldn't eat due to the fact of the blood. The chicken was discoloured in the only way you could describe it would be the look of old chicken. She however received her chips with the additional toppings that we had requested (Pizza) that in her own words were "uneditable" due to the fact that they tasted microwaved, she believed the toppings were melted on the chips in the microwave.

Overall the entire meal was ruined, we both went without that day so we could enjoy the meal in the evening and in the end left only having a small percentage of what we should have! I did have a word with a member of staff, who was helpful and stated that he would make sure if we both come back that our meals would be taken care of. But as we haven't gone back as of yet, am unsure what the results of...

I’ve been to this Hungry Horse before and to plenty of others, and normally you can’t go wrong – the food is usually decent and the staff are friendly. Unfortunately, on this visit we experienced the worst customer service I’ve ever had in one of these pubs. On arrival, there was a huge sign telling customers to seat themselves and order at the bar. Fine, no problem. But as soon as we sat down (with our 1-year-old) we were told off because “that table was reserved.” There was no reserved sign. Instead of simply reseating us politely, it felt unwelcoming. We asked for a highchair. Staff said no problem, they’d bring one over. Ten minutes later, still no highchair. Asked again, waited another ten minutes. In the end, we found one ourselves while taking our child to the baby changing and carried it back to the table. We ordered food at the bar. No issues placing the order, but the staff member never mentioned that some ingredients weren’t available. For example, we paid extra for yoghurt mint sauce with a curry – only for the food to arrive without it, and then be told it was “out of stock” Our toddler’s meal was forgotten completely. We got our food and waited around ten minutes before asking where his was. When it finally arrived, the plate was so hot it was clearly just reheated in the microwave. Not ideal for a hungry little one. Same again for missing ingredients with dessert. We ordered the waffle with strawberries and raspberry coulis. What actually turned up was a plain microwaved waffle, and only then were we told the toppings were “out of stock.” Why let customers order something you can’t serve? My toddler was sat in front of a very disappointing plate. No alternative or refund was offered just told “out of stock” when asked where the ingredients were. Finally, dirty dishes from our mains were never cleared when desserts came out. We ended up with piles of plates on the table, even though the restaurant was only about 30–40% full and staff didn’t seem busy.

I want to stress: the kitchen itself did fine – the food we did receive was tasty enough, aside from the reheated kids’ meal. The issue here is purely customer service. It felt careless, disorganised, and at times downright dismissive.

Overall, a very disappointing visit, especially compared to how Hungry Horse...

Very poor booking and greeting service extremely rude and poor manoured considering we where a party of 30 people too. My aunt called several times to secure the booking and paid £5.00 pp deposit, and gave her mobile number as well as her landline as we where all travling from different parts of the UK for another aunts birthday surprise meal. A staff member kept calling the landline to get us in earlier then the 12.30 booked time as they had rebooked the table for 2pm. A few of us was early to decorate a bit but could not push things to be earlier and staff kept pushing us to be quick and seeing we was decorating and still not all there kept trying to get us to order. When we was all ready each family group went to the bar to order their meals, by the time I returned to the table food had started to come through. No one was asked if they wanted more drink and after the plates where taken pretty prompt some still with a lot of food on mostly empty though. We wasn't offered dessert menus not that we wanted it we had birthday cake, but wasn't even offered a knife and serviettes or coffee etc. We collected our balloons banners and cake and went elsewhere we left them a pretty table...