The Aviator — Restaurant in Tendring

Awful experience from start to finish. Myself and husband haven't been before but other family members have and enjoyed it previously so came for a birthday.

Took ages to get served for drinks, ages to recieve the drinks then ages to order. Took ages to recieve the two starters and then to get mains Took over 1hr and 20 mins.

Two of us chose carvery and got told we can go get it as others will get their food soon. There was barely anything left, dried up minging looking food we refused to have it and didn't want to order anything else as won't be able to eat with others. Got told if we have a burger or similar could get it in 10 mins but we didn't want to order food we didn't want.

Kids food was fine, vegan chilli was fine but the 3 others who had food were very disappointed. It was dried up, over done rubbish food.

We didn't get any updates on food, times, anything.

We eventually got told to pay only for drinks after back and forward with a few people.

The whole experience was absolutely awful and we would not recommend.

Karen listened and helped the best she could and looked overwhelmed which was sad to see and she said this didn't normally happen. She is the one that made sure we only paid for drinks and was really decent. So thank you Karen we are grateful for your understanding

Edit to their reply. I don't think we met the assistant manager unless it was Karen, it took ages to be dealt with. It wasn't busy in there so no excuse for times for anything. Why take orders if its near the end? We asked if it would be refreshed and we got told yes. Hearing your staff walking about making comments smirking and shaking their heads talking about the situation is so unprofessional. Literally none of that experience was our fault.

So amazed at the good reviews here considering it was so bad. Maybe we were just unlucky and it was a bad day, it wasn't bank holiday it was a Tuesday. It was enough to put us off...

Awful from start to finish. We would not recommend to anyone! When we arrived we were pointed to our seats then left with no menus until the waitress returned to ask to take our order, leaving us to ask for the menus. The waitress was very young and had minimal training (this was not her fault at all, bad management for not giving her enough time to train) as everything we asked her she didn't know but also didn't go and check. When our food finally arrived we had to ask for cutlery, some of our parties food was well over cooked whilst some was under cooked, once again no waitress to be seen for us to mention this. No one collected our Plates, we ended up having to move them to the side and they stayed there the rest of the evening. No one came back over to ask for refills or if we wanted any dessert. A member of our party had to ask for menus AGAIN to select desserts and then again ask for someone to come back over to take the tables order. Once dessert came the plates got moved aside by us due to no one collecting. The rest of the evening we didn't see anyone so we kept going to the bar for drinks/ taking our empty glasses to the bar to clear some of the table. A member of our party became very ill (he was not drunk) and when we asked for a bag/ water to help him get to the car the waitress was extremely blunt and rude and gave us what looked like a cardboard pop corn box filled with water, not even a glass for him to drink from. Pictures attached below to show how much rubbish/ old plates were left during the night not just from our party. We will not...

This is a Local Restaurant for us & tbh we have only had 1 good experience, when it first opened! We only went there this time because they were offering 30% off and 2 drinks for £5. Thought it might have improved since our last visit over 1 year ago. But sadly No. The waitress was at the end of her shift & was quite indifferent to us. We clearly stated that we were here for the 30% offer. Initially we hoped to have the carvery, but after looking at it. We changed our mind, it was 14-20pm & the Veg looked very uninviting, particularly the Cauliflower cheese. The Cauliflower was ' Al dente" on top of a sauce that had clearly disintergrated & was slightly orange and runny. We looked at the other choices. We chose the Scampi & since we are both elderly, went for the " lite bite". The waitress did not tell us, THIS choice was not part of the 30% offer.! She did however point out that our " non- alcoholic" drinks WERE NOT Part if the 2 for £5 offer. We chose NOT to have alcohol, but commented that this was unfair on Drivers & people who do not drink alcohol. When we asked for the bill our waitress assured us that the 30% offer had been deducted. It HAD NOT. When I spoke to the senior waitress she explained that the Til automatically makes any recognised deduction and that the " lite bites" are not included! So all in all another Disappointing experience at The Smugglers Cove Clacton. So we wont be...