The Lion Inn — Restaurant in Tewkesbury

Hells Kitchen Owner 2 If you want to be treated with contempt and derision, look no further. This is the place for you! We popped in for a light lunch and drinks following a lovely visit to Sudeley Castle. We ordered 2 glasses of Champagne, a pint, hummus, pork pie and triple cooked chips. The hummus was bland, tasteless and unpleasant, so we each took a tiny taste and left it untouched, along with all the accompanying pitta. We mentioned to the waitress that we hadn’t enjoyed it. When the bill arrived, it included the hummus. We suggested it might be appropriate to remove it from the bill. After an unnecessarily ‘intense’ and friction filled exchange of opinions, the female manager, rather aggressively stated “the chef tasted it and he said it was fine, so in our opinion, it was fine and you should pay for it”. We were astonished to find ourselves involved in such an exchange with a manger who is clearly comfortable with treating her customers with hostility and contempt. Not a smart move for the sake of £4. Unless you have money to throw away, we strongly recommend giving this particular establishment a very wide berth.

Can't wait to read her response....she will abuse me I'm sure.

Yes she eventually took it off the bill but too little too late. I got home and realised she had put a service charge on my bill!!! It's just a pub and they put a service charge on....crazy!

Most intelligent owners/managers realise they are trying to please their customers so they come back.

This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC

TheLionInnWinchcombe, General Manager at The Lion Inn, responded to this review

Dear rsgntx,

As the surrounding customers said to us after you left, we were very polite given you and your husbands aggressive approach about something that is freshly made each day, and as you highlight is only £4, but the way you went about causing such a scene was very unnecessary. Maybe you are just used to cheap supermarket mass-produced houmous and did not appreciate ours. From the moment you walked in at 14:45, seating yourselves with no reservation, then demanding to be served, only to be told that you needed to order by 15:00 due to our kitchen closing at 14:45 but we thought we would extend the time for you, and then you were annoyed that you couldn't order later, it makes me wonder why we bothered. Either way, neither myself nor staff appreciate being spoken to as you did, and having had other customers vouch for your rude behaviour, especially many local and frequent customers who come back time and time again due to our fabulous food and service, then threatening with tripadvisor as you left gives us no surprise to see what you have written. I'm sure that most intelligent people will read the above and realise that what you have written for something that cost just £4 is rather over the top and frankly unnecessary.

Regards,

Sue This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC

Well it seems Sue's review response continues in the same tone as her other responses on TripAdvisor to anyone who makes any fair criticism. So, let's set the record straight: When we arrived we went through to the bar (not the restaurant). After buying drinks at the bar and saying we would like something to eat, the bar man said "of course, take a seat and I will bring the menus over". When the waitress came over to take our order (10 mins or so later), she mentioned that the kitchen closed at 3, so we happily ordered straight away. Sue's version of events is entirely fictitious and bares no relation to the actual series of events. SHE is the common denominator in a number of poor reviews for The Lion Inn. We always review fairly as our TripAdvisor profile illustrates. She would do herself a favour to actually LISTEN to her customer's feedback instead of defensively and spitefully...

Booked a table for 8 well in advance. Were asked to pre-order because of the table size. Arrived on Friday night in plenty of time for the booking and were rushed to the table with the manager asking if she could start serving starters. We asked if we could order drinks first because we were not in a rush having all travelled 100+ miles and had arrived before the booked time. The manager said that they had another large table booked (clearly taking priority) and encouraged us to start eating!! Starters arrived which were good. Then mains arrived very quickly afterwards, including two plain cod dishes which had not been ordered and weren’t on the menu. The manager returned to the kitchen to be told by the chefs that they were a replacement for fish stew which had not been delivered by the suppliers (so not made on premises). She admitted that she did not know fish stew was unavailable, bizarre given she is the manager and what she said later!! Neither of the two people who had ordered the now unavailable fish stew wanted a piece of cod and had to re-order whilst the remaining six started eating the main courses. Surely, we should have been told when we all sat down that two choices were unavailable and given the opportunity to order another main course at the start of the meal so that all mains arrived together?? We assumed (foolishly) that the two replacement main courses (steak and risotto) would be given priority because the other six main courses had been served. Twenty-five minutes later nothing had arrived and the manager had avoided any form of contact and issued no apology, in fact was chatting happily in the kitchen. One of our party entered the kitchen to cancel the order because the rest of the table had now finished. The manager told him to be patient because it takes at least 25 minutes to cook a steak, which was definitely disputed - more like 4 minutes! Risotto takes several hours to prepare so was presumably ready and bubbling away in a pan!!!! We asked the manager why we had not been contacted about supply problems prior to our arrival or at least asked to re-select when we first arrived, she then said that she had tried to contact us which was a major contradiction (in view of her previous comments) and definitely not the case. Given the nods of support from other diners this was pointed out to her by one of our party who was then asked to leave. The rest of us followed suit although agreed to pay for drinks, not the food (which was indifferent at best). The restaurant lost several hundred pounds because of this incident which could have been avoided with a more proactive management stance. On a more positive note, we all went to No5 restaurant on the Saturday night had a wonderful time and enjoyed some exquisite food. Top Tip spend your money at No 5 a couple of doors down...

Five Pork and One Beef We came here for lunch with a group of 6 and a dog over the weekend. We were a little early for our booking so asked to sit in the garden for drinks. Both staff members (guys) seemed annoyed that we were early and that we took more than 10 seconds to decide what to have! When we came to put our lunch order in he just said "Kitchen's not open for 10 minutes". Ok, so just take the order and we'll wait! Then because we didn't have a table number, it was more eye rolling and he said he couldn't take the order without one. There are literally only about 15 tables in the garden and we were one of two groups there. Lunch came out and I'd give the Roast a 5/10: the pork was massively over salted, crackling inedible and the side veg was one carrot, one parsnip and a small spoonfull of greens. The meat really ruined the whole dish. One of us had beef and said it was pretty decent. We had to ask for the sauces, salt and pepper and cutlery arrived after our food (5 sets not 6). Asked for a glass of water each as it was about 25 degrees and a tray with a bottle and glasses was thrust towards one of the group, no words. The staff seemed rushed and a little chaotic, not sure who was in charge. Overheard one member baffled at being sent to a table for a drinks order and actually heard him say "I don't know why I've been sent to you".

When it came to pay the bill we calculated the total without the service and told the waitress the amount. She ignored this and split the total on the card machine by 6 which included the service. she was half way around the group before we realised.

Also just to add as a dog owner; there was one bowl of water at the front of the garden. Most dogs don't like communal bowls and it's not really very hygenic. I don't let the dog just roam around the garden, she's tied to my chair with the lead. It was 25 degrees and nothing was offered. These are the kind of extras that warrant a £24 roast.

The setting is beautiful and it's obviously popular but it wasn't overcrowded and there were enough...