White Bear — Restaurant in Tunbridge Wells

Really disappointing meal.

Came in this evening as a group of 8 for a roast dinner which we had planned and booked 3 weeks in advance. We were disappointed from the get go. We arrived on time for our reservation but the table was not ready despite there being several empty tables. After waiting for 10 minuets for the table to be ready there were not enough chairs or cutlery for our party. No menus were given to us and the promise of extra cutlery was not fulfilled until we had to ask again.

When we managed to forage for some menus we found that there were no Sunday options on the menu so we finally flagged down a staff member 40 mins after we had arrived and were told that the only roast option was beef. This is disappointing in itself as several of us wanted one of the other options but at least we could still have a roast right?

At first glance the roast dinner looked well presented. Actually eating the dinner was another story. The beef was very rare and flavourless, I like rare beef but it was so rare that it was cold and difficult to cut. The gravy was very very sweet, almost like it had been infused with some sort of syrup. A few of us ordered Mac and cheese as a side which was dry and lacking in cheese but somehow managed to be the star of the show.

We were not asked how our meal was or if we needed anything during our visit. Given the difficulty we had getting the attention of a staff member to take our order in the first place discussing our dissatisfaction was not on the cards. We wanted to pay for our overpriced meal and leave before the experience got any worse.

Imagine my surprise when upon receipt of the bill it was noted that a 12.5% service charge had been added. The service was tragic. The whole meal wasn’t even worth 12.5% of the entire bill!

To summarise: Over priced Poor customer service Terrible food

If you’re in the market for a decent roast dinner in a family run restaurant with attentive staff you should try TN1 Bar and Grill. Only ever had positive...

MORE LIKE A NIGHTCLUB THAN A RESTAURANT. My Mum, 91, booked a table for my birthday (her son) and her grandson's birthday. Shambolic from the outset – we were sat under heat lamps that were frying us from one side. Asked them to be turned down, but instead they turned them off, so we ended up in coats and scarves. Two starters missing. Mains finally arrived one and a half hours in, with again one delayed. Random drinks and dishes brought to the table that were not ours. The background music was loud but bearable but then before we'd finished our mains it comes on FULL VOLUME. Bear in mind this is a restaurant, not a nightclub – the room has no dancefloor and is entirely dining tables. Poor Mum, who is hard of hearing, was unable to understand anyone – as were the rest of the table without shouting. Couple on the next table were rolling their eyes and leaning in so they could converse. I asked for the volume to be turned down, but no response. Complained to the manager. We hadn't even finished our meal, but could not bear to carry on with this fiasco any longer. Put down our cutlery and left, pushing Mum in her wheelchair past two massive speakers blasting out music. We got dessert from the M&S garage on the way back and ate it at Mum's. If you have endless patience and like eating in a disco go for it, but what should have been a celebratory family meal out was a complete disaster. We'd been to the White Bear once before in the summer, and there had been no excruciatingly loud music. Food: gussied-up average pub fare, burgers and fish. Smallish portions. The chicken dish was cold. Was not presented with a bill and we left without paying, but the next day found they'd unilaterally taken £55 from Mum's account at 2AM for a "booking fee". Felt so sorry for Mum, who rarely gets out and had planned this as a special occasion. One of the worst dining experiences I've ever had, and I've had...

One of the worst meal experiences we have ever had. We were a group of 8 and our time at the White Bear was dreadful from start to finish. When we entered all of the staff ignored us until after 5 minutes waiting at the bar we just went for a walk. The service was slow, it took over 90 minutes to have our mains. We weren’t given half of the sides we ordered. And the mains were largely inedible. The lamb was literally burnt and the beef was so overcooked it was like rubber. The sides of cauliflower cheese were one of the worst things I’ve eaten. To start with we were just given dry (burnt) cauliflower with some cheese over the top. After asking for the sauce the staff disappeared for 10 minutes before returning with the most pitiful excuse for a sauce. The béchamel was inedible and closer to a gelatinous blob than food - it was so burnt to such a strong degree that it overpowered everything else we ate. A member of staff even sniffed the dish and recoiled at the smell. After asking to speak to the manager we were left waiting for about 15-20 minutes before they sheepishly came over and offered to take the sides off the tab..but as we hadn’t even received half of them this wasn’t acceptable. The manager promised to come back to speak to us but they disappeared never to return. Eventually after 2 and a half hours we just decided to put our coats on to try to get someone to approach us with the tab. Most of the staff spent their time having a laugh behind the bar and ignoring all of the customers. We saw multiple groups complaining about the food and the service. This didn’t seem like they just had a bad day, which can happen to the best of places. None of the staff were interested and the food was abysmal. We had to come home and cleanse our palette with...