The Red Lion — Restaurant in Vale of White Horse

Appalling service and experience at The Red Lion Blewbury. Sunday lunch for 8. Waited over an hour for first course all the time being plied to order more drinks - preferably spirits. Table next to us were encouraged and praised for ordering rounds of vodka “ that’s what I like to hear”. Being drivers we opted for rounds of soft drinks. Portions were meagre- one roast potato, mini shop bought Yorkshire and matchbox sized burnt cauliflower cheese slice. Another long wait for desert. Again plied w drinks. Was this the motive behind the extremely slow service? Apple crumble had run out but one slab of shop bought apple PIE produced with no explanation. It seems the other table had agreed to forgo this - their “crumble” ( ?) Had to ask for cutlery, likewise for coffee- no spoons. Bill split 3 ways. Could it get any worse? Oh yes! We were told service charge was optional BUT — “as we hadn’t had alcoholic drinks we had to pay 10% - more if we wished! “ Astonished and in disbelief my sister in law repeated the waitresses words. “ yes that’s right” she said. We all paid 10% altho this was totally and utterly undeserved. Even worse - one of our group queried their bill as it was £3 more than expected,- on TOP of the 10%. This Waitress said she “ had rounded it up” . So , not a mistake. -This was blatant, deliberate THEFT! She then said she thought it would be “difficult to refund on the card “ ( why?) and “wasn’t sure if there was cash in the till.”We let it go and couldn’t wait to leave this inhospitable venue, cold in reality as no heating and cold in its welcome. I’d told waitress on arrival it was my husbands birthday, hoping for a sparkler or similar in his dessert. Nothing of course as they obviously aren’t into pleasing or valuing their customers. On leaving, hearing us mention birthday she called out “happy birthday.” Really?! We have regular family meals out but over many years have never come across such blatantly bad behaviour, nor have I therefore ever written a bad review before. Don’t believe any good reviews for this pub. Maybe they can manage burgers and beer in the garden but Sunday lunch and good customer service is beyond this unprofessional, dishonest, money...

The girl who served us was very nice and considerate. Unfortunately that’s where our positivity ends. There were three main courses on the daily menu. After we picked up the menu from the bar and made our decision, we were told one of the three courses was not available (even though we were one of the first to eat). We ordered a humus starter which was £6 which consisted of half a spoon of humus and two small pieces of bread. Then we had the lasagna and salmon for a main course. The ingredients for the lasagne were below par, the minced meat looked dark brown and dried out. There was a trace of tomato. The portion was 2 to 3 inches squared and half an inch thick. The salmon tasted like it had been frozen and overcooked at the same time. There were no sides with both the lasagna and salmon even though we paid £15 each. All three dishes had the same salad. The salmon was supposed to come with a separate salad, though this was exactly the same with an added piece of white mango and two slither’s of avocado. When asked if everything was ok, we commented everything we described above. There was the response that she was sorry to hear our comments and that the Dutch are known to be direct, after which we got presented with the cash machine. We’ve been traveling in the UK for two weeks now, visited multiple pubs and were never disappointed with the English...

I have to say we were so disappointed with our afternoon as we have been a few times over the years. Having checked the website that food was being served on Saturday afternoon there was some confusion over the kitchen being closed. We chose a number of items of the limited menu and have to say £9 for 4 pieces of scampi and chips is disappointing. The fish finger ciabatta was mediocre and the fish fingers were clearly just cheap shop bought. The chicken wings were luke warm and again 4! We were given no napkins or cutlery and had to ask for both from a rather disinterested waitress. While I understand costs have escalated providing poor service and mediocre food will not keep customers coming back. A cheese roll cost £6.50 and had to ask for a knife to cut the cheese up. Really poor for a pub and garden that are really lovely spaces. And a brace of sausage rolls??? Which were actually two shop bought ones with a few chips. £9! It feels like you are fooling people into paying top money for cheap food. A homemade sausage roll with proper chutney I would understand. But that was just dreadful. Perhaps visit a few pubs that do food well, local products and homemade and then look at what you offer for the money. Have eaten in much better places with better quality food. This place used to be really busy for a Saturday in...