Old Halfway House — Restaurant in Wakefield

In reply to owners comments below since we can't reply to them. Yes there are two sides to every story, however you could at least give an accurate account.

We booked for 6pm. Told half hour wait as you had been running behind all day. If that was the case you could of rung us to advise us to turn up a bit later but didn't. We was eventually seated at 7pm. We had booked for 17 people and took the exact same table area as the previous group you claim was much larger. So I have no idea how they could of been a much larger grouo since we sat in the exact same table set up. Orders taken at about 7.15. At half 7 when we asked the waitress how much longer for starters since one of the party had to leave soon for work we was told the kitchen is currently working on deserts for other tables then our starters will be made. We was not told they would be out in a minute like you claim. So either your kitchen staff need to communicate better with your front of house or you are just making it up. When my wife spoke to you about the poor experience while you was actually sat eating a meal in the pub, rather than dealing with unhappy guest, your response was "I don't see the problem I said sorry and there was half hour delay". There was in fact an hour delay and at no point did you say the food was actually ready as I suspect you didn't know that given you was sat eating at the time. This was very poorly managed by you and nearly ruined our evening. At least be honest about it everyone can have a bad experience and a good manager will go out of their way to try rectify problems and try to get customers to give them another chance yet you pretty much shrugged your shoulders and didn't care then carried on eating.

Response from the owner a day ago So let’s get this straight before everyone thinks we’re not a good pub, here is a prime example of people not telling the whole truth. Yes I agree with you that your table wasn’t ready, to which I apologised and said we would get it to you when the other (much larger) group had finished eating. This was at 6:35pm, 35 minutes after you had booked. The only thing that we had run out of was the steak and ale pies, to which we offered an alternative pie, or something else from the menu. Your starters we’re actually only 12 minutes after you ordered, and we’re in the process of being brought to you when you said that you weren’t waiting any longer. As manager I really don’t know what more I could’ve done. So if you want to read this review and judge us, then it’s tour opinion, but their is always two sides to...

Went for mother's Day table booked for 6. We arrived at around 5:50 to be told they are running behind around 30 minutes and have been all day. (Yet they didn't think to call us and let us know) there was 17 of us and we were to to just stand anywhere (the bar was very full. Finally at 6:55 we are told the table is free and are seated. They come and take our order and we explain that one of our party has to leave for work at 7:30 so can his main be brought out later. This is agreed and at 7:25 we are still sat waiting for starters to come out. When we question this we are told they have another tables desserts to get out BEFORE they start our starters. So at this point we are 90 minutes past the time we booked our table for and our starters haven't even begun to be cooked so we ask to speak to the manager who is sat eating their food. The manager asks us what the problem is and says they apologised for being late what more do we want!? All the while still stuffing food into their own face. So we ask for a refund of our deposit and are told that we can have that but we will not be refunded for the drinks we ordered as we were told they were running a little behind. Now I fully appreciate that you can't rush people's meals and the time it takes them to eat but the manager should have said to us that they understand we are only just sitting down almost an hour after we booked our table and offered us free drinks or a discount from our bill or anything for the inconvenience as the reason we booked our table for the time we did was that we had 5 children with us who were all extremely hungry and tired by 7:30. The managers tone and approach was the most disgusting customer service I've ever experienced and really upset my mum on...

Booked a table and arrived ahead of time however was left waiting before being seated. We then attempted to place our orders from the menus on the table.

However was told the orders would not be included at the advertised prices in the menu as the promotion ended at 7pm. Despite explaining our table was booked for before 7 and we arrived on time but kept waiting just seemed to fall on deaf ears.

The food itself was OK but not great. At no point were we asked if everything was OK. Having finished our mains we were ignored for a full 30 minutes with plates waiting to be collected. Finally a member of staff came over and said in a very cannot be asked way, "So do you want anything else?".

To see if we had just visited on a busy night we tried again on a mid week early bird. Unfortunately there was no improvement in customer service on our second visit. Although on this occasion we arrived well before the promotion finished, the final bill was presented at full price. When queried advised the tills decide prices charged and cannot be overridden?

We did get the opportunity to leave feedback and were contacted by the pub chain. Unfortunately the response was just as dire explaining simply they do get busy on occasions which affects service and promotions appear to be at the pubs discretion? Also staff don't always have the time to remove promotional menus or mention their availability.

Safe to say we won't be visiting this pub again or any of the pubs in the chain come to that. In a word, poor.

Such a shame, three years ago I gave a 5 star review. How times...