We booked a special table for 3 Christmas lunch for my elderly mother back in September at the Racehorse. Having had two very nice meals there previously we were looking forward to a lovely Christmas meal. I confirmed that we would be attending the day before. We arrived a little early and so waited in the bar area. At 2:00pm we were shown to our table. We waited to order our Turkey lunch for 20 minutes having been repeatedly ignored in favour of the larger parties of people attending. Having finally ordered we waited and waited for our meal but nothing arrived. Other diners were served and tidied away. At 3:pm I lost patience and approached a member of staff to say we had been at our table for an hour with no sign of our lunch. He apologised and said "bear with me.." We did so for a further 10 minutes and just as we were getting up to leave, the "food" arrived. Items were cold on the plate, the "seasonal vegetables" were all mixed up making it difficult to choose any individually, and the roast potatoes were baked dry. We refused to eat it and left. I had a further word with the member of staff I had spoken to before. He asked for my email address in order to follow up with an apology. I left my email address. We were very hungry by that time and my Mum was upset having had to sit for over an hour on relatively hard chairs. We went back to our local Miller and Carter where we had a great meal with good service and pleasant staff. The Racehorse has lost three loyal customers and others in the restaurant also appeared unhappy with the delays to their day. I would like to think this was a one off, but couples and small groups need to be aware that you may have a long wait if there are larger groups being catered for. Harsh but true.