Megan's in the Garden City — Restaurant in Welwyn Hatfield

I’m sorry to report that we had a poor experience at Megan’s in Welwyn Garden Centre a few Saturdays ago.

I was looking forward to trying Megan’s for the first time after coming across a voucher opportunity for 50% off an evening meal.

The décor and general ambiance at the branch were very welcoming, however our experience left much to be desired for the following reasons:

Food orders

Calamari – insufficient coating on the fish, which gave the pieces a burnt taste and a dark, tough texture.

Falafel – cold and poorly held together.

Open chicken main meal – poorly reheated chicken on a cold flatbread with an unecessarily thick layer of hummus slathered along the bread, which made the chicken mushy and unpleasant and essentially very unappealing.

Facilities

Toilets – extremely dirty and looking very unhygienic and like they had not had a proper clean in days.

We have eaten in many good venues at the same price point of Megan's and our overriding suspicion was that the person making the food that evening was not a chef by any stretch - they could have been a kitchen assistant at a push.

The experience of the food was at complete antithesis with the finessed brand of Megan’s and the overall look and feel that your team clearly works hard to achieve. To say that we were surprised at the food standards is an understatement.

The only enjoyable aspect that evening was our conversation with the hostess whose name I believe was Joy, but I could be wrong.

Even with the 50% discount, we felt that the food wasn’t worth the price we had paid and it ironically still left us with an overwhelming feeling of being short-changed.

I had sent my feedback to Megan's directly but have received no acknowledgement since 14...

Extremely disappointing.

Last night (26.10.22) we turned up on time for our 7:30 reservation where it was understandably quite busy. When looking around the restaurant there was probably on 4 maybe 5 members of staff working which i found odd considering how busy it was. While we stood at the door waiting for someone to finally greet us we were meet with numerous people complaining about the service, quality of food and waiting times. In hindsight this was probably a warning we should have listened to. While we were waiting there was members of staff moving people on from their tables when they had barley finished their food with drinks still on the table. At 7:50 we were finally seated (20 there minutes of standing at the front door) given our menus and told there was 6 things on the menu that weren't available. Another 20 minutes later we were still sitting there not 1 person came over and took our drinks order in the whole time. At this point we just decided to leave (40 minutes after first arriving)

To me it was quite simple that on this night they had taken too many bookings for the amount of staff they had for that one night. Every single member of staff looked exhausted and swept off their feet. I would hope that a place like this would employ more staff or at least not have the place completely packed out sacrificing on service and food quality. As we were leaving there was one family that had been there since 7 and still waiting for their food 1hour30 later.

I am also really confused about the reviews about this place as what i experienced last night was...

We had a lovely evening at Megan’s on Friday 16th August. We were visiting Welwyn Garden City for the first time and looking for somewhere nice to have dinner and drinks. Wandering around the town, we checked out lots of eating places, but Megan’s caught our eye from quite a distance, due to it’s appealing decor, lighting, discreet background music, indoor sofas and dining area, outdoor bistro seating and welcoming atmosphere. The fact that it had no Security staff outside also appealed, as they seem to be needed at several other establishments in the town. We were warmly welcomed the minute we walked in, and having looked at the interesting and varied menu, decided to stay for dinner. The food was absolutely exquisite - freshly prepared and with a selection of dishes that were different from the standard kind of menus you normally see. We had the pitta stuffed with beef and lamb, with the best sweet potato fries we have ever tasted. Food was fairly priced for the quality and variety of dishes presented. Our meal was huge and cost was £16.90 per person. Compliments to our brilliant and attentive server, Annalise. She was amazing and ensured we were looked after from the minute she took our order, to the minute we finished our meal. I would highly recommend Megan’s to anyone visiting Welwyn Garden City. Check out their website, as they do breakfast and lunch as well; and when we walked past this morning on our way home, it was packed with families, friends and couples enjoying drinks, coffee,...