The Crooked Chimney — Restaurant in Welwyn Hatfield

We ve been regular customers for 25 years+ to The Crooked Chimney. Our last visit was sufficient to make us never return, certainly not in the near future. We live in the area. Service was shocking & quite disappointing. Customer service & care is appalling, to say the very least. And food quality was dismal. After a long wait, in an unusually (empty & unsupported pub) our food was served, tepid & cold. We repeatedly requested knives & forks, as well as condiments & gravy for the roast dinner. In terms of presentation, the meat was served just warm and lacking, portion wise, it looked as though the scraps had been gathered & dumped on the plate, it was dry & crispy. The vegetables were cold and the potatoes just about cooked through. An empty bottle of ketchup was placed on our table and we were still waiting for cutlery & gravy. When I complained about these points to the manageress, she told me she doesn’t get up to come to work to be spoken to badly, may I point out that I was not at all rude, nor did I say anything rude to her, I was however, disgruntled & disappointed and understandably, we went out as a family (3 generations) to enjoy a meal that no one needed to prepare or serve, relying on the hope we d receive good, hot and tasty food prepared by trained chefs/cooks and of the same quality or better than we could prepare ourselves at home. A meal out is a luxury & a treat. Only to be met with appalling service all round. She didn’t seem very interested in our displeasure and certainly was not interested in turning the situation around. We were then just ignored, to the point where we were going to order coffee & deserts, we sat at our table waiting for it to be cleared and then offered dessert for over half an hour, not one member of staff approached us to ask if all was ok, or if we needed anything else. We never stayed for dessert in the end. Please keep in mind your pub was not at all busy and there seemed to sufficient staff on duty to cover guests. In one of my conversations with the manageress I requested a discount and this was honoured. My point is we don’t go out to eat at discounted prices and horrendous experiences, we go out for quite the opposite & are more than happy to pay the price tag for this. We just expect good food, prepared with some love & care & a friendly, polite person to serve it to us, who we then leave a generous tip for over and above our bill. Like I mentioned above, it really was a...

Why, oh why do we put ourselves through this experience every time. They say that to repeat an action expecting a different result is madness, and so it has been proved. Again. We are mad. It is official.

We like the concept of Vintage Inns but too often have been let down. We have had 4 complaints resolved in our favour over the years with vouchers to entice us back, but after Saturday night, the madness must end. So no more. Ever.

As the attached images demonstrate the startling prices in no way reflect what is delivered (and this cannot be laid just at the door of the Crooked Chimney - they sell the same poor value food as all the other Vintage Inns).

Chicken schnitzel and chips £15.25. Really? No other accompaniments at all - surely a small side salad wouldn't be amiss at that price. The picture shown is just minus one obligatory tasting chip.

Pie - 'better' value at £13.75, but with only 6 small pieces of chicken and a very empty dish, not much value. And I do have to reserve special mention for the carrots which managed to come out with a texture of dead flesh - remarkable.

Black Forest Flower Pot - £8.50! One scoop of blackcurrant sorbet (surely some mistake - should be cherry?), a pile of chocolate syrup and some soil. Far too sweet and far too expensive.

Luxury bannoffe pie - £6.95. All crust and cream, hardly any 'banoffee' so difficult to tell how luxury it was.

But I need to give balance. Our server was wonderful. She was patient, had a great sense of humour and could not be faulted. Perhaps someone should ask her opinion on the value of what she serves? And I do ned to point out that the desserts came free of charge thanks to a Vintage Inn offer - it would be churlish not to mention this, I feel.

But this was a night to forget rather than an evening to remember. If you are going to charge such eye-watering prices, the food should be pretty good. But it is not even close. With a curry and rice at £17.95 (the local Indian restaurant would charge £11.00 and I bet they might do a better job), there is no wonder that there were many empty tables on a Saturday night at the rather pleasant Crooked Chimney pub.

So we are mad no more. Just sad that these nice pubs think so little of their customers. We would suggest a rather urgent rethink should be...

We’ve been to this pub many times over the years but unfortunately yesterday will be our last. What we hoped would be a nice Mother’s Day meal ended up being a disappointment.

1. There were leftover bits of food on the table when we arrived, meaning the table hadn’t been cleaned properly. There were also stains on the seats which you could clearly tell had been there for a while.
2. Four items were off the menu by the time we arrived. Our booking was for 5pm, and there were two starters and two mains off the menu. Surely when it’s a day like Mother’s Day, you would order extra to ensure you have enough of everything that’s on the menu.
3. Service was poor throughout. Our server Edward did not introduce himself nor did he ask if we were ready to order. He simply stood at the table looking at us for both starters and mains. He dropped another table’s finished plate on the floor, leaving ice cream on the carpet, which was still there when we left. When trying to make conversation with him, he proceeded to tell us how much the pub had made during the day which seemed very unprofessional. Lastly, when we asked for the bill, he came over with just the card machine and just told us the amount we needed to pay. He then realised we would need to see the bill and upon providing it, we noticed the £15 deposit had not been taken off the total amount. We paid the food and drink amounts separately, with the drinks being paid by cash. The amount handed to Edward was above the total, and he didn’t come back with our change.
4. Food was also below par, staying at home and ordering a takeaway would have been a better option. It would’ve been nice if the prawns were deveined, the veg was stone cold, the same plates had different amounts of food on them and the crumble had hardly any crumble on it, meaning it was more like a fruit bowl.

We do not like to make a fuss or cause a scene and aren’t ones to go out of our way to leave negative reviews. However, upon reflection we should have said something yesterday and hope this review could help prevent someone else from having the same...