Cambodian Cuisine at the Carpenters Arms — Restaurant in West Oxfordshire

Ate here last night after hearing lots of rave reviews but unfortunately left incredibly underwhelmed and won’t be in a hurry to return. Turned up at 17.30 to an empty restaurant. Our booked table wasn’t ready so 2 tables were hastily pushed together pretty much on top of the other 2 groups that were dining. We were put directly under a heater with hot air blowing into our faces, and I mean hot air….we straight away asked if we could move to be told abruptly no because there’s a large booking coming, so when we asked if the heater could be switched off the woman begrudgingly agreed but said it gets cold when the door opens. All 6 of our party started to exchange glances and chuckles as it was becoming increasingly obvious that the woman, who I believe is the owner, was bloody rude…at this point I think if we didn’t have guests from the US, who had just landed, we would have probably sacked it off and gone somewhere else because the welcome was far from friendly…. Throughout the ordering process there was no help from this woman or consideration that none of us had eaten Cambodian before. There was no explanations, there was no patience, no up sell, just an almost aggressive expectancy that you should no what you order…I actually think she’s in the wrong job… The food….starters of crispy chicken wings for the kids, sriracha wings, tofu and hoisin, and some crispy kmer rolls….yeah what can I say? The rolls were small spring rollls that weren’t crispy, nothing made them stand out from any other spring rolls I’ve ever had…the 2 chicken wings were, well chicken wings and the tofu was ok….just pretty standard really. The mains, 3 of us had Bunh Song….none of us ever had it before and I think we were all quite surprised when a kind of salad arrived. I ordered pork and got chicken and was told to my amusement yes that’s pork, but I just kept it. It was a very uninspiring dish that none of us finished. One of our American guests got the wrong dish delivered and was abruptly told that was what she ordered, again she just kept it….either for ease, or because we were all scared of the woman! At the end we had 6 plates, none of which had been finished….that says it all to me.

Never had Cambodian cuisine before, not particularly in a hurry to have it again. Lots of choices for veggies and vegans but if that’s not you then personally I don’t quite understand the USP behind it.

Oh and they slap a 10% service charge on at the end. We paid it….we aren’t difficult customers believe it or not 😂 but I feel compelled to write only my 2nd ever...

We were looking forward to eating here after recommendations from others but unfortunately we came away underwhelmed. First impressions upon arriving was a cold reception from the staff member. We were surprised our table for 6 people wasn’t ready as she pushed 2 tables together. We asked for a different table as we were directly next to a wall heater which was blowing out hot air. The staff member wouldn’t let us move tables so we asked her to turn the hot air off. She reluctantly turned it off but told us it gets cold when people come through the front door. We had guests with us who had just arrived that day from America and we started to feel increasingly embarrassed at the attitude of the staff member but we found ourselves trying to laugh off the awkward situation. We ordered our meals and 2 of the dishes which turned up were different to what had been ordered. My partner had ordered a pork dish but it was in fact chicken. Not a big deal but she didn’t offer to put it right. One of our guests also had a different dish to what she ordered but was told that no this is what she had ordered. She didn’t dispute and said ok that sounds nice too. Food was average and not an empty plate between us so unfortunately even that was unable to make up for the poor service. Eating out is a luxury so we were really disappointed by this place particularly the attitude of the same lady throughout. Safe to say we won’t...

Not the best experience last night - they got our order wrong so as a result one of us was left to eat food on their own while the rest of order came in a bit. When the food came one of the chicken dishes was raw. Luckily my friend who was pregnant was not the one to try it. They cooked it and apologised saying that this “happens all over the world” (?) and “we need to be more understanding “(??), “They were busy, had also orders for takeaways and was short of staff “. have indicated that a little discount on the bill would be appreciated and they came back saying that they only can give us 10% discount on the dish that came raw and not all the bill! I know times a tough, but this is not acceptable. In the end they gave us 10% off from the bill, however the whole experience wasn’t nice. Will not be coming back. A note to the owners that will be reading this - in such situation I would expect the dish that came raw to be taken off the bill rather than asking your customer to be more...