The Prince of Burford — Restaurant in West Oxfordshire

To whom it may concern,

I hope this message finds you well. I just would like to share how frustrated I am of my experience last night (22-April-2023) at the restaurant.

We arrived and got a table. (2 adults, 2 kids). My husband ordered starter for himself, and my kids and myself just mains. We also ordered drinks. We said to the female waitress with short dark hair, please serve all the food all together as my husband is the only one having starters.

My english tea was served nice and hot. I asked the female waitress, short black hair, for a sweetener, she said yes. Nothing came, my tea was staring to get cold. I asked another female waitress, long hair this time for a sweetener. Luckily she gave me.

My husband’s starter was served. No mains arrived. My kids now hungry (1 year old and 5 yrs old).

40 minutes later i asked the same waitress where is our food. She hand signalled the other staff with long hair. We were advised is it coming.

56 minutes later, mains arrived. Nothing special. I asked the male manager what happened, we were advised it seems like they did not know that we wanted our food served altogether.

Few tables of guests have arrived in the middle of our long wait. They have all been served. While we were waiting hungrily.

Our night was ruined, we are on our way to visit London from Gloucester. But we just called it a day and just returned back home. We hope you guys realise the impact of not listening to your customers when they place their orders. We may just be one of the many tables you serve in a day. But this may be a special meal tgat we may have anticipated as a family.

We are highly disappointed and upset. And rest assured will never go back to eat there again. Shocking experience for my family. No compensation whatsoever offered at the tike of the restaurant visit too.

I did not even touch my fish and chips when it arrived as i have almost finished a teapot of tea due to the ling wait. Unbelievable.

All the best to you all. Please do not do this to other customers...

We stopped off here for lunch and decided to sit outside. There was 7 of us and we decided to push 2 tables of 4 together so there was space for us all to dine together. 1 of the tables was moved approximately 3/4 foot. A female staff member wearing red/orange linen trousers and blonde hair approached us with water for our dog.

She was somewhat concerned that we had moved the table and informed us that by doing so can cause serious injury if the umbrella was to come out of its stand and eject from the hole in the table. We were told that the umbrellas are fitted securely into the bases to prevent this from happening however I found this to be untrue as it was very easy to remove and put back once we had moved the table. After explaining the health and safety concerns of moving the table/umbrella, the lady followed by saying, “this is why we don’t like customers moving the tables, but crack on and if you can put it back where you found it before you leave that would be great”

There was no customer service at any point from this lady, and she made us feel uncomfortable and a hindrance. I’m sure instead she could have offered us assistance and ensured there was space for us all to dine together by moving the table herself or getting a staff member to help to ensure the safety of the umbrellas not being the danger that she had said it could be, however she was happy for us to continue despite the dangers previously mentioned. She was also happy for us to move the table and umbrella back after we had finished our meal, again despite explaining the dangers of doing so.

To avoid this situation in the future and making the customer feel the way we was made to feel, I would recommend a sign outside asking the customers to ask if they need any tables pushed together and that a staff member will be...

We had a really odd experience here, we’d booked dinner for my first Mother’s Day. We’d put in the booking notes that we’d have our newborn with us in a pram so that they could allocate us in a space that was appropriate. When we got there there was a slight sense of panic from the waitress and she asked if we wanted a high hair for our newborn and we said she was too young g for one. We were then put in the middle of the room and I moved her pram away from the main walkway, leaving as much space as possible. We were then asked if we could move her to the other side (the side where the walkway was) and did this with no hesitation. We could see two waitresses and the manager whispering and watching us which felt really uncomfortable but we tried to ignore it as it was a special day for us. We were the asked if we could leave her at the bar (which was far away enough that I wouldn’t have sight of her and would need to get up and walk over, there would also be everyone passing through walking past her alone) which we were baffled they felt this was acceptable to ask and I said no. They then went back and again we could see more clear whispers about us. We were then asked to move tables completely and were told they just didn’t want us to feel out in a corner when if they’d read our booking notes, we actually asked to be out the way. Needless to say we felt very unwelcome as throughout and it very much put a negative spill on what had been a very...