Cow & Oak — Restaurant in Worthing

I visited tonight with my partner and her children.

As has happened more than once before, a member of staff approached us at the bar without a greeting, let alone a smile. I said hi and "how are you" to which I received a "fine" accompanied by a blank absent glaze. I ordered drinks.

On returning to our table I mentioned this to my partner who confirmed we had always struggled with service in this pub.

Anyway, we tried to make the most of the evening, spending around £75 through our 2 hour visit. We ordered the bar food deal, 4 small plates for £25. We just wanted snacks so decided to go for 2x mulled wine pigs in blankets and 2 x mini camembert all at £8 each. £32 of food for £25 seemed a bargain. It was not. What turned up was 8 chipolates in total, and two small camembert that had been melted but little more plus 8 small slices of cut dry ciabatta. I thought is was a joke but as it was Christmas decided to let it pass. We did however ask for more bread whilst ordering another round of drinks. When I realised another four tiny pieces of ciabatta had been put on the bill at £3.50 I lost my willing to play nice.

This is no longer a workable pub. It's a money grab, end of career, part time hobby, at best, or a badly run shameful scam of a place at worst. The staff clearly dont want to be here and don't like the customers, and definitely don't have any training or service ability.

On complaining, the assistant manager was lost in void of skillset, unable to appease a disappointed customer, and had no idea how to address our concerns. I'm happy to say she agreed we had been treated unfairly and that we had a right to feel somewhat robbed, which we almost had been. She refunded the cost of the bread, later returning to offer the kids ice cream, which they declined, having picked up on our discontented mood.

I like to support local businesses, but not when they don't care and seek to manipulate and cash cow the general public. If you want to know why so many pubs are closing in the UK this is a great example of apathy and lack of passion, care or repect for the customer. Pubs like this should fail. Especially when they do not even demand their staff warmly greet and engage with customers.

Shame on you Cow and Oak and whomever is responsible for the broken culture in your place of business.

Obviously we won't be returning again. Off to the Egremont over the road...

STAY AWAY, POOR SERVICE, CANNOT HANDLE MORE THEN 10 PEOPLE, THEY JUST DON'T CARE AND JUST WANT THE MONEY!!

I would have given this no stars however I had to place something to write a review.

My gorgeous wife and I were married on 16th February and we held our reception at the Cow & Oak. After numerous meetings an agreement was put in place to arrange seating, food, music etc however when it came to our special day my wife and I were shocked to find what had been agreed by the owners wasn't upheld, we also had over 10 guests of which included myself and my 12yr old daughter I'll with an upset stomach and most of the guests mentioned after the event that they found the food cold but due to it being our wedding didn't want to cause any issues. After contacting the owners explaining the issues their only response was that their kitchen was within health standards and offered us a free meal up to the value of £35!! We both mentioned that based on the experience with the food that we wouldn't go back and asked for a small reimbursement of which was declined.

We had items of ours which included part of our wedding cake topper that was missing when we went to collect them a couple of days afterwards, we have kept on asking for these items but again their only response was that they had found 1 item only and couldn't find the other items, I did ask for reimbursement of just for the cake topper so we could purchase another as it was something we wanted to keep and treasure but again they have declined and have now stopped responding...

I feel sad putting a 3/5 because the Oak and Oak is fab - it's a beautiful, well looked after pub but the overall experience of eating there when seated out back was massively lacking.

Sitting in one of the heated booths outside is a perfectly wonderful space. I've enjoyed a couple of evenings out back with drinks and nibbles but today, the back felt negligected by staff as they only operate table service inside. This led to a lengthy time at the bar placing an order for a seemingly simple order - a roast and something from the kids menu.

The food came very quickly and was utterly divine upon arrival. However, again, this almost neglected sense for those sitting outside kicked - cutlery arriving after the meal, a long time getting condiments all leave a bit of a meh feeling given you can't dig in and end up feeling like you are watching food grow cold. When you are paying up to £17.00 for a plate, it's not a happy feeling.

I would suggest at least taking food orders from the tables outside to ensure cutlery and the basics are covered, and I think it would have improved the overall experience massively.

But other than that, great food...