Daniel O.
Yelp
UPDATE:
The general manager, Brian Garside of 'The George' responded to my original review over on TripAdvisor. Sadly instead of taking that opportunity to do some damage limitation, and simply apologise for what was an overly busy night that they hadn't quite been prepared for. He instead appeared to insinuate that all that I said was a lie and didn't address any of the issues I had raised.
Sadly in the modern age of customer service, his approach does nothing to appease the situation, it only exacerbates it. Which in turn has led me to follow up and write further reviews like this one. The fact his staff informed me of the facts I wrote about, seems to highlight the ineffective communication between staff and management.
Initially after that failed evening I would have returned to The George for a formal dinner - no question. However, after the response from their representative - Brian Garside - I would now rather give my money to a more deserving restaurant/Hotel of which there are plenty in the area. He had the perfect opportunity to show just how good they are as a company to the online world. Alas, he sadly used his voice as an opportunity to belittle all that I said, and instead had the gall to attempt to advertise just how great 'The George' actually is. It's time they bought their online customer service skills up to scratch, after all, these reviews will be around for years to come. Please think about that next time you decide to respond to your customers in the way you have Brian!
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
We've been to the George a few times and it's been a very nice place to visit. Tonight however - 5th Nov - we felt that they let us down, a real disappointment.
You see we were celebrating a 40th and decided that because The George was having an evening of hot spiced drinks and food in the garden which coincided with the Yarmouth fireworks, that it would be a lovely way to spend an evening.
We called up, and reserved a table to be sure we would have a place. On the phone we asked what would be a good time to make an appearance to enjoy the fireworks and their hospitality, which we were told 19:45. Sadly however - and not at all The George's fault - the fireworks kicked off early and were all over by the time we arrived - 19:45.
The place was heaving inside, and so we headed outside to the garden area and bar where we proceeded to find no table reservation. Thankfully this didn't matter, you see it was a bitterly cold evening and not many people were outside. So we found some seats near the heaters, and headed to the garden bar to find out about the delights of what they had on offer. This is where it all went wrong.
At the bar we were informed they had already ran out of the spiced cider that they had on offer. Instead we were told that they were making some spiced blackcurrant instead, and it would be out at some point. Ok we thought, not quite the back up drink you'd really hope for on a cold night, it's what your mum would make you as a kid if you were ill. Nonetheless, in the mean time we thought we'd ask for an alternative tipple. Sadly we were then informed they couldn't serve any other types of drink outside as the bar wasn't setup for it. They could happily serve us the food on offer, although this was pretty limited and were told they only had two choices of fillings for the jacket potatoes. The whole drink debacle really made us question whether it was worth staying for the food, so we decided to head inside.
The fact that the bar outside couldn't serve any drinks explained exactly why the bar inside was packed. And even worse, they didn't seem organised at all as they only had two members of staff behind the bar who really did appear rushed off their feet and struggling to keep up. In fact at one point, there was no one behind the bar, as one had gone off for change and the other just seemed to vanish, probably for more alcohol of some sort I guess!
We decided to get a drink which sadly took a good 10+mins at the bar, and then proceeded to struggle to find some seating for us all. At this point, we decided not to even contemplate getting any food, why waste good money when we felt it would just be a further letdown with the limited choices.
All in all it was an extremely disappointing evening, and a bad end to what should have been a lovely birthday. It's not the cheapest place to eat and drink at the best of times, and we hoped for so much more from what usually is a lovely place to be.
In conclusion, if you're here for the hotel or the main restaurant and food, I'm sure you'll be fine. But for special events like this evening, I would not get your hopes raised at all. Would I come again next year? No, not for the fireworks event at least. They had the perfect opportunity to make this night a success, and sell the place to all the new customers they had coming through there door, sadly though, that night went down like a wet firework!