Matt W.
Google
A five-star venue undermined by two-to-three-star service and unnecessary rudeness.
I’ll begin with the positives. The venue itself is beautiful, booking was straightforward, and the check-in staff were excellent—polite, professional, and informative, particularly regarding parking charges. The facilities are outstanding.
We were a large party of 17: four families meeting after Christmas to celebrate the festive season (seven adults and ten children aged between three and twelve). The children had an incredible time, and I even found myself braving a few of the slides—albeit somewhat reluctantly.
We had booked the 11:15am session and, afterwards, made our way to the restaurant. We queued as instructed and were informed that the only indoor option available was a table for four; otherwise, we would need to be seated outside. We stepped aside to avoid blocking the queue and, after some discussion, reluctantly accepted the outdoor seating option (in hindsight, we would have pre-booked a table). For context, the temperature was around five degrees and bitterly cold.
We arranged the necessary tables ourselves to accommodate our group. A polite young waitress took our initial drinks order, along with five pizzas and garlic bread for the children, while we reviewed the menu before placing our main orders. At this point, we noticed that a large section at the back of the restaurant remained completely empty, which we assumed was reserved for pre-booked diners.
When our drinks and food arrived, one Camden Hells and one table water were missing. Despite chasing these on two separate occasions, they took some time to arrive. The children were also not provided with side plates for their pizza. After five to ten minutes, a polite waitress brought them out, although by then the children had already begun eating using napkins to avoid the food going cold.
Our mains were ordered and arrived promptly and without issue. However, subsequent drink orders took an excessive amount of time—so much so that my wife eventually went inside to find an alternative. The food itself was good.
What was particularly frustrating was that while we sat outside in the cold, the outdoor area remained empty apart from our party, as did the large section at the back of the restaurant. This area remained completely unused for the duration of our visit, raising some unavoidable questions:
Why were we told indoor seating was unavailable when there was clearly ample space?
Did the older gentleman at the front of house assume our group would be disruptive due to the presence of ten children?
After dinner, we requested the bill, which was delivered by the same gentleman. The total came to £287, which we asked to be rounded up to £300 and split four ways. However, we were each charged £75.33, resulting in a total slightly exceeding £300—something we found odd, though we did not query it at the time. Ordinarily, we would tip well in excess of 15%, but the decision to seat us outside in the cold, the repeated need to chase drinks, and this final billing inconsistency significantly detracted from what had otherwise been a lovely day for four families
