The Royal Oak, South Brent

My partner and I visited this pub for lunch today as we liked the look of the menu on their web site and the prices seemed very reasonable. We asked for salad instead of peas with our meal and I also requested raw onions. The salad turned out to be a bit of scraggy stringy lettuce absolutely sodden in dressing and a mere shaving of spring onion immersed in the small green blob on the plate. When I said to the barman that this did not really constitute a salad and perhaps a tomato and a slice of cucumber would have been nice, his reply was "my wife is allergic to cucumber so we don't have it on the premises and there is a difference between the cost of a plate of salad compared to a portion of peas " - er sorry I wasn't after a whole plate of salad but a nice edible looking garnish (if I'd wanted salad dressing I would have asked for it!).
I mentioned that perhaps a slice of pepper could have replaced the cucumber and to this he shrugged his shoulders and mumbled that "he (presumably the chef} normally does that" - and walked off! The scampi was also overdone which is pretty dire seeing as we were the only 2 people eating at this time! When I went to pay the bill he'd charged us for an incorrect drink" - there was no apology for the absolutely dire meal or for the incorrect bill!

So unfortunately, restaurant standard this most certainly is not, it is not even Little Chef standard. The customer service is just as dire as the meal.

24 Sep 2010 18:02