The Romer Arms, Newnham

Having been to the Romer Arms many times in the past, and as it is such a lovely pub, we have never had cause for complaint on any occasion, but feel this need to be published
On arriving the pub was quiet, but it was mid week so to be expected, and having purchased drinks we went through to the conservatory for our meal. This is when things started to get annoying. The area we were eating in was extremely cold and we had to sit with our coats on. This is despite having booked to eat so I would have assumed they would have had the restaurant part heated. We waited for ages before ordering. In the end my husband actually got up and asked if they could take our order. The answer was I'll be over in a minute. There were only one or two customers so it wasn't as if they were busy !
We then waited ages for the food to arrive .
By the end of our starter we were all so cold we asked if the heater behind our seats could be turned on. This didn't work so we moved tables - beside a radiator - which was actually so hot we had to move the table slightly to avoid touching it with our arms.

There was again a long wait for our main course. On moving tables, my son and his girlfriend had a clear view into the kitchen. They sat laughing because some of our food was sat waiting to be served (they said for about 10 mins) and the person/chef was stood actually eating chips of our plates ! I don't think they could believe what was going on.

I at that point was fuming ! It was my son's 21st birthday and we were sat in a freezing room, starving because of the lack of service and to top it all the chef was stood eating food off our plates. Again they weren't busy we were the only people in the restaurant and there were only a couple of other customers - there is no excuse for this at all.

It was only the fact that it was getting too late for us to go elsewhere that stopped me from getting up and walking out. My son knew I was angry and asked me not to say anything because they would have been embarrassed - and they were hungry and just wanted to eat.

Both my son and husband ordered the mixed grill for their main meal. The lady later came back saying they only had one left ! I would have thought a mixed grill was fairly popular and I've never been anywhere that has run out of this type of meal. So my son had the remaining mixed grill and my husband had a sirloin steak (with chips, grilled tomatoes and saut�ed mushrooms).

The mixed grill didn't look very appetizing at all. Everything just looked bland and charcoaled from the cooking and my son couldn't make out what he was actually eating. In the end he left part of it because he said it was tasteless - it all apparently just tasted charcoaled and burnt. So he gave up eating it.

My husband, during his meal, realised his steak had come with salad and chips. He'd actually forgotten about the missing grilled tomato but queried the missing saut�ed mushrooms.

We asked the lady serving us - who I now believe was the licensee. Her remark was along the lines of "Do you want some?". Well actually yes because that is what we thought we were having. So she went off and my husband then waited for them to be cooked ! His steak wasn't particularly brilliant either and again was charcoaled.

Generally I would say something during the meal but not wanting to ruin my son's birthday and embarrass him I didn't. No one came and asked if everything was OK so I didn't even get the opportunity to say anything because given the opportunity - I would. I did make a few comments about things when the lady was passing so how she missed them I don't know. Or perhaps it was better just to ignore us.

We didn't have a dessert because quite frankly we had all had enough of the appalling service and food. My fish was actually not cooked properly and I left the thicker part of that as I couldn't face eating it. The pizza just looked like one you cook at home plonked on a plate. Not really much more I can say !

8 Nov 2011 17:48