Cricketers Downside, The

Tim (27 October 2008)

I went there for an evening meal with my fiancée and her parents in October this year. The first meal with the steak pie was very good, though the roast potatoes were almost cold. In the second meal the roast potatoes were cold, and in the third meal the mashed potatoes were cold and lumpy. In the fourth meal the Yorkshire pudding, which was included in the roast beef dinner was cooked in fish fat and smelt of fish and chips. When we complained and asked for the manager, the only member of staff working behind the bar apologised and informed us the manager was off the premises, but would return in ten minutes. How can you run a pub and restaurant when you're not even there? After waiting a further twenty minutes the manager finally returned and promptly started serving customers at the bar choosing to ignore us rather than deal with our problem. When we asked why he wasn't dealing with the poor quality of food served at his premises he said his priority was to deal with customers waiting for drinks at the bar. Finally when he did come over to see us and we explained our problem, refused to believe us. After a further heated argument the owner-manager agreed to refund the cost of three of the meals. We accepted that, and then he promptly asked us to leave his pub as he didn't want our custom there ever again as ‘us not coming back wouldn't affect his business’.

In my opinion the pub is now very poorly run and, obviously under-staffed. The food was below normal acceptable merchantable standards, and the manager-owner clearly has very little idea of dealing with customer complaints. Having been a customer, on and off at this pub for over thirty years and I will not set foot in there again, until the current ownership changes from the present incumbents.