The Cuckfield, Wanstead

We had Sunday lunch at the Cuckfield the Sunday before last. The entire meal was a catalogue of bad service and bad food. There was very little of the menu that was still available, in spite of there being hours of service left, so we made our reluctant choice out of what little was left (one roast lamb and one toad in the hole) the staff were slow and surly and when they brought our mains before our starters we actually had to explain that this was not accepted practice and that, as a rule, the starters tend to be served first, the waiter looked at us like we were mad and had to be asked twice, and then told, to take our mains away and bring our starter. When the mains returned (I'm sure they were the same mains has had been brought out to begin with) we had been brought shoe-leather overcooked beef and sausages with mash with large lumps of raw potato in - awful food and not even what we ordered. The chef in the open kitchen argued with the waitress, and then with us, as to whether we could send this back. The manager was eventually summoned and was apologetic and accepted that we wouldn't pay for the mean and promised to send us a letter of apology and a voucher for a free meal to restore our faith. We have received nothing. There were a number of other issues but it would take an age to list them all, suffice to say this was easily the worst pub meal I have ever experienced. I would not recommend this pub to anyone.

10 Dec 2007 11:39