The George and Dragon, Wentworth

We went to the George and Dragon at Wentworth for Sunday lunch and really enjoyed it although we had to wait for an hour we put this down to it being quite busy.
On the strength of this I booked for the Hoober room, which the chap I spoke to clearly described as a restaurant, for a special evening to celebrate my husbands birthday. There were 11 in our party.
Overall the food is good, the pub itself is a lovely �proper� pub and the selection of well kept real ales is smashing.
However where the establishment falls down significantly is in terms of customer service.
On arrival I let the staff know we were there, there was no sense of welcome and we were told that we would have to order at the bar before proceeding to the restaurant, this caused a bit of chaos especially as there was nowhere to sit down. There were a number of empty tables however these bore the legend �reserved for food only until 9pm� so we weren�t allowed to use them.
After quite a bit of messing about where we felt in the way, we managed to order. The young man behind the bar didn�t write anything down, despite being asked to, and there were one or two errors with the order.
I had paid a deposit the day before and I think we do look like the steady bunch of middle class types we are, however I clearly heard a woman behind the bar say to the young man, in a Shakespearean whisper, �tell them we can�t serve them until they�ve given us a card to swipe�. Not a practise I�ve come across in restaurants before.
I had asked if I could bring a cake, this was agreed. I needed to put the candles on, I had a discussion with the woman behind the bar about where I could do this and she was most unhelpful. I ended up having to do it in the car boot in the snowy car park.
The service during the meal was none existent apart from the food being brought in. It was spasmodic and slow and there were errors in people�s orders.
Overall I felt as if I had let my husband and friends down in bringing them to such a place. They all felt that the food and drink were good but that the organisation and the customer service were very poor. The staff weren�t all specifically rude however it felt like they thought they were doing us a favour in letting us eat in their establishment. There was no sense of being welcomed or valued at all.
This is a shame as it could be really great here.
Well , I know 11 people and possibly their friends and acquaintances who are unlikely to darken their door again.

10 Jan 2010 19:57