The Cricketers, Clavering

One to avoid at all costs! Rude staff, poor and slow service, and over rated food. Jamie's father is clearly making as much money as he can from his son's fame regardless.

I telephoned to book a table for a meal for me, my aunt (who suffers from Parkinsons), and my elderly Nana, in the bar side of the pub (rather than the over commercialised 'school dinner type hall' on the other side). I knew that the meal would be expensive but I had saved for sometime as this was my special treat to my Aunt and my Nana; it was a six hour round trip drive to the Cricketers as my Aunt and Nana do not live locally - this didn't concern me as I expected it to be a special day for them both.

How wrong I was - the problems started as soon as we arrived; we were given a table right at the edge of a walkway, with steps up to get to the seats, when I queried the table the sour faced bar maid told me that that was the table I had booked, when I said that was incorrect and I had actually asked for a table in the bar area she said "well you booked that table, and we thought it was odd reserving a table for six for just three people", not wishing to make a scene we sat at the table. Staff then proceeded to completely ignore us and walked past our table on many ocassions without acknowledging our waiting to be served; I had to stop a waiter and ask for the menus. We were then served (clearly reluctantly) by a rude and miserable waiter, our food eventually being almost thrown on the table; it was obvious that their misunderstanding over the table booking was for some reason making them reluctant to offer us any service at all!

The whole experience was ruined, my Aunt and my Nana are very special to me and the entire day was a complete let down. Not one to make a scene I later wrote to Mr Oliver to express my disappointment. His reply was extremely rude and filled with arrogance, not accepting that I did not ask for that particular table which caused extreme difficulty for my Aunt (who finds it difficult to walk let alone climb steps to a table), and my elderly Nana, to be comfortable at. His comments continued to respond with rude comments; it seems at this establishment as the customer you are never right!

One definitely to avoid is my advice!

13 Dec 2009 23:11