The Bell, Wortwell

Please don't go to this pub, or its attached restaurant. The manager is rude, erratic, and will shout you down if you complain. Please read on.

Visited the restaurant section of this pub with my parents for a combined birthday present for them both.

The evening started pleasantly enough. We ordered from a menu on a blackboard in the bar area before proceeding to the restaurant. For a �19 main course - Beef Wellington - this was perhaps a little informal, but fair enough.

The restaurant itself was a little bland, but the food arrived in good time, Beef Wellington for myself and my father, and mushroom risotto for my mother. The service was very polite. At this point, the sky was clear and blue. What could possibly go wrong?

Then the problems started. My father's beef wellington was grissly. Obviously the piece of fillet used to make it was at the end of the cut, and this was a small, but by no means terminal issue. Also, the Dauphinoises potatoes we got were a single portion between two of us. Indeed, we saw one guy with the same order, and he got a full dish to himself. Again, not an enormous problem, but still slightly irritating. The rest of the food was fine, as was the desert.

The problems began when I came to pay. Given this was a restaurant which prided itself on its excellent quality of food, we reasoned that feedback would be appreciated. We pointed out the problem with one of the beef wellingtons, and phrased it in the most polite terms. We were quite clear that, in general, the meal had been good, but we had a few pointers as to where they could improve so that we - and others - could have a still better meal next time.

The reaction from the manager was quite extraordinary. His servile politeness suddenly vanished, and he literally erupted like a volcano. This modest, ever so politely-phrased complaint was taken as though it was a mortal strike to the heart . 'WELL, YOU ATE IT ALL, DIDN'T YOU?' he growled. As we tried to gently infer that a basal standard of edibility does not warrant acceptability for a meal priced at �30 a head, the steam rose from his ears.

'IF ALL YOUR GOING TO DO IS COMPLAIN' he shouted 'JUST GET OUT!!!' and then 'OUT, OUT, OUT!' accompanied by plentiful fist-waving.

An entire overaction. We strongly support local pubs in this part of the world becoming restaurants. We want to save the British pub, which is facing so many challenges nowadays. We sought to give only the most polite and moderate criticism - we sought no refunds. What we received was the massive aggression and ego of a landlord who is not fit to run a pub, let alone a �30 a head restaurant. Please stay away from this place until it changes its management. It gives other honest establishments a bad name.

I have given this 2/10. The food was worth 8, even given the minor problems, but, naturally, to be treated in this way after having paid �90, was entirely unacceptable.

12 Jul 2011 22:04