The Lion Hotel, Farningham

What a shame! This is an attractive old pub, in an idyllic setting so we should have had a fabulous time. To start with we found that the pub garden was in a disgusting state when we arrived at midday on a Thursday. The bins were overflowing with bottles and rubbish, so were teeming with wasps. The grass was littered with cigarette butts, dirty napkins,even cutlery and dirty menus, obviously left over from the previous evening. We should have walked away but the kids had brought nets and wanted to fish in the river. So we went to order lunch. The young lady behind the counter said she needed a table number, even though we were, as yet, the only food customers. When I said we were sitting in the garden by the river she said they were only serving food on the patio which I thought was unhelpful as she knew we had children with us. The member of staff I spoke to was definitely lacking in any customer service training - I found her quite rude. I heard staff muttering to each other about the lack of equipment. One said "we haven't even got any effing wine glasses". The main meals were reasonable - good sized portions for children and adults , and well presented. Unlike her bar colleague, the waitress was pleasant - but we weren't given enough knives and forks so had to seek these out ourselves. We ordered desserts - four different ones, all of which arrived served with raspberry ripple ice cream - not vanilla as stated in the menus! Very strange, and not at all pleasant to eat with chocolate brownies or toffee pudding! It seems there was a cutlery shortage as we were given soup spoons to eat with, appropriate really as the ice creams were melted even before they reached us and it wasn't a particularly hot day. Once our meals were finished the kids were desperate to get into the main garden so we moved there with our drinks only to find customers were now being served meals there! At some point an attempt had been made to clear away the rubbish in the bins but there was still lots of mess on the floor. Again, it's such a shame as this place could be great, but the staff seem to lack incentive, or supervision, and as a customer I couldn't have felt less welcome or appreciated.

20 Aug 2009 21:33