The King and Queen, Caterham

Really excellent pub. Cosy old building with a lot of character. Dog friendly. Nice selection of Fullers beers. Efficient and friendly staff. Never had a bad experience in here.

2 Jan 2012 18:34

The Fox, Caterham

Beautiful building, beautiful location. Could be a really excellent pub, but unfortunately has the worst service of any pub I have ever been to!

This is an opinion I have formed over many visits. Even when just going for a quick pint, the service can be bad. Long waits at the bar in an empty pub is just not good enough. Also, when asking what Wine is available, 'we've got loads' is not a particularly helpful answer!

The final straw came this weekend, at a family dinner (I had tried to warn the family off the Fox!). We ordered our meals and received our starters in reasonable time. My brother was late joining the party and ordered his food at around the time we received our starters. We then had a wait of nearly an hour for our main courses to arrive. My brother who ordered last actually received his main course about half an hour before the rest of the party!

Of the meals, two were a salmon fillet which was served raw in the middle. At this point we had had enough and called the manager over, who came to the table and apologised for the delay, and took the salmon dishes off the bill and gave a free round of drinks. Fair enough you might think.

When the replacement meals arrived, one was STILL raw in the middle! The waitress was extremely embarrassed and offered to fetch the manager again, whilst arranging for another replacement meal. The manager never came back to the table.

In all our meal took around 2 1/2 - 3 hrs for all the party to be finally fed.

When I went to pay the bill, I saw the manager at the bar and mentioned that we had to send one of the salmon back a 2nd time. In a classic example of customer service, he told me that he had checked them and they had been cooked perfectly! When I made my feelings about his pub and the service clear, he told me that he couldn't do anything as it was the chain that made the rules. I said I would write a letter to the head office and he basically told me that 'they get 100's of letters every day, they won't change things for just one pub'.

This pub is crying out for new owners who:
A) know how to run a pub.
b) can staff it properly.
c) have the slightest inkling of the definition of the term 'service'.

I will not be setting foot inside the door until the management is completely overhauled.

12 Jul 2010 14:56