The Inn At Kew, Kew

I went here with a few friends after ice skating at Kew Gardens. Upon entering i thought, "Great, here's a nice warm relaxing pub, perfect for a Sunday evening." When we arrived we were told wasn't availble until 6pm. Fine, no problem we thought. We'll order at 6pm. So, we did, thinking we'd get our food by about half six or quarter to seven at the latest, it was after all a quiet Sunday evening. How wrong we could be. The chef rocked in at 6 and cooked all the 'easy' meals first giving no regard to who had a placed an order when. We were still waiting (no complaints to staff yet) at seven o'clock. That's an hour waiting. We enquired about our meals to which we were greeted with an irate chef screaming about how he had started work at six and required time to 'fire up the grill'. Now correct me if I'm wrong but if I owned a pub and advertised serving food at six, I would get my chef in half an hour earlier. It's called 'prep' I do believe, and having worked in the business for 5 years in a popular american (awful) chain at least we could open on time. So, cut to us asking where our food was after an hour and a quarter and seeing over 6 steaks fly out of the kitchen. Obviously that grill took a while to fire up (I'd ordered Scallops, go figure). We spoke to the manager (I think that's who it was as he was the only one taking any responsibility) and basically got to the crux of the matter, i.e he'd get our food out asap. Only then he didn't offer ANYTHING in recompense. Finally got my bloody scallops with no parma ham as advertised. Finally got two bottle of wine and some free deserts off said manager, the least he could done after we had waited over 1 hour and 20 mins when we were the first to order. If you're going to open on a Sunday evening get some staff in who can do the job. Please! No more excuses, Sunday is a busy day, if you can't cope with more than twenty covers then get out of the business. Appalled, outraged and bitterly dissapointed. Oh, and my scallops were undercooked. Avoid like the plague, infact the plague would be more fun than eating at the Inn at Kew.

10 Dec 2006 21:12