Earlier in the year, we tried to book rooms here (there were nine of us) but were told the hotel was "being up-dated" and there was no accomodation available. Fair enough but as we were doing some research at the Avebury henges we decided to dine there on the Friday evening - brilliant! The service was first-class and the food of a good quality apart from the soup which two of us sent back for re-heating. Puddings were on the expensive side; £4.65 for three scoops of Ice Cream.
Saturday was different! We arrived at 6.10 pm and were eventually served, begrudgingly, by a sour-faced bar-maid, with our drinks; we were seated at 6.25 pm, the restaurant area was almost empty.
The staff were not the same as those who were on duty on Friday.
Menus were not forthcoming so I collected some from the serving area. After about 5 minutes deliberation, we were ready to order; where was that pretty young waitress? She was spotted, hailed and duly attended at the table. "We're ready to order", I said. "You have to order at the bar," came the response. "Last night we ordered at this table," I said. "You can't have, we don't do that, we don't even have the forms to take your order", she responded. Her accent revealed a possible native tongue being Central European and she was very polite.
The conversation was heading nowhere so I asked if she would make an exception on this one occassion and take our orders at the table; perhaps she could write the orders a piece of paper?
It worked; she was gone and returned in a flash, complete with note-pad, pen and a reassuring smile. We ordered (no starters this time) and waited and chatted and waited and waited some more.
A party of diners who had arrived a few minutes after us but had probably ordered from "Sour Face" were becoming restless. I overheard the words "forty-five minutes" and ridiculous". A young man arrived at their table. Unfortunately he was sporting a huge cold-sore on his bottom lip, for which he first appologised before appologising for the delay in serving their order. "We're very busy", he said: the restaurant area was still almost empty. One of our party approached the young man with the cold sore, "And what about our meals? We were here before them," he said, pointing at the other complainant.
Eventually, almost an hour after we had ordered, our meals arrived. Needless to say our enthusiasm had been dampened and we had to eat quickly as we had another meeting planned, elsewhere. We asked for the bill. "You have pay at the bar", we were told. "But last night........".
As she took our money, "Sour Face" never even broke into a sardonic grin but did try and charge for a garlic bread and a double portion of a side plate of vegetables that we never had.
We won't be going back!
- Red Lion Avebury
- Avebury Red Lion
