Very unhappy

Like many reviewers on other websites, I had a very unhappy time at The Rambler. This was for 2 reasons. The first was that the manageress refused to consider the possibility that a pint of one of the beers she served was past its best. As all you real ale drinkers will know, it sometimes happens that the beer is not right. The generally accepted convention, on these unhappy occasions, is that the unhappy drinker politely informs the bar staff of the unfortunate state of affairs with the golden nectar. The bar staff, usually, are only too pleased to put things right by offering to replace the undrinkable with something drinkable: without question. Happiness returns. Not at the Rambler. The manageress told me that there was nothing wrong with the beer (how could she know that without trying it?), that the chef, who drank it all the time, agreed with her and that noone else had complained. Here she ignored a comment from another drinker who thought that the stuff tasted a bit sour. Anyway, Madame Manageress was adamant. Nothing wrong with the beer, and no, its no going to be replaced. I offered the offending drink to the chef, with my compliments and ordered and paid for something else. Rambler 1: Customer 0. The next engagement with the Manageress was over a mis-placed food order. After unhappily waiting 20 minutes for 2 desserts to arrive we queried the delay, only to be told brusquely by her that there was no record on her till system of us having placed the order. Even when I challenged 2 of her barmen on this and they admitted that I had indeed placed the order, she refused to recognise that the error was on her side of the bar, not mine. All she could bring herself to do was key in the order: she declined my suggestion that an apology for the error, for the delay and for her accusation that we lied about placing the order in the first place was dismissed with a curt "Thank you, good bye": Rambler 2: Customer 0. We quickly paid and left. Oh, for the record. The main dish food (2 pie and chips: one venison burger: one ploughmans) had arrived within a couple of minutes of ordering. It must have been lined up in the kitchen even before it was ordered to have arrived that quick. Our expectations not to expect quality food to be produced that quick were confirmed: e.g bisto gravy, soggy pastry and what looked like re-constituted burger meat (could have been anything - almost certainly not venison).

steven smith - 28/08/2008 | report this review