I never normally write reviews online but after such a horrendous experience at the Bridge House restaurant on Sat 18 October 2008 I feel compelled to write. We went to the restaurant for my boyfriend's 30th birthday celebration with his parents, who live locally and have been to the Bridge a number of times before. They had enjoyed fantastic food and good service in the past, but we found out when we arrived that the manager changed in Sept 08 hence the difference in this review to the ones below written before Sept.
We arrived 7 minutes late for our booking at 8pm (5 mins of which we were trying to find space to park the car in their car park) and, while standing at the bar in our coats, were thrust menus by the manager on duty and told 'you'd better order quickly, you're late'. A bit unexpected as everyone else was sitting in the bar with their aperitifs, clearly in no hurry and I've never been anywhere before where a few minutes has an impact on anything, but ok we had a drink and ordered promptly. When at our table a few minor things happened such as no wine glasses, water or bread being brought to the table despite asking a couple of times, but again no major issue at the time and when the food came out it was lovely. We had one comment about one of the main courses which we asked the waitress to pass on to the chef this was a minor comment and not a complaint the rest of the food had been great.
We decided after two courses we would head home. That's when the trouble started the waitress came back and told us that she couldn't repeat what the chef had said when she passed on the comment. Shocked at her telling us this, we pressed her and she retorted 'look, you're not having dessert, you're not having coffee, let's just leave it at that, shall we'. We tried to respond but she stuck her hand in my boyfriend's dad's face and snapped 'I'm not dealing with you' and stalked off. My boyfriend's mum then passed the kitchen while walking to the loos to hear her moaning about us and went in to tell the chef politely that the food had been lovely and it was the service we had had a problem with. The waitress squared up to her, then the manager came in and started shouting at her about us being late 'you don't arrive in an establishment of this quality 10 minutes late you arrive late, I'll bring the wine glasses and water out late' - their lax service earlier in the evening had evidently been intentional. The chef was impeccably polite and apologised but the other staff were unbelievably rude and intimidating.
We all eat out regularly and I was a waitress myself for a number of years and I have never seen service like this it felt like an episode of Fawlty Towers. We left distressed and upset, what should have been a celebratory evening totally spoilt by the attitude of the staff.
They seemed to have taken a disliking to us from the start due to the 7 minute delay in our arriving and this resulted in the evening we experienced other guests in the restaurant did not seem to be getting the same treatment. I wonder though how much longer this restaurant will last if guests get treated like this whenever the waitress loses her cool or the manager takes offence to what he sees as a slight on his 'quality establishment'. I'm just hoping the excellent chef moves to a restaurant where the standard of his food is reflected in the standard of service. read more