Excruciatingly slow service, food that didn't match their descriptions and haughty management: Eating at the Canbury Arms was one of the worse dining experiences I've ever had, anywhere.
There were a few positives: the interior is homely and well-lit, with wooden tables and chairs; the real ale was in good condition; some dishes were good.
But service? It took them over three hours to serve our table of five appetisers (and not very complicated ones - think hummus and pitta bread, bread and oil), starters, mains and desserts. Part of the problem was doubtless the kitchen, but another was the complete lack of attentiveness on the part of our waitress. She told us that the kitchen doesn't start cooking the mains until the starter plates have been cleared. In our case, our starter plates languished on the table for 30 minutes before she cleared them because she didn't check if we had finished. Drinks-wise, we ordered one round at the beginning, but she then disappeared, forcing me to go to the bar to order another drink myself. Likewise, she never came round to ask if everything was okay, and at the end, losing patience, when she gave us the dessert menus, I had to ask her to return in five minutes so we could place orders. That kind of attentiveness is standard at other restaurants, but very definitely is not the case at the Canbury Arms.
The second major problem was that the reality of the dishes did not always meet their descriptions - a fundamental requirement in any UK business, let alone food businesses. Three of our party opted for a tempting-sounding 'slow cooked lamb shoulder, with couscous and aubergine puree'. Order a dish meeting this description at other UK restaurants and you'll likely be given lamb that literally falls off the bone. The mains took well over an hour to arrive (at one point I asked how much longer they would be and was told "four minutes". They arrived ten minutes later), and though my pie was quite good, the 'lamb' looked like it had been cut off a kebab meat skewer and piled up, next to a block of couscous. The meat was greasy and really not very nice at all. One of our group sent hers back, while they others struggled through half of theirs before giving up.
The desserts arrived, and yet again the descriptions on the menu were found wanting. My girlfriend ordered a 'brownie sundae' which sounded and looked fantastic. Tasting it however was a different experience, revealing whipped cream in the place of ice cream.
Cue the third major failing of the Canbury Arms: the attitude of management. They didn't commit to amending the description of the lamb dish, despite me pressing them to do so twice. When I asked why there was no ice cream in the sundae, they defiantly claimed that this was due to their 'uniqueness'. I told them that they needed to ensure their descriptions matched common understanding of these terms. They shrugged it off. I pointed to the definition of 'sundae' on online dictionaries as including ice cream and they waved it away. I told them they were operating in breach of UK law and they smirked. A truly incredible approach. What other laws are they ignorant to, or indeed deliberately ignoring?
In the end, one of the older members of our group make clear her displeasure and asked the bill to be revised in line with that. The manager agreed, saying that the last round of drinks (half a pint of beer, one glass of wine and a ginger ale) and the desserts would be complimentary and they would give us a discount. But when the bill arrived, there only seemed to be evidence of the discount and the last round of drinks being removed, not the desserts. Of course, we could have disputed it, but at this point, three hours of waiting and disappointment later, we gave up, and left.
Never to return. read more
