The Olde Red Lion, Kislingbury

I have never been to this establishment but regularly contribute to the reviewcentre - always honest and mostly positive (previously as Welsh Foodie and Sludminger but I've forgotten my passwords so re-invented myself!). The review itself sounded rounded and reflected other recent reviews. I take exception to the landlady's response suggesting that she could judge people as they entered her establishment. I regularly eat out, with work, my wife and often with an 8yr old and 14yr old in tow. We are house (and restaurant) trained but often dressed casually, particularly if we've been out walking or shopping. I suspect that I would be judged as the sort of customer that this lady would not welcome but she need not worry. I will not be crossing her threshold.

As the original reviewer I feel I must respond to the comments left by “Guest” below.

My wife and I visited the Olde Red Lion and had a good meal with very poor service, that was it. We are in our late 30’s, we eat out very regularly and visited using a groupon voucher as we have many times before to try out a place, some which have become regular staples when we eat out. If you are to believe the comments made by the owner/waitress/staff (all are the same person) then the only people who complain are groupon diners but reviews here and on reviewcenter.com (from the pre groupon era) do show otherwise. Please note though that the reviews are rarely disparaging of the food and only the service from this one lady.

I agree with “guest”, (or waitress from now on) ,that all customers are not nice but when in a customer facing role in the service industry it is the job of the staff to grit your teeth and the offending customer will be gone in an hour or so. I do disagree that we were “not nice”. We didn’t go out for dinner with the purpose of not enjoying ourselves but when my wife told the waitress at the end of the meal that she had felt unwelcome when we arrived that was not the opening gambit for a fight. This was just the opportunity for her to apologise, which she did not. I had warned my wife that I didn’t think the waitress could take criticism despite it being requested by a note on the table and boy, was I right. The waitress told us how we had had the wrong attitude from the moment we walked through the door, told us how much she had done for us that evening and then involved the rest of the restaurant to confirm that they had all felt welcome so she could prove that my wife didn’t feel unwelcome. Ridiculous. I was angry and did slam the door as I left but throughout the evening we were just sat quietly eating our food so we could leave as the atmosphere was uncomfortable. Going out is about more than just the quality of the food. I take issue with her comments about “slunking out of their establishment leaving anonymous reviews which are vile, nasty lies”. We gave our feedback when at the restaurant which was taken badly, I later e-mailed the waitress so that it was not during heat of the moment to allow her to reflect on it but got the same response in reply, again with no apology, I then left the review. We have told the truth, told the waitress we would leave a poor review and have been far from anonymous. There were no threats just a complaint and some advice. Please make your own judgement on me, my review, other reviews and especially the response from the olde red lion. I have had lots of less than great meals before but only this has inspired me to go online to leave a review.

Our reservation was accepted after the voucher had expired, we also did not take a printed voucher as everywhere we have eaten before has accepted the voucher code on my phone. A printed voucher was waved in our face to show us that a print is required as it says it in the small print but we were able to e-mail it from the phone so all should have been OK. We were told to go outside as there would be no reception to send it inside and then we followed her across the restaurant. We weren’t being shown to our table though, we were told we needed to go outside to send it first but it doesn’t take 2 people so we had to ask to be seated as we were both hovering over our table in what was essentially an empty restaurant. I said once seated, I would go and do it. It all seems really petty as they did accept our reservation but it was the cold unfriendliness that we were really putting her out and everything was reluctantly doing us a favour. I think the waitress hits the nail on the head by saying “it’s not only a business, it’s also our home”. If it was your home, then only your friends and people you enjoy to associate with would ever eat there, so as a customer, she expects you to conform to this ideal, in reality you are not going to have everyone you meet around for dinner but in a business everyone is expected to pay so should be treated just as your best friends would be at your own dinner table. Finally our meals were far from complimentary, it matters not who we paid the bulk of the money to, in this case it was £19 to groupon. We also paid a supplement for the main course (about 6 items on the menu had supplements’) and the bar bill, 1 pint and a water. All in all a bill of £28.00 for a Wednesday evening. Without groupon it would have been empty and had all the associated costs of staff etc with no return so please do not make out we were free guests.

Finally...Water, what a non issue...very good, less waste. My wife ordered mineral water but we got filtered tap. We only noticed when we got an unsealed bottle and from the bill, I think it was £1. I hope you add it to your charity work, all very commendable. Nothing to do with our review though. Just another sign that she just won’t listen to what people are telling her, my final thought, get a more personal and approachable face for your front of house.

I know what I would like to say in this Response, but will not allow myself to be dragged down by any of these people……When Groupon Announced the Deal we set up with them, some of our customers and associates locally, voiced their concerns, based on their own experiences, stating that it could possibly attract the wrong sort of business/customer to our Restaurant…….fortunately for us we have met, served and gained some truly delightful new customers and look forward to welcoming them back, unfortunately yes the deal did attract some people we would not want to come back. To any one reading the Reviews that go before this Response, you may like to take note that they are from Groupon Diners, the only difference between these people and the ones who have written outstanding Reviews about us both online and on Cards we were handing out within the restaurant, is the nature and disposition of the Reviewer.

Despite popular belief anyone in a customer facing role will tell you, not all customers are nice…….. I was obviously bought up very differently from these Reviewers, as I was raised to believe that if you had “NOTHING GOOD” to say about a person, then you “said nothing”, if you could not do someone a “GOOD TURN” then don’t “do one”……honest, decent people do not personally insult others and honest decent people do not come into our establishment bringing with them, bad manners, chips on their shoulders and an attitude that offends and makes both our staff and us feel uncomfortable. Whilst these reviewers think they have slunk out of our establishment and anonymously written these vile, nasty and in the main lies, about us, they have not…..because they were identified as the sort of person who would do so, on entering the building, by their attitude, long before in the most part they threatened us with it. To anyone reading these Reviews I would say, make up your own minds as to what sort of person you think the Reviewer could possibly be, by nature of the nasty, rude and insulting things they have written.

The last Reviewer’s reservation was accepted by us after the final redemption date for Groupon had passed, we did not have to accept the reservation, he arrived without the voucher, when he was asked for it he stated that he did not have to present it, it was subsequently pointed out to him, in writing, on a Voucher, that he did……he took offence at it being pointed out to him that he was actually in the wrong, and things went downhill from there, they were frosty towards us from there on in, eventually the Landlord asked them to leave, they left slamming our doors and threatening us with both them and their friends doing bad reviews on us, subsequently the threat was also received in an e-mail……to put these Bad Reviews into perspective we have in the past 8 weeks served approximately 725 Groupon Diners and have been asked by Groupon to Partner them again, due to the response from their customers. At the end of the day I would ask anyone reading this to consider whether they would be offended and put up with someone behaving badly within their home, because despite being a Business, this is also our home and each and everyone of these Reviewers bought to our table a seriously bad attitude, despite their suggesting the problem was ours….we have 100’s of glowing satisfaction cards for prospective diners to view, there are also Reviews posted on Go-Dine and Trip Advisor, however we are not arrogant enough to believe that they will always be glowing…………the final insult from these people, is that their meals were virtually complimentary from our end as they paid Groupon, not us, would you insult someone who paid for a meal for you.

On a final note and to set the record straight, once and for all, our table water comes from an expensive filter system installed in our cellar and pipes it through onto a font on our bar, as we have no mains tap water available in the bar area, only a dedicated hand wash sink and tap, which by law we cannot serve water from…….we make a £1.00 charge for the water, which is presented in a Corporate Bottle, within an ice bag. These people who insult me should consider that I have in the past 3 years raised £15,000 for charity, including Cancer and Help 4 Heroes, we will also be making a donation this year to WATER AID, being any profit that we may make, once the annual cost of the Filtration System is met, helping to provide something in a 3rd World Country that here people seem to take for granted…..FRESH WATER.