Service at The Herne

[Mellors]

I am always ready to praise places that offer good service, but I am so sick of the dreadful service at The Herne I thought I would mention it on here and get others views.

We went for lunch this weekend with our toddler, and knowing the food service to be incredibly slow we ordered the minute we arrived. We also asked how long they expected it to take to arrive. Not long, apparently.

Almost an hour later we still had not had any sign of the food, and the staff seemed more interested in catering for a function they were also having (which is interesting, because we had a function there ourselves earlier in the year and the service was so appauling I can't even begin to tell you (although the function people this weekend were complaining too)). I appreciate they have to cook it and its not fast food, but even I can do one rare steak and a burger in less time than that. And it wasn't even that busy.

I asked for my card back as we finally gavce up and decided to go home and make something ourselves instead (which they keep behind the bar, and annoys me anyway with all these card cloning things going on at the momment), and got a right mouthful instead of an apology.

Its such a shame - I like the pub, the food is nice, and its great for kids, but the awful service is just beyond a joke and it never seems to improve, despite the number of second chances I have given it.

End of rant!

Title changed to be more general - The Administrator

[2degreesfrommadness]

I. too, have experienced poor service at the Herne, soon after it reopened in its present incarnation. After waiting an unreasonable length of time, I got out a notebook and started making notes looking frequently at my watch , tutting loudly; meal arrived within 5 minutes, obviously the stimulation of a possible bad review was needed!

We have not returned to experience the service again; sad to hear that it hasnt improved.

[Marmora Man]

This is a shame if repeated. I have eaten at the Herne many times, and always enjoyed the food and service, tho' not in last 3 months. Have booked for tonight with three friends and will report back

[taper]

Of an evening, the service at the Herne is fabulously awful. They have some sort of weird ordering system which exacerbates the whole thing. I've given up going. The Montpelier off Bellenden has gone to the dogs as well.

[Cassius]

Have to say that I am suprised - I have always had good service at the Herne, although not eaten there since Christmas. Perhaps the bad service has co-incided with Rob the manager moving to the Palmeston - he always seemed to be on top of things.

[jimbo1964]

I've never had a problem but we tend to go early before the orders stack up.

[tiger ranks]

me and my girlfriend went there for an evening meal after ordering i was waiting for over half an hour for burger and chips!!!

I was sitting near the kitchen but i noticed that one of the barmaids was wakling round to the kitchen with a pint of beer in hand for the chef after a further 15min i decided to ask the chef himself about my order.

i was told by a red eyed chef its on its way

when my meal finially arrived my burger was burnt and he had forgot the cheese chips were crap i sent it back and the manager had the check to ask what was wrong with my food.

After showing him my burger he insisted that it was well cooked!!

sorry to say but this pub only looks after the likes of James Nesbitt and his finicinal equal people that go to that pub i refuse to go in there anymore

[BQC]

The service at the Herne is terrible, we live very close and were so happy when the Palmerston guys got hold of it. Instead of investing money into it (I know they have spent money on the garden), they have just let it fester..

Last summer the garden was rammed, this year it's a different story. We have given it the benefit of the doubt 10 times over,but have decided now to not even bother with food. The toilets are awful and need an overhaul, the amount of staff needs to increase, the kitchen needs to be more efficient and the service/decor in general need to be looked at.

I hope the guys are listening to this - it would be a shame to lose the Herne.

[Asset]

Tiger ranks - you must be aware that all people who work in kitchens are drug addled alcoholics. Some can just cook better at the same time.

[Sue]

I've only eaten there once, and the whole place reeked of toilet freshener, which put me off my food somewhat!

However the food and service were OK (but we were quite early so they weren't very busy).

My gripe with the Herne is their advertising a beer festival via posters with no times on, then closing the beer tent early (I think it was 9.30pm) "because we don't want people making a noise in the garden, but you can buy a beer from the bar and bring it into the garden if you want".

Erm, some error in logic there?

:))

[MadWorld74]

I was in The Herne last night, and they had no draught beer because the gas was not working or something. We had two glasses of wine, one of which I took back because it was quite clearly 'off'. The place was a mess and stunk of farts/sewage/general nastyness. The selection of really bad furniture made the place look shoddy and there were tiny flies everwhere that were getting stuck on the split beer that covered most of the tables.

Shame because the manager there seems to break his back to keep things on an even keel. The staff who all seem to be very young, adopt this attitude of 'couldn't really give a toss'. As I said, shame.

[prince77]

My name is Chris and i am the manager of the Herne Tavern and have been for the past year and half. im going to comment on the opening article on this page but first id like to say i am very passionate about the business and the service we provide to our costomers and i beleive i push this passion onto my staff. I also understand that sometimes our service over the weekends can bit a little slow however take it from me, there is only a handful of restaurants/pubs in the area that serve fresh homemade food, cooked to order.

You stated that you waited one hour for your food however the kitchen checks prove otherwise infact 25 minutes, which yes i agree is far to long. The error we made was not to inform you that we were busy, which we were i might add (80 covers from which 60 of those were pre bookings), for this i appologies.

The guests in the function room were also over the moon with the fun day they had, and the service. The host informed me they would recommend the pub to others so im not sure who you spoke to.....

I will add one point though, we do get very busy here over the weekends now and i always recommend people to pre book. We have had alot of good press recently and i am proud of my staff for that. The reason for my response is that these quotes do upset me still and i try to make sure everyone has had a good day, great food or fantastic service. 99% of my customers have had these experiences.

Oh by the way i do appologies for the lack of beer last night, my gasogen system went down and there was really nothing i could do, sorry... all back on now though!!

Kind regards

[MadWorld74]

Can you please give the pub a scrub down, and get rid of those awful 'catering chairs' that you have in the front bar. The place generally looks dirty.And the toilets....boy oh boy.

[Marmora Man]

I ate at the Herne tonight and spoke to Chris after my meal - he said he had seen the criticism and would respond, as he has above.

Our food and service were of high quality - both our waitress and the manager (Chris) checked out our satisfaction regularly. The Sea Bass and steak were both excellent. There were no extended waits for drinks or food. In the past the staff have always been very helpful with my disabled father-in-law and his wheelchair - we have never had a bad meal there.

If I were to be critical I would recommend better table cleaning between meals (ours was a bit sticky) and encouraging smokers not to congregate at the entrance - making a fog of cigarette smoke to walk thru' on entering the pub. No comment on toilets - we were close to home!

However, we like the Herne, eat there fairly regularly and always recommend it to others. Our guests, from Spain, were impressed with food, wine and service.

[MadWorld74]

You obviously do not have high culinery standards Manora Man.

[JoeChuff]

hyacinth bucket

[Moos]

I like the Herne, and have had some pleasant and tasty lunches there. Can I have low culinary standards too please, MW74?

Without downplaying the reports of Mellors and others - after all, commenting on local businesses is one of the things that the forum is for, I think - I think it's good that Chris has come on and responded to the criticisms made.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Indeed Moos - it's always a Good Thing when local businesses engage I reckon.

The Herne is a leeetle bit out of my way compared to other pubs but I still like to pop in there from time to time. I have experienced delays in food as well to be honest but the food itself has always been spot on

Can't comment on the ladies loo but the men's is fine - charmingly old-school if I was in the right mood (although I know some ladies can be more particular about these things which is fair enough)

Several bars in the area can smell of bleach early in the shift in my experience - it's not unique to the Herne that's for sure. PLus it was a great forum drinks night there a couple of months back

[Mellors]

Hi Chris, thanks for responding. I shall know now to book for next time, as I said, I like the place, and the food is good, its just the service that irritates me (and I have no idea about the timing discrepancy - maybe my husband was having a couple of sneaky pints instead!). Its been fine when I've been during the week, but weekends always seem to be a struggle in the kitchen.

I think a good start would be giving customers a reasonable pre-estimate of how long the food will take to come if you are busy, so you set expectations accordingly. Saying that it won't be long, when specifically asked, and then it taking ages is bound to end in frustration all round.

Hopefully you can take the criticism constructively - its a shame to lose business because people never say anything when they are unhappy.

[Siduhe]

Kudos to Chris for coming on and responding in a helpful and measured way.

However, if he's in the mood for feedback - I would have to add myself to the list of people who've tried the Herne and won't be rushing back for the reasons mentioned above. Not only the 35 min delay in receiving our food (we'd booked a table on a fairly quiet Wednesday evening) but the quality of the service we received when we tried to explain to the waitress that the meals she had plonked down in front of us were in fact for the next table (who had ordered about 15 mins after us). A simple acknowledgment or apology would have been nice, and an offer to check on where our order was would have been great. Instead, the food got plonked on the right table and she walked off to the bar to tell her friend how hungover she was. This was about six months ago, so I don't know if that waitress is still there, but more than anything she's the reason we haven't tried it again. The food was great by the way, but the overall experience left us cold.

[DaveR]

"I also understand that sometimes our service over the weekends can bit a little slow however take it from me, there is only a handful of restaurants/pubs in the area that serve fresh homemade food, cooked to order......The error we made was not to inform you that we were busy, which we were i might add (80 covers from which 60 of those were pre bookings), for this i appologies"

This is the nub of it, I guess. If you set out serve fresh food cooked to order, and you have a decent size place, you have to be set up to deliver, and that means enough staff, proper organisation etc. It's not good enough to say to customers "we're busy, there will be a long wait", especially if this happens every weekend lunch time (which in my experience at The Herne it does, whether you have booked or not).

[Michael Palaeologus]

I guess that gets to the heart of it. 10 out of 10 for responding to the thread BUT - come on, if you know you have 60 bookings and will have more passing trade - get some more staff booked in. The big booking would give positive feedback as they were the people that the staff were focused on, not the rest of the clients. The problem is that those who got a good service may tell afew people over a short period of time; those who got bad service will tell many people over an extended period of time. Thus a short term gain will turn into a long term loss.

[Toshlines]

Hello.

I've been there lots. I've taken various relatives there (most recently two weeks ago) and had most of my friends visit from various part of London for the recent beer festival (which seemed pretty successful - my one complaint is that it finished too early). I would have done neither if the place was anything less than completely reliable. The service, beer and food has never been anything less than excellent, even when the staff are clearly rushed off their feet. It does get busy, especially at weekends, mainly because it is extraordinarily child friendly (it has baby changing facilities in the men's toilets, for example). I have recommended this place lots and would not hesitate to do so again.

I am unable to reconcile the pub I feel lucky to live near with the place described in this thread. I'm having a barbecue this weekend, and if the weather's rubbish, I'll take all my guests to the Herne. Mainly to annoy the malcontents above, but safe in the knowledge that I'm pretty darn sure I can rely on it. Ner.

[bignumber5]

haven't ever ordered food in the herne, so can't comment, but have always found the staff cheerful and friendly when ordering the beers, even when they look busy and hassled. Also, top marks for the guv'nor for responding above - nice to see.

will be in at some point for a burger as an anonymous-mystery-shopper-type ;-)

As a point of curiosity, how long is too long to wait for pub-grub, in the opinion of the forum? I seem to find myself thinking of a quality.vs.time trade off - standards can slip if served in 10mins, after that I reckon I find myself with the "it'd better be worth the wait" attitude.

[david_carnell]

Aye precisely BN5. We're all used to going to Wetherspoons-esque establishments where 5-10mins after you've ordered out pops your pie or curry or whatever.

There's only one of doing this and that's being a microwave/fat-fryer-jockey. All this pre-made in-a-bag slop that passes for food these days. You wonder why 'Spoons can still make a profit on a ?4.99 curry with all the trimmings? You don't want to know.

I'd rather an establishment took a little more time and gave me a plate of decent, freshly cooked food than the above example.

Hopefully the Herne will take note of the desire for more, better motivated staff and continue serving what seems-to-be, much admired cuisine.

And hats off to to Chris for bothering to respond.