The Old Hall always used to be that place you went for a special occasion. It had a great reputation for high quality silver service - I had my 30th birthday there and it was a real treat. It has changed hands a few times in the last 20 years and most recently was renovated a few months ago. The aim was to move away from the pre-booked special occasion type of dining to a more informal walk in off the street style instead, so myself and 2 girlfriends thought we'd give it a try.
We booked the table for 8pm and arrived just before to find no staff to greet us or to show us to our table. In fact we wandered round aimlessly for a few minutes looking to see if any of the tables had "reserved" on them.
Finally a young slip of a girl came out of a door (a bit like the shopkeeper in Mr Benn!) and the first thing from her mouth was " just sit anywhere" - a "Hello, Good evening" might have been nice!
We turned and walked into what we thought to be the restaurant , we then heard "No not in there" by the same girl .... at which point I did turn and say that she had told us to sit anywhere.
We weren't asked if we had booked, just herded like sheep into a nearby room.
We were shown to a table that was reserved for 5 people which confused us and were going to sit down until one of my friends noticed ants on the floor by this table, needless to say we asked to sit somewhere else.
We chose a table away from the ants and were brought a menu - hardly extensive and as it was Good Friday I was expecting a fish dish to at least be a "special" but no such luck. I didn't see any "specials" at all.
We ordered drinks .... my Hendricks came with no ice to speak of, flat tonic and no garnish of any kind let alone cucumber! My friends large Shiraz came in a gin bowl!
We paid for the drinks and decided that we would go elsewhere to eat as the service, ants, and lack of any substance on the menu left us feeling we had little choice but to leave. There was no apology, no question of why we weren't eating .... all very shoddy really.
Needless to say I shall not be returning to The Old Hall again, nor will I be recommending it to others.
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