Pub food in the UK is RUBBISH. And so is the service. So why tf do we tolerate it? Or are your local pubs better?

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Dh and I were starving at midday today so decided to find a pub for lunch.

We found a local, sweet looking thatched pub with a lovely garden and ordered

"lamb with a local honey glaze, rosemary roast potatoes and veg
beef with yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes and vegetables
and, for dd, thai style fish cakes, garlic bread, vegetables and new potatoes

The pub was empty when we ordered but when I asked where the food was, 45 minutes later I was told by a spotty teenager that 'we're busy you know' whereupon I pointed out that a) they were empty when I ordered and b) if they'd have said 'is 45 minutes ok?' I'd have said NO. So it came 2 minutes later. Hmm. A supposedly rare roast beef was grey. The roast potates were as black as the earth in my garden, the broccoli was yellow, the cauli was solid, the lamb was not even worthy of cutting open, the garlic bread was burnt, I wouldn't have fed any of it to a dog, let alone people.

On complaining I was told they couldn't refund my card (wtf?) so I got back (in surly fashion, no apology!) £27 of a £48 bill because I said we ought to pay for dd's fishcakes, which we took with us (vile but she was eating them, £5) and our drinks, (2 glasses of white wine and 2 pints of Guiness) despite the fact that we left 1 large glass of wine and 1 pint of Guiness because we were famished and needed to GO SOMEWHERE ELSE to eat IMMEDIATELY. So, for £48 we would have had:
2 shite mains (£9.95 and £10.95 respectively)
2 glasses of wine
2 pints of Guiness
a starter portion of fishcakes and veg, potatoes and garlic bread for dd

On going into our local Indian restaurant ten minutes after leaving rubbish pub we got 2 fantastic main courses (king prawn karai and lamb tawa gost), a keema pilau rice, 2 chapatis, 2 samosas, popadums, a bottle of Chablis, hot flannels, complimentary Baileys/Brandy because we're regulars, mini chocolates for dd, fantastic service and a thank you as we left.

So it's reminded me why we don't usually do pub lunches.

Why do pubs think they can get away with this shite?
Do you do pub lunches?
Are they better?
When will they be out of existence because people stop paying for it?
Or will people laways think shite food is ok because it's served in the garden of a thatched cottage?

I have had some crap pub food in the past, but where we are now we have two pubs within a 5 min walk and both are very good - with great food. One is a chain and one isn't.

In fact the steaks at the closest of the two are some of the nicest I've ever tasted! 28 day hung beef

Write in and complain - it will only get better if people are prepared to make a fuss and not put up with them when they try to serve crap!

Oh - I see that you did complain! Well done!

The key phrase in your post is "The pub was empty when we ordered", that should have been a warning. Some pubs to great food, you can tell which ones they are because they are always packed to the rafters.

Still bad though and annoying that they didn't offer to refund the drinks that you were leaving.

Interesting re the the Indian restaurant being much better.
My DHs family are Indian and they do not tolerate poor food or poor service. They will complain , not pay etc, if something is not good,and they cannot stand paying too much money for a meal.
I think we don't complain enough, and we seem to have this culture that if you describe something as beautifully as possible on the menu you can serve up complete shite.

Our local is crap. But there a a fabbo pub that does real food about 10 mins drive from us.

Not part of a chain, totaly independent

oh I've been to some duff Indians with rude staff

very 'reputable' ones as well

some pub food good, some not. Some Indian good, some not. Some Mexican, etc etc etc etc

but if indian is crap, it will have mainly english customers(or none) and if good mainly indian.

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i think we let a lot of restaurants get away with serving overpriced crap
we must complain more and demand moeny back for inedible food

our beefeater is really nice.

I have only eaten in one pub that i hav'nt compained too about the food.
Most pub food is crap, i have worked in a few pubs and most of the kitchens are tiny, not enough room to swing a cat let alone make a meal. Most pub food is frozen and microwaved crap.

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We are an independent pub. Current chef is best ever - all food cooked from fresh ( but we buy in chips and bread). We really, really try to provide excellent service. Sometimes when customers order at the bar on a hot day they think it is really quiet because there is no-one else at the bar but fail to realise there are 40, 50 or 60 people sitting in the gardens. It just looks quieter than it would if those same customers were all inside.
I'm sorry you had such a grim experience at lunch today. I'd like to think our customers fared better.

all our local pubs have 'gone gastro' in the last few years, so while the food undeniably is on the whole nicer, it's flippin' expensive. But i have to say service is definitely better, and as it's a much nicer experience.

Of course, they all look the same though, with almost identical menus too, and you could forget which you were in.

• and it's a much nicer experience

darrell that only works if you have an indian population in your area to speak of

if you don't there're gonna be predominantly English customers whether it's good or not

Capp, of course some pub food is ok and of course some Indian food is crap, I don't disagree. But the pub we went to was shite and the Indian we go to is consistently good.

The pub we went to was rubbish AND full. Amazing. Interesting all this stuff about microwaves etc. I don't have a problem with 30 mins if it means stuff is freshly prepared. But blimey, I could prepare a lot of stuff from scratch and cook it in less time and it would be delicious.

I suppose I'm amazed that people are prepared to pay and eat food that is so completely awful I consider it inedible.

redsky, that sounds lovely, not at all like the place we went to. I'd have loved a gastro experience, I was starving and looking forward to my food.

Mind you, I am crap at drinking at lunchtime and wouldn't normally do it, I just spent 2 hours asleep on the sofa.

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Pubs depend mostly on the brewery they are run by - or not.

DP was House Manager in a Whitbread pub for many years and all their pubs order their food from Brakes which is frozen crap. Bog standard for an awful lot of breweries unfortunately. Very cheap for the brewery.

WWW you have agood point about a 30min wait for something that is clearly from Brakes or 3663 frozen foods . Probably only one spotty teenager in the kitchen frantically microwaving stuff!
It is ridiculous that the frozen food is cheaper than freshly-made, do you think the chefs get paid the same?

Def not all pubs - can think of one that does great home cooked food and others that do good sandwiches/snacky things. Just avoid gastropubs - overpriced, weird combinations and crap food. Tip: if the menu has the word 'jus' on it, run a mile

I had a lovely pub meal last week although we were amused at my sister's side salad with her steak which was half a tomato.

Thats terrible www. Indian sounded lovely.

We dont do pub lunches purely because of people smoking around the children but we have said when the ban comes into affect we will go more often.
We dont like the chain places because its all samey frozen crap.

There are a handful of independant pubs which are lovely and serve proper fresh homemade food that we have been to on our own.
We actually live next to our local pub. It is a lovely pub, very villagey and friendly but the food they serve is utter shite. Its just frozen rubbish and you can tell.
We've had alot of people tell us that people that have owned the pub havent stayed long because it isnt successful.
I think if they served proper decent food and changed their menus once in a while, they'd be overrun with customers.

Good pubs are a dying breed IMO.

I have worked in a pub kitchen

Probably was one person frantically microwaving things on his own - and he will be on his own all the time, and cannot necessarily cook at all I certainly couldn't, and apart from steak, was only requited to make sure the food looked ok and was hot ebough - nobody gave a flying duck what it tasted like - nobody in charge of me anyway.

added to this, the pingchef is probably on the minimum wage, fed up of split shifts, and doesn't care about their job anymore because their job is so crap nobody else will do it, so they know they won't get sacked

Even the omelettes are microwaved in some placed - not beaten from eggs, but unwrapped and microwaved!