My night at the King Harry

Ok, let's set the scene. Firstly, I know a few pubs in St Albans. If you follow me on twitter you know that with my wife, my boys, my dad, my friends, my work mates, my clients I spend a bit of time in the pubs of St Albans. I also know a few landlords. The best pubs in St Albans at the moment are the White Hart Tap and the Verulam Arms.

My local pub (the nearest pub to my house) is the King Harry.

For the following reasons I don't go to the King Harry.

1. It used to have an anti-child policy.

2. The people that used to run it were jokers!

3. I never felt that if I went in there every day for year, my loyalty would ever be respected.

4. As a pub / restaurant it never did either very well.

However, recently it changed hands again and last night we took the chance to "test" their new menu. This is the good and bad from my 3 hours last night.

Bad.

1. They didn't have our booking. To be fair, they found us a table by the door even though they were fully booked. However, 10 mins after that a table arrived on the other side of the room. They didn't offer to move us.

2. They only had 2 staff members front of house. Mental, considering they knew they were fully booked. With 3m + unemployed, surely they could have found someone to clear the tables.

3. They seemed to think that due to the fact that our main courses were free due to road testing the menu, we should be grateful. I did explain that if the food and service was better I would of quite happily paid the £8.95 for my food.

4. The fish cakes tasted like they had very little fish in them.

5. I had to wait 15 mins to order.

6. I have no idea how long it took for my food to arrive. I considered buying crisps to keep me going.

7. It took 45 mins for them to clear our table after we had finished our main course. However, I had to ask for this.

8. We were never asked if we wanted anything else. Desserts, coffee, more wine. You might have got another £20 / £30 out of me.

9. The staff seemed very happy their pub was full for a January. You were giving away free food, of course you were going to be busy. Good luck in February by the way!

10. Looking around the restaurant I noticed 4 other tables complaining. Delays to food, communication and service seemed to be the key.

11. Road testing a menu seems like a good idea. However, we were not asked once what we thought of the menu, the food, the experience. We didn't have to fill in a form or give any feedback. No data capture at all. Seems a very expensive process with no information to improve or move forward.

12. I paid for my additional food and drinks. After I had done this, I explained that I would be writing a review on this site - this met with the same disinterest.

13. Didn't have my first choice of main dish, or our first choice of wine.

Good

1. The chips are good.

2. I saw some friends in there, which was a nice surprise. They didn't like the fish cakes either.

3. A night out with Mrs Bigg, is always a great night... Regardless!

That was about it!

Now, The reason for writing this review is not having a go at the King Harry. I am not looking for another "Free" meal. It will once again take a lot for me to go back in my local. Decide if you are a pub or restaurant and do one of these things well. If you want to do both, get more staff and learn from others, who have it nailed. For now, I am quite happier to walk the additional 10 mins into St Albans. It is just a shame and maybe why I feel so strongly about this, because this could be a cracking pub!