Brewers Fayre

paul2468

Watch out when you go for a meal at a Brewers Fayre we got charged £3.70 for two small glasses of coke....Daylight robbery.....it makes me so angry....you go to the States or Canada and all refills are free, it costs you an arm and a leg over here esp when you have a few kids.

ManAtHome

That's bad - I know soft drinks are normally more expensive than booze (presumably costs them a fortune to take the alcohol out or something), but even then you'd get a couple of pints of the stuff for that in my local.

paul2468

Pint for pint it works out more expensive than petrol.....and thats saying something !

wobbley

Makes me laugh. They tell you not to drink & drive then you get ripped off on soft drinks!

vtmil

I would go to brewers fayre again anyway... had the most awful meal- paid £10.50 for a mixed grill which tasted of nothing, and the toilets were disgusting too!! i complained to head office who passed it on to the restaurant in question, and have nver heard anthing back! won't be going again!!

Pennywise

Brewsters/Brewers Fayre are today's version of Little Chef a few years ago. They started out well enough but have seriously deteriorated in the last couple of years.

It's all down to the useless staff they employ and the "alleged" managers who are simply staff who have been there longer than anyone else so attract the term "manager" regardless of any personal ability - just those too lazy to find a job anywhere else.

The last (and final) time we went to one, I had to wait 20 minutes at the till to order despite there being no-one in front of me in the queue. Waiting and bar staff kept passing by but couldn't serve because "they weren't trained in the till". I asked for the manager, but he never appeared. When someone finally arrived, she apologised and said she'd been on her break and she was the only person there who'd been "till trained". The queue must have been for about 15 tables when she finally got back.

The time before, we had our DS's birthday party there. I have never seen mor sulky, disinterested, lazy, useless staff ever before. They were supposed to be there to help the party along, but just couldn't think for themselves and did absolutely nothing. We had to chase them for absolutely everything - there was no pro-activity at all. No straws for the drinks, no napkins, no balloons, no party bags. Everything we had been promised was a struggle to get.

The time before that, our meal took nearly 2 hours to arrive and then was mostly burnt beyond recognition.

I'm afraid, it's three strikes and you're out with us. We won't be going to any more. My prediction is for Brewsters/Brewers Fayres to start closing (just like Little Chefs) in the next couple of years.

RightRevBod

These things are variable. We have two Brewers Fayres close to our home. One we go to every two weeks or so, and they tend to be excellent. On one occasion, I made a point of seeking out the manager to praise a particular member of staff who had gone out of his way to be helpful.

The other we have been to once in the past year, and are not intending to go back to for a very long time. 80 minutes delay to bring the food, and then one of the childrens meals was wrong. Called the manager over three times on that visit. We ended up only paying about half of the bill that day.

ManAtHome

Not all down to 'useless' staff - I know quite a few people who work for big 'pubco' chains (really property companies), and they're all being squeezed for sales and costs. Typical scenario is "we've put the targets up by 10% and reduced staff and consumable costs by 10%" - makes us and our shareholders much more dosh. And the usual answer to any compromise in customer service is "we pay you to manage" - even this is untrue in most cases, the real answer being "we pay you a salary so you can work extra hours for nowt".

You'll often get better service if the staff are relatively new - not easy to keep the enthusiasm going (generally on or barely above minimum wage) for a long time under the continual "we need more profit" regime.

JasonLVC

For years I used to order cokes as I'm mainly tee-total. But I saw the price of soft drinks ever rising so about four years ago I switched to drinking lager shandy.

It's actually cheaper to have a pint of shandy than it is to have a small coke so the big pub chains have actually turned me to alcohol.

I know you can't give booze to a baby so when I'm out with the little one I ask for a pint of soda water and a dash of orange squash and that usually works out about £1.00 - and a pint lasts a long time with a three year old + 1 straw!. Just as good as a tango or Fanta, cheaper, less sugar/chemicals too.

black-saturn

You should write to them with your concerns:

http://www.brewersfayre.co.uk/Contactus/

Any place that does cheap deals on food such as 2 for 1 or cheap meals at certain times of the day will charge more than normal for drinks. They also know you are a captive audience due to the cheap food so they know you will pay for them. The answer could be to have a drink just before you go out and when you get back in, but not while your there.

I went there once and had the chewiest piece of steak I've ever eaten. I complained and got the price of the meal back.

nickinoo

My local Brewers Fayre seems to employ a lot of dimwits, my daughter attended a kids party there & when we asked if there was a veggie option for her on the buffet we were told "yes, ham sandwiches & fishfingers", now I know a lot of people for some bizarre reason think fish is acceptable to vegetarians but ham?! The mind boggles!! She ended up with chips & the cucumber & tomato salad garnish off the plates of junk food.