The afternoon tea at The Hotel Du Vin Tunbridge wells was not a good experience. After being shown to our table, we were told that the menus had not yet been printed and they would be with us when they had. When the waiter returned he said he was unable to print them, so he told us what the Xmas afternoon tea consisted of.
We ordered our drinks and when they were served to us we were then told that the afternoon tea wasn’t going to be the one we had just been told about, it was going to be their normal one. We were then given a menu with the description of sandwich fillings and cakes and scones that would be served. We did ask for the children to have no pickle on their cheese sandwiches, which they did manage to do.
When the food arrived there were no ham sandwiches as described by the waiter, no Bakewell tarts (on the menu) and no scones. We assumed the scones would be served after the sandwiches and cakes on a separate plate. We asked where the Bakewell tarts were (our son was particularly keen for it to be served as it’s a favourite of his) the waiter apologised and went to the kitchen to get them. He returned to say sorry, the chef isn’t happy with them so won’t be serving them. Ok that happens. We ordered some
more drinks as we were finishing the cakes and sandwiches. Still no scones. We thought maybe we should ask about them as we’d been there for a long time (70mins) and had finished the food that had been served. We asked the waiter could we please have our scones now to finish off with the drinks we had just ordered? The waiter returned to say he was very sorry but the chef says there are no scones!
Not only was the service slow and completely disorganised, but the kitchen clearly wasn’t prepared for our afternoon tea booking. The waiter seemed to be completely embarrassed about what was happening and told us that the chef would be covering the cost of our afternoon tea as it was their mess up.
We appreciated the apology from the waiter on behalf of the chef but felt considering it was the chef that really mucked up, it should be them apologising and not the waiter.
It was a booking made to celebrate a birthday. Unfortunately it was a big disappointment. You don’t expect to go for afternoon tea and be told part way through, sorry we don’t have any scones!
This was my first experience at this hotel and it will be my last. I will not be returning. The service and quality of food was poor and failed to live up to expectations. It was very disappointing.
