There are days (in fact there have been a few of them just lately) when I wonder what I'm doing in this job. When something so horrid and awful just makes me want to A: be sick and then B) pack a bag and dissapear. Please read this from an anonymous contributor to Trip Advisor:
“Dire. Ghastly over friendly landlady, service station tables and chairs and poor quality re-heated pub food.”
The Victoria Inn
Wodehouse9 1 contribution
London, United Kingdom
Jul 24, 2010
If you enjoy sharing your meal with the smells of wet dogs and chickens and accompanied by screaming children then this is the place for you. Awful over friendly and intrusive landlady has spoilt what was once a great, traditional, fishing village pub.The decor is now of the typical bland pub chain type where terrible tables and chairs have now appeared in the restaurant upstairs. The landlady comes from Portsmouth local government so that will give an indication of the quality to expect when it comes to decor and food. Overpriced and mass produced food that had clearly been re-heated, in the case of the lamb and vegetables many times, is being passed off as some sort of new gourmet experience. Is it necessary to plonk frozen oven-chips on everything? Mind you, they obviously came from the same supermarket freezer cabinet as the puddings. Avoid anything on the menu that contains the words "scrummy" or "yummy" - yes it is that sort of place. Slow service and staff who have obviously been trained to smile but who are pretty clue-less at explaining either the food on offer, other than "It comes with chips", or the wine list, other than to point to the most expensive one rather desperately. Great shame as this used to be a great pub in the old days when it was run as a pub and not as some sort of theme park for the masses. Avoid at all costs.
Now then counter balancing that is this review:
“The above person is talking rubbish...”
The Victoria Inn
OOdevon 3 contributions
Salcombe
Jul 26, 2010
The Victoria (Burners to the locals) has filled a big gap in the Salcombe market, namely providing for families, hence the chickens, play area etc...if you have kids they will absolutely love this place! Liz the landlady is a star and the place is regularly packed during peak times.The summer BBQ is excellent value and again the kids will love it.To top it all the beer garden is about the only place in Salcombe that gets the evening sun! So as parents you can enjoy a cold beer and relax safe in the knowledge your kids are enjoying themselves and won't come to any harm.You don't go to this place expecting Gordon Ramsey style food, just good simple pub food.
I'm very thankful to 00Devon for writing that to re-dress the comments (again, whoever he or she is) but all I can see and read is the first review...... and the worst of it is that I have absolutely no right of reply in an open forum.
Where we've spent so much of our own personal money re-decorating the pub and making the garden so lovely, where all of our food is home made and cooked from fresh, my staff are wonderful and well trained, and me personally - well I love what I do (or it's starting to feel like did!) and we work our socks off regularly working a 15 - 17 hour day - do you know how it feels tonight to read something like that?
As I sit here tonight tired and stressed from another exceptionally long hard day and now having shed more than a few tears all I can sit and wonder is why am I bothering?????
WHY?????????
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6 comments:
Oh, what a wretch of a critic.....a pox on him.
Try not to pay attention to such negative poison.....so hurtful and so unwarrnted, I am sure.
I have visited Salcombe and of course the lovely Victoria Inn, the person who posted this must be in a different world or pub! Tim and Liza and all of their staff always make everyone feel extremely welcome. The pub is a delight and the choice, quality of food is great, would recommend this to everyone, go prove that strange reviewist wrong!
Always worth remembering - we will never please all of the people all of the time, so long as we concentrate of pleasing most of the people most of the time.
Life has many knock downs - we just get stronger when we have to climb back up again,
Don't go giving up just because of one anonymous comment. The problem with (and, sometimes, the advantage of!) the Internet is that it allows everyone to think they can be the next AA Gill.
You do need a bit of a thick skin to do this job, but I tend to think that people who write negative reviews without having first taken their grievances to the business' manager/owner are the ones who are thin-skinned, not you.
Chin up.
Firstly a huge thank you to you for your comments and they are alongside literally dozens that I have had from other frineds and colleagues.
I was really so upset because it was such an insulting slur on me personally - and the complaint itself was of no substance.
I'm hugely hot on customer service and deal with complaints as and when they happen - and of course they do, as you can't do over a 1000 covers a week and please 100% of those customers.
However, Trip Advisor have given me the key to right of reply to this review - I hope I've kept it within their guidlelines - it just remains to be seen as to whether they will print it......
Thanks once again - the sun is shining today in the sky and in my head!!
Liz x
We come down a few times each year to Salcombe and you always recognise us and welcome us to your extremely busy pub! We have brought friends in and everyone has enjoyed their meal and the jolly atmosphere. Dont change. We have had meals downstairs, upstairs and outside. The guy is just an a**e! You dont need him - we all prove him wrong!
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