I once attended a large, semi-formal dinner with somewhere around 100 guests.
The venue tried silver service (basically individual serving). Fine in a major town-centre restaurant designed and staffed to operate that way, but not in a modestly-sized rural hotel. The waiters did their best but it was hopeless. I think you need at least two to each table of six or eight for silver service, and all tables staffed at once, but they could not provide that level.
The management apologised, reduced the bill a lot, and promised better if the organisation returned the following year (but probably accepted it might not). In fact it did go back, with around the same number of diners, and this time the service was very good.
The quality of the food was not in question. That was high for both meals, but when you are still waiting for vegetables to accompany the portion of meat now nearly cold, whole other diners are about ready for their dessert, it spoils the evening for you.
.......
The leat-value I've had, apart from something from the Mactuckyburgercostalotta outfits on the motorways, was in a rural pub whose previous owners (I think it was a free house) had run it really well.
The new owners, in business some months later than hoped, had made the place about as soul-less as the "M...lotta" motorway services caffs. It seemed no longer a road-side "local" catering for passing trade too: no longer a pool table, skittle-alley (as far as I could tell), dart-board, etc. There were still bits of unfinished work about but at least they had renewed the decrepit toilets. They had only one cask ale on, but that was kept and served well.
Steak-&-ale pie, chips and veg. Can't go wrong. Yes you can.
The pie was quite good but in a ramikin the size of a tea-mug. The chips were spindly, thin things like those motorway-services apologies for chips, and served not on the warm plate but in a stainless-steel teaspoon-drainer so they cooled rapidly. I could not identify the one vegetable: the single scoop of pale-orange mash with little flavour, could have been carrot or parsnip.
Dessert: Tiramisu? Can't go wrong - they'd only buy catering-slabs and cut them into portions. Indeed, they had, and it was quite tasty.... but served on a piece of roofing-slate! Why?
The till receipt bore the company name: www.poshpub.co. Says it all....
Some months later it closed again. It re-opened months on again under new ownership, with a big bright web-site and new name (I wish they'd not do that); but before I could sample it, it too closed rather unexpectedly. Then Covid hit.
It was "For Sale" for very long time, the sale-sign came down but there was no sign of life there for many months; but something's happening there again. I hope the brewery vans I saw there recently were delivering, not simply recovering equipment. I await with interest.....
