We'd been to the Clissold before – just after it opened in its present form. The service was so awful that we didn't return until last weekend – friends persuaded us that it had improved.

We called in advance to check that there was a kids menu – we were told that they had penne, sausages and “things like that”. So we booked a table for 4 adults and 2 kids.

On arrival we were offered a table outside with “a limited menu” or a table inside in the large room nearest the road – it was empty, but we were told that lots of people would be arriving later. In fact, in the just under 2 hours we were in the Clissold, no other guests appeared and the 6 of us ate alone.

My wife ordered a glass of the house Viognier. We were told that they hadn't chilled it yet (this at 7pm on a warm Saturday evening) and could she order something else.

We asked for the kids menu. It turned out there wasn't one – they could have either penne with butter, tomato or another sauce. Or they could have sausage & mash. That was it. It turns out that when we were told that the kids menu had penne, sausages and “things like that” on it, what they meant was that kids could have penne or sausage & mash.

One of us ordered fish cake with a side order of, to quote Squaremeal.com, “possibly the best chips in the world”. “Sorry we don't have any chips”, we were told. Surely not, we said. Its just after 7pm.

At this point, we called the Maitre D' over.

It turns out they did they did have chips, but because they had 160 covers that evening, they were only serving “possibly the best chips in the world” with dishes that specified chips on the menu. NOT as a side dish.

So in a near empty restaurant at just after 7pm on a Saturday night, we couldn't have chips in case somebody wanted them later.

This is running a restaurant Faulty Towers style.

I could go on, but I'm sure you get the picture. The Clissold is a shambles.

It doesn't matter what the food was like (it was OK). The lack of organisation ruins the whole… More