Beefeater Avis 

£152 Spent on a Meal, Followed by a £170 Parking Demand – Disgraceful Treatment of Paying Customers

I have visited Beefeater restaurants on numerous occasions over the years, but after my recent experience at the restaurant attached to Premier Inn in Scunthorpe, I will certainly think twice before returning.

I was visiting friends who were staying at the Premier Inn. I had originally intended to stay at the hotel myself for two nights, but due to a wedding taking place, I was unable to secure accommodation for the second night and had to stay elsewhere.

That evening, I returned to the hotel to join my friends for a meal at the Beefeater restaurant. There were eight of us dining, and our bill came to £152.

Unfortunately, I did not notice the signage requiring customers to register their vehicle registration numbers, nor did any member of the restaurant staff mention this requirement when we arrived or during our meal.

Some time later, I received a £100 parking charge.

I appealed, explaining that I had been a genuine paying customer of the restaurant. I provided the full names of two of the guests who were staying at the hotel and details of our £152 restaurant bill. All of this information could easily have been verified.

I received no notification that my appeal had been rejected. Instead, the next correspondence I received was from a debt collection agency, demanding £170.

I find this absolutely disgraceful.

How can a restaurant justify allowing a genuine customer, who has spent a considerable amount of money dining on its premises, to be pursued for £170 simply because they failed to register their vehicle?

Surely restaurant staff should make customers aware of such an important requirement, particularly when failing to comply can result in such a substantial financial penalty.

I appreciate that parking enforcement may be managed by a third-party company, but that does not absolve the restaurant or hotel of responsibility for the experience of their paying customers.

We spent £152 on a meal, and I am now being pursued for a further £170 simply for parking while dining there. That is £322 associated with what should have been an enjoyable evening with friends.

If necessary, I fully intend to challenge the parking charge in court. I will not simply surrender to what I consider to be unreasonable and intimidating debt collection practices.

Beefeater and Premier Inn need to seriously reconsider how genuine customers are treated under these parking arrangements. A simple reminder from restaurant staff to register my vehicle would have prevented this entire situation.

After years of being a customer, this experience has completely undermined my confidence in both brands.

My advice to anyone considering dining here: be extremely careful about the parking arrangements. Your restaurant bill may turn out to be considerably more expensive than you expected.

Beefeater, The Haywain, Fobbing. We have been here on many many occasions and 8 times out of 10 the food has been reasonable., but because the restaurant is closing down next week to outside customers we decided to have a last meal there. How I wish we hadn't, my food was awful. The starter of chicken goujons was good, my main course of Fillet Steak was dreadful. Despite having a steak knife, this would not cut through the steak. When I did manage to cut a piece off, it was unchewable so unfortunately I had to send it back. It had a lot of grissle. The waitress offered to get me another meal but this time I got the ribeye steak but unfortunately, again this also had to go back, it was completely inedible so I ended not eating. The waitress explained that they can't inspect the food they received so I ended up not having anything to eat. They removed both my meals from the bill, but I don't go out for a meal to get a refund. The actual menu was negligible, not much choice but as they are only going to feed hotel residents going forward all I can say is god help them. Short of staff which has been the norm for the past couple of years, excessive price increases for mediocre food. Maybe whitbread should change their supplier!!!!. Altogether a very very disappointing visit

Arrived at Harlow Mill Beefeater at 11:45. Abruptly informed that service did not start until 12:00. Asked if we could get a drink, no not until 12:00. Not offered a menu or anything. At 12:15 no sign of any staff and multiple people coming in. Left and when to an excellent restaurant across the road which opened at 12:30. Food and drink in Coho fabulous and much better value for money. No wonder Beefeater going out of business, if the staff are anything like today Fri 21 Aug in Harlow. Appalling behaviour and will never darken their doors again. People use Coho you will not be disappointed.

My daughter and I went to The Coldra, lovely atmosphere (except for a child screaming) sat ordered drinks which arrived fairly quickly. Left for sometime before anyone came and took our order, 8oz rump steak cooked medium-well done and chicken & ribs. The steak arrived and it was medium, sent it back new piece of steak cooked. Fair enough to that, arrived exactly the same, sent that back, I believe the cook delivered it basically cooked the edge that had been cut to seal it brown and slapped it on a high heat to look like it had been cooked unfortunately still medium and inedible. The waitress could not have apologised enough but this is/was a steak house, so I would have hoped they knew how to cook a steak. To be fair to the waitress she did take off the meal, so didn't have to pay for it but still have a find a meal for my daughter to eat.

Beefeater Redhill.
OK, so the condition of the (listed) building leaves a lot to be desired but on three mornings that we went for breakfast, the two servers couldn’t have been better. Jackie and Syd are what every restaurant should offer in terms of professionalism, efficiency and the perfect level of friendliness. We can’t believe that the company is going to make them redundant after first getting them to train the next team to come in! Sheer madness!!
The breakfast itself was very acceptable too.

we were turned away today from corby ! hotel stays only very dissapointing as we always use as our favourite eat place so travelled 8 miles put our car reg in to be turned away and the place was vertually empty .. dissapointed !!

We went to the Beefeater Longwall next to the premier inn in Cowley. We ate there twice and were served both times by Colette. What a pleasure to be greeted and served by such a nice waitress. She was friendly welcoming and was brilliant at her job.
In today's world it is so nice to have such good service from a polite friendly lady. You are a credit to your company Collette.

Teresa our waitress was very helpful. It's a shame it is closing because it can't make money.
Food was excellent and the service was good too. Teresa our waitress was very good.

My mom booked to treat family for breakfast at Evesham twyford for 8 people, couldn’t get early time although booked in advance, only could get 10.15am.
When got here we got told from staff member that food would be taken away at 10.30am and we booked late,. I told her it was only booking we could get, she replied we were busy,. So I said it’s fine we will collect our food before then as we had got to restaurant at 10.05am so we don’t mind if food taken at 10.30am.
We had brought with us my nan who is very old school, she wasn’t pleased as most the food was gone so she complained as paying full price with little items available, the worker said she could get more beans and egg and black pudding but can’t get any mushrooms. My nan wasn’t pleased and did have a little moan,. The worker did apologise and my nan then went away with the rest of her food to eat and wait for the other food to be brought out, my mom did apologise to the worker for my nan complaining also.
When my nan sat down she complained to my aunt she wasn’t happy that didn’t have all the food, a worker listening in (my nan wasn’t talking to her and had back to her) then started huffing and puffing then started moaning at my Nan, my Nan has hearing problems (she does talk a little louder) so didn’t hear the worker but my aunt did.
When the food was brought out my nan went up to collect it, I am guessing to two workers had told the manager who was cooking the food, she came out and had a go at my nan who is 84 years old shouting at her, my mom who was next to her had a go back telling the lady that’s my mom your talking to,. To which the lady then said pointing at my Nan she is vile,. And she shouldn’t have to work for little money and put up with this, her very word was “I don’t get paid to take your crap”!
If the manager doesn’t like working on little money then she should find another higher paid job not take her anger out on the customers because she complained about mushrooms,. My nan complained to one lady only that if you pay full price we should have full items we paid for, she complained to one lady and not the manager.
The managers response was very rude and very unprofessional, she was pointing at and treating my nan like a naughty child when my nan had not said anything to her!
When I sat down I noticed my beans had a small black hair in (I have long brown hair) and the plate my toast was on I noticed loads of hairs on which went all in my food so I won’t be returning plus I also don’t like the fact the manager picked on an elderly women because she is short staffed and had to cook food on her own. There is a way to talk to customers and this wasn’t it, the manager acted like a child herself.
Another member of family had a hair in their food also so wasn’t just me which does put you off visiting again as well as managers being allowed to treat customers like crap.

rewards what a rip off points not added customer support about as much use as woodworm in a wooden leg absolutely useless will do do anything to avoid awarding points including deducting points instead of adding them saying points added but not shown in account will not reply to emails.

We had a very disappointing experience at the Applecart Beefeater in Didcot this morning.

We arrived at around 10:45 and were refused a table because we didn’t have a reservation and were told there were only 15 minutes of breakfast service left, despite there being plenty of empty tables.

What makes this even more confusing is that your website still allows customers to book a table for 10:45. If a booking is accepted at that time, why were we turned away?

I’m a regular customer and visit almost every weekend without a reservation, sometimes arriving even later than this, and I’ve never had a problem before.

It genuinely felt like we weren’t given a table simply because the staff didn’t want to seat us. To make matters worse, the attitude from the member of staff was dismissive and disrespectful from the start.

I also can’t help wondering whether the way I was dressed today played a part in how we were treated. I hope that’s not the case, but it’s difficult not to think about it after being turned away while so many tables were empty.

Very disappointing customer service.

I would like to say a big thank you to the admin staff that deal with reward points by using a beefeater card. I emailed as I did not receive my vouchers by email. I received a response within the time advised. I replied as still having issues. All vouchers were emailed to me the next day. All dealt with within in the time advised. Very good service.

Booked the Plough Dover 6 weeks in advance, received a reminder the day before the booking and set off on the day for an hour and a half journey. Half hour into the journey the phone rang to say the booking had been cancelled due to staff shortages that appear to be an ongoing problem there. The manageress offered an insincere apology so I pointed out there are many people unemployed and also agency staff available so no excuse.
Absolutely bad management and the responsible staff deserve to loose their jobs.

The food was good, but the overall experience was ruined by poor customer service and a very disappointing parking situation.
This Beefeater near Dundee has a car park directly in front of the restaurant, but the parking conditions were not made clear enough in my experience. After eating at the restaurant, I received a parking charge, which can be up to £100. This is extremely frustrating and completely unacceptable for a roadside restaurant.
Most restaurants in similar locations provide customer parking for at least two hours. It is a shame that customers can visit, spend money in the restaurant, and then be penalised for using the car park outside.
Honestly, this visit was a waste of time, energy, and money. I would strongly recommend choosing another restaurant with proper and clearly managed customer parking.

14 of us ate at the Telford Beefeater and the system used to take the orders and subsequently pay is truly shocking. It took 45 minutes to sort out the bill and during that time the bar closed, without warning, at 10:00 despite asking, during that time, if another member of staff was available to serve. Subsequently, when we asked to speak to the manager (Will), who had been around all this time but not helping his staff, he refused to take any responsibility for the lack of service and when further questioned he just fell back on the "I'm not talking to you because you're being rude", which we weren't, just somewhat reasonably annoyed. I am so sick of the cop out from service staff who can't answer for their actions without getting offended. Beefeater needs to do better

Visited the Redditch branch for dinner dining. 14/07/26 friendly warm welcome at front desk given a Choice of seating our server Lea was bright cheerful and helpful taking our order. Drinks & food arrived quickly cooled to a good standard. A very enjoyable experience.

Booked breakfast in premier inn as kids love the breki best part of the stay,,, walked in,,, was not asked a time as hotel not full arrived 80 mins before close refused entry as to busy told to get refund. I counted 15 empty tables and so rude,,, kids very upset had to have a maccy d at over twice the cost. Terrible,,, thankfully they be gone soon

Beefeater, Broad St, Halifax HX1 1YA

Totally ruined Father's Day breakfast.........

The behaviour of the manager, was not only entirely unacceptable and offensive, but it also demonstrated a severe lack of basic empathy and a failure to accommodate a guest with a disability.
I arrived ahead of my family and seated myself at a table configured for four people, anticipating their arrival.

When my disabled daughter and my granddaughter arrived, a member of your team seated them at a completely different table, rather than directing them to join me.

Upon realising we had been separated, I stood up to relocate to their table so we could dine together. At this point, the manager, intervened. He aggressively refused to allow me to move tables to join my family.

I explicitly explained to the manager that my daughter is disabled and requires my direct assistance during meals. He completely dismissed this vital information, ignored our needs, and rigidly refused to accommodate a simple and reasonable request for a family to sit together.

To our absolute horror, I later discovered that the manager had threatened to involve the police. This reaction to a customer simply attempting to sit with their disabled daughter is a gross abuse of authority and entirely disproportionate.

As a result of the manager’s hostile attitude and unprofessional conduct, my family’s breakfast was entirely ruined, and we left feeling humiliated and unwelcome. Treating a paying guest with such hostility—and ignoring the needs of a disabled individual—is a clear breach of acceptable customer service standards and potentially violates equality and accessibility guidelines.

I have requested that this matter be escalated to senior management immediately.

I expect them to formally investigate into the conduct of the manager, regarding his offensive attitude and handling of this situation. Also, clarification on the restaurant's policy regarding accommodating guests with disabilities and their carers.

Until this manager is removed, I DO NOT recommend going to this particular restaurant.

Unable to give zero stars

Ladybridge Tamworth
We had a great experience this morning whilst celebrating father’s days.
The breakfast was good quality, plenty of choice for all the family and staff were exceptional.
We highly recommend the buffet breakfast to everyone. Well done team.

Sharon and chantou, were fantastic, food amazing, will have to visit again

Recommend the steaks and ribs

Family of 12 booked and we all had amazing meals