I came back into Ely a week later for some shoes for my 2 year old daughter and time was running out so i decided to take her in there for something quick to eat. I was barked at by the manageress “children are not allowed at the bar” no hello, nothing! she barked this at me once again. I asked her if she expected me to leave my 2 year old on her own across the other side of the pub while i order food with her?? She just stood there, no offer of another way of getting round this or help. (I’m waiting for a response from Barracuda head office as i write this). Family friendly?? I don’t think so!! won’t be going back. I hope that Barracuda have mystery shoppers, because with service like this they will save millions every year!!

That’s interesting re the Clwydian in Presatyn. Being a local we tried a lunchtime meal. The food was not properly cooked and was ‘tepid’ and ‘undercooked’. Certainly not value for money and poor compared to other pubs in the locality.

Some friend waited about 50 minutes for their meal one evening. I also hear that in the evenings the place gets packed with drinkers and it is hard to get through to the bar to order.

On the plus side at lunchtimes we have found the staff to be very friendly and pleasant.

What do other think?

The new pub has been opened in Prestatyn and is named The Clywydian.
In short, their main female manager is a very angry lady who barks at both customers as well as her staff. I heard her telling a customer off for asking if there was somewhere he could hang his coat and she barked back saying “she wasn’t a f*cking coat hanger!” Perhaps she was suffering a spot of PMT? I should also point out that I heard her shouting at some poor staff member (I’m guessing staff by the way she was barking orders) as I recall pointing out to my partner that I was glad I didn’t work for her.

My food experience? I am a vegetarian and was served broccoli that stank of fish! It’s beyond me how that could happen. I did want to complain but I wanted to avoid any confrontation with that manager woman who obviously has a problem with the very basics of customer service.

Since then, I have heard through the grapevine that this same manager makes the working lives of her poor kitchen staff a living hell and the staff turnover has been extreme – this may go some way to explaining the fishy broccoli!

In a town as small and close-knit as Prestatyn, I think the reputation of this new pub is already in tatters.

Do they need a new landlord soon, perhaps i’ll send in my C.V

Such a shame

Barracuda are to open a new pub shortly in Prestatyn, North Wales, later July 2007 or even later having seen the slow progress.

The location is spot on and we wish them well BUT . . .

Hopefully we shall have a really decent Manager and supporting staff who are polite and well trained and no excessive waits from the kitchen. An hour wait is totally unacceptable – something is seriously wrong !

We are just back from Cape Cod and Boston USA and the courtesy and politeness and attention and standard of presentation we experienced was second to none.

So Barracuda management take note please.

Regards.

I speak from an objective viewpoint and support Mr Love wholeheartedly in his actions. From all reports, and indeed, from Mrs Wilbraham’s statement to Look East, Mr Love was courteous when making his request. His reasons behind this request, when viewed as an isolated incident, may well seem ridiculous; asking an old lady to remove her hat because she poses a threat? I agree, it DOES seem ridiculous – until you view the situation in context. We do indeed, as Mr Love indicated, live in a changing society, where anti-social behaviour is now commonplace, and where young people use baseball caps and hoods to disguise their faces in order to commit anti-social acts. However, we also live in a society that espouses equality for all regardless of age, sex or religious persuasion. In light of this, how can Mr Love be demonised for asking Mrs Wilbraham no more than he would of anyone else? To those who have made known their complaints about this situation, I would point out that rules like the ‘no hats’ rule were introduced by the licensed trade in order to protect YOU from anti-social behaviour.

Whilst Mrs Wilbraham obviously posed no threat, had Mr Love permitted her to continue wearing her hat in his establishment, he may then have been confronted with some pimply lout, intent on causing trouble whilst protecting his identity from CCTV cameras, who would claim indemnity from the ‘no hats’ rule by using Mrs Wilbraham as an example. Then, once he had glassed YOU, the complainer, in the face, left you screaming in pain and made good his escape, neither Mr Love, nor Ely’s esteemed police force would be able to identify him from CCTV footage. Would you damn Mr Love’s and Barracuda Group’s rules then?
My point is this; certain rules are implemented for the safety of the general public, and these rules should apply to all regardless of age, sex or creed. We live in a society that claims to be based on equality, democracy and civility. If a rule does not apply to certain groups of people because they are not deemed to be a threat in the generally percieved sense of the word, then they shouldn’t be applied to anyone at all. And where does that leave us? Questioning the very laws intended to safeguard us and our way of life.

In short, wake up, Ely! I grew up in your town and, having lived away from the time-bubble that is Ely for eleven years, I can see exactly what Mr Love means when he says the world is changing.

My husbands food arrived after nearly an hour wait and it looked nice but was a bit on the cold side.The waiter said that mine would be along shortly, about 10 minutes later mine did arrive but instead of the tomato and Mozzarella burger that my husband ordered a beef burger arrived.

This is not unusual, we are both vegetarians and sometimes this happens. The waiter told me that I could have a refund or order again. As my husband was already half way through his meal and the wait was substantial I thought I’d just get a refund and get some lunch on the way home.

I went to ask the manager who flatly refused to refund me for the meal that I couldn’t eat. He said that my husband had ordered a burger and that’s what I had got. He hadn’t even given us a receipt to check our order, so clearly even if there was a misunderstanding he was in some way responsible.

A small thing ended up in a very heated debate between my husband, me and the manager until we were both shaking with anger at his attitude. He was rude, arrogant and extremely unpleasant. Very bad managment, no people skills and no sense of the customer being right. He told us that we’d know not to go back there again! It was if we were criminals and we were perfectly pleasant customers.

Eventually we did get a refund for my meal but our afternoon was ruined, my husband couldn’t finish his dinner or drinks. We will certainly not go back there again or take any of our friends and family.

I am still cross about it and when I complained to the Barracuda group they did not respond.

The world certainly is changing, and not for the better, if our elderly are going to be treated as potential criminals for wearing a hat indoors.

Has Mr Love never heard of the concept of common sense? Or is that too “old world” for him?

The people of Ely should boycott this establishment so it closes down.

All I can hope is that Barracuda sack him and the chief executive of Barracuda visits the lady to concerned to give her a personal apology ………… and take her to lunch in another high class restaurant not owned by Barracuda!

Pub licensee Tony Love said it was pub policy to always ask people to remove their hats.

“It’s all to do with the CCTV. We have 13 cameras inside the people and we cannot be seen to be discriminating between the youths and the elderly people.

“We always approach people politely and most of the elderly take their hats off anyway when they sit down. Mrs Wilbraham does not understand that the world is changing.”

What an arrogant little moron! The world is changing; pub landlords think they can be rude to 82 year old ladies.

Boycott The Hereward until he makes a public apology!

Shame on you, and I for one as an English person would never visit your premises after hearing about this.

Where do companies like Barracuda find staff that are so stupid and insensitive? Do they give their staff some form of drug to suppress any dangerous tendencies to humanity or common sense?

I wish I could threaten to boycott Barracuda, but as I wouldn’t dream of patronising the sort of anonymous dump that they run this option isn’t open to me.

I just hope the good citizens of Ely will descend on the Hereward en masse, all proudly wearing an appropriately annoying titfer.

Mrs. Wilbraham is a very nice lady and we can see her point of view, but she was asked nicely to take her hat off.

I was shocked how rude and unhelpful some of the staff are. There have been numinous occasions where I have picked something on their ok menu to be told “not in stock� their menu is ok and does appear to have a good selection but seems that the pub cannot keep their promises on many things.

It is so disappointing that there is no music, if you go in there on a weekend night the atmosphere is very ‘boring’. Even Pure with its exceptionally loud music was better. The Flyer offers more entertainment than the Hereward by just sitting outside on the decrepit benches.

The food was fantastic with a huge choice & it was beautifully presented. We only waited 10 minutes for our meals.

The desserts were gorgeous & all the food was excellent value for money.

It was baking hot outside but lovely & cool in The Hereward & the staff were all really friendly & efficient.

It was a pleasure to visit.

I fully support the no kids policy (my two are 9 & 13). The last thing anyone wants in a pub like this is squealing kids – families are better off sticking to the Hungry Horse (one on Milton Road & one in Fen Ditton).

That’s the great thing about Smith & Jones pubs…like may they , and they do !, prosper !

I’m not cynical by nature, but do now wonder if the negative press regarding a “superpub” and related anti-social behaviour may have resulted in them being economical with the truth in an effort to diffuse the arguments. Whichever side of the fence you sit regarding children in pubs (I’m a “for” and I’m sure there are equal numbers “against”), my issue is with the group’s honesty and integrity and feel they owe us a proper public explanation. Could it have been PR spin or was it a genuine mistake? Of course people do make mistakes, although not usually at quite such PR-critical moments. With the benefit of hindsight, this might just lead you to question their motives.

Over to you Barracuda……..might just have to review my cynical nature!

“Smith & Jones pubs are primarily aimed at over 18’s. We don’t have a children’s certificate for this premises and therefore it would be against the law to allow children into the Hereward.

Some of our Smith & Jones outlets do allow children, which is where the misunderstanding came from in the comment given regarding ‘appealing to all ages and to families’, but the decision has been taken to make the Hereward an over 18s venue.

We are sorry for any disappointment that this policy has caused, but we do hope that people will continue to visit and enjoy the Hereward.”

Following on from this Emma replied:

‘I did mention the comment to our operations team and I guess when Caroline (the previous PR Manager) made the comment we weren’t entirely sure of the business plan for the pub. We do have some pubs where young children are allowed so I assume that’s where the confusion came from.’

So nothing really conclusive from Barracuda, so I decided to contact the East Cambs District Council’s Development Officer, Trevor Eagle about the planning application to see if there was any mention of the pub being a ‘family pub’.

The initial response was: ‘I am aware of the ‘over 18 rule’, which in my opinion is not in breach of planning controls or the planning permission.’

I will be looking at the application very soon!

The pub looks great and is just what Ely needs, but if people get discouraged like we have they may not retain customers.

I have not been in the pub for a night out, but wanted a good lunch with 2 friends. Instead we ended up waiting, watching the clock and in the end complaining twice, whilst watching others do the same. We only had an hour off from work, which ended up being over an hour and involved eating fast when the food did finally arrive, to get back to work.

Please sort out the wait for food, as everything else is great and I want to come back and enjoy myself!!

I witnessed the same gentleman try to order 3 different meals with no luck. My friends and I then placed our orders, all the food was available but we were not informed of the 45-60 minute wait and as the average lunchhour is only 50-60 minutes long that’s just not good enough.

The staff were very apologetic, and explained that it was very busy, I wish this had been the case! Not only was it quiet for a lunchtime, but there were 3 chefs in the kitchen! As I have worked in this sector for many years I know “waffle� when I hear it. I’m afraid that as a pub it is lovely but waiting over an hour for a salad is just not good enough! If they wish to keep and encourage customers through the door for food they will need to address this problem immediately!

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Look forward to hearing his response.

Caroline Nodder, for Barracuda Group, said: ‘We are not talking about a cut-price booze bar. It will be a traditional pub with contemporary twist. We are going for an 11pm closing time.

The emphasis will be on food trade, particularly lunchtime trade, and we want it to appeal to all ages and to families.’

The full story can be seen at this link

Ely, always about 40 years behind the rest of the UK but at least were gettin there, who knows we might get a proper nightclub one day!

Come on investors theres money to be had in Europes fastest growing city!

But at lunchtime, what’s the problem? Short-sighted, backward thinking.

Although I have to agree about the wine selection, the bar staff could not have been more friendly despite the bar being six deep!

The pub has a very comfortable feel to it, and I look forward to drinking there.
I especially look forward to that fire in the corner when winter comes around – toasty!

There is very high security (CCTV) in the pub so anyone wanting to create mischeif (and those not) are likely to be on video. Why such high security?

I hope they keep the bouncers on, a LOT of underage kids were trying it on!

Lovely interior, (Jesus £600K?) very friendly staff. Good prices, etc.

Keep up the good work!