Anchor Guest House

GL W11 months ago

1/5

We (a family of 6) arrived at the Anchor Guest House around 7pm on a Wednesday. The restaurant wasn’t busy at all. Upon arriving, we sat outside on a free table (which there were many). After 5/10 minutes, I went to the bar to find out if it was table or bar service. They explained that it was table service, gave me some menus and said that someone would be out to take our order soon. Got back to the table, had everyone choose their orders, then waited a further 20/30 minutes to be ignored by all waiters. Eventually, a lovely young waiter came out and told us that the restaurant couldn’t take food orders until 9pm BUT they could take our drink order, which was obviously pointless when we’d have to wait another hour and a half to just *order* food. We politely declined to order drinks and went to The Ocean Bar next door who managed to accommodate us although they were very busy. I don’t often leave bad reviews however, the fact that we were ignored for a long time then a very apologetic young man had to come out and explain the situation with no management in sight, it’s just unprofessional and poor management. If the kitchen staff is overwhelmed, customers should be informed straight away instead of sat waiting. Plus, given the location and time of year, better measures should be in place to ensure staff aren’t overwhelmed. On a positive note… The staff did seem lovely regardless of their obvious stress, and the location truly is beautiful. Hopefully management can get some better practices in place so that customers aren’t left feeling silly, and staff aren’t feeling uncomfortable turning customers away.