The Bull Beefeater Grill

This is a very large pub and restaurant on the outskirts of Swanley. It gets very busy at peak times so it must be popular. The steaks are good if you avoid the cheepest one. It is comfortable and it has a Premier Inn hotel attached.

So slow, say there are no seats when it’s half empty, but food is lovely once you get it after the wait.

For the first time I used this restaurant as its only 5 mins up the road from me and took my sister and her husband for a meal there for her birthday on Tuesday 14^th Feb as it may had been busy then we had it booked for the Sunday Roasts on Sunday 12^th Feb. A young boy took us to our table and very pleasant and smart and informative and told us we had root veg on that day. A waiteress brought us our menu. Another came to take our order. The first waiteress brought our meals of our starters. She kept repeatiung after everyother word ‘There we go’ WHY must the young use this cliché from America its so annoying as they all use it here when serving and its always the very young in their 17 – 30’age brackets. Whats happened to,‘Enjoy your meal Sir/​madam or Thankyou in which was not used once from the ones that served us today! Thankyou for your order would have been nice to have heard for instance. Its something they should drop please its so annoying to hear it so many times. When the young waiteress brought out the roast Chicken and Beef she asked if we wanted sauces I looked at the chicken but could see it was burnt and black more chargrilled than roast. When I asked her what sauces she hung her head down on her chest and speechless. My sister soon perked up you can have cranberry sauce with chicken. Again she dropped her head low and never looked up. The young boy came round with drinks order but forgot to hand the menu, when asked for it he said oh, then reached over on the next table and took it off, never got handed it but he read it himself. So we had reversed roles had we he is the customer and I am the staff? No nice try but thats not the way thanks! The same with the young waiteress asked if we wanted to order a desert we replied yes, what would you like to order she said so confidently, Do you have a menu I asked as she had taken this away after ordering the main course. Then she went off to get one, they do not think it advance and should think is this the way I would like to be served then serve people how they would expect to be served. Sorry but so many who have been to the restuarant say the same its all young ones without the experience of serving customers without a plan and think ahead of themselves! Its bad training, experience comes in years not months but needs a lot more in training they have had nearly a year now so should have learnt a lot in that time and improved on their skills but to me its like these was their first days and we was all the guinea pigs! It has unfortunately put me off from coming anymore and heard this several times locally here in Swanley, shame really but the person to blame is the person that is the person that trains who should have drummed it into them a lot more! What I can say is please give the older ones more of a chance who do have the experience in serving who know what to say and remember the menus and not keep it to themselves then perhaps you will get the customers there, as it wasn’t that busy for a Sunday so not rushed at all so had time to think what they had to say! Sorry but not good enough for a beefeater not the service I have had before, the meals was quickly served though not long to wait but the meal was overdone and the cliches turned me off. Sorry!

The Beeafeater Restaurant in Swanley has just recently opened. It looked so nice from outside that we decided to try it yesterday. I am afraid the visit yesterday will be my first and last one. To say it nicely we were disappointed.
We had to wait 45 minutes for a table. It wouldn’t bother me at all if the restaurant had been full but it was more than half empty. Just around us were seven empty tables. I asked the manager why we don’t get a table and he told us that he «doesn’t want to overload the kitchen». Looking back it would have been wise to leave the restaurant at this point. Later we were asked why we didn’t book a table (so it was all our fault!).
We got our table and were told that a lot of dishes are not available any more. It was 4pm in the afternoon! They have different kind of steaks on the menu, half of them were gone. I ordered a fillet steak. After 10 minutes they came back to us to tell me that fillet steak are out as well.
The service was slow and not very impressive. Nobody came to ask if we are happy with the food. They just didn’t care. At the table next to us were two ladies. One of the ladies got their main course when the other one had finished hers.
At the end we ordered a cappuccino and a hot chocolate. I could hear when the barkeeper told our waitress that he has no clue how to do it. So she came back and told us that cappuccino and hot chocolate were out — after we already didn’t get the food we wanted. We could only order regular coffee or tea. We had to ask for the bill three time after we could finally leave.
I can understand that there are some issues with newly opened restaurants. I would never been bothered if I had the feeling they care about their guests and try to improve and apologise properly. At «The Bull» the managers just didn’t care: the brand new entrance door was sticky and dirty. They didn’t care. Their disabled parking spaces were used by non-​disabled people. They didn’t care. It’s a shame so, the restaurant looks lovely and the food was ok. It could really be a nice restaurant but it isn’t with such a bad service and attitude.