"Celebrated my niece’s Birthday and came back to celebrate mine with family and friends. It was live music night, which they informed us of when booking. I was fine with that as the restaurant is the other side of the pub, well away from the band, so it wouldn’t really bother us. We arrived and a member of staff showed us to our table, but instead of being take to the restaurant we were taken around the corner to a table right next to the music. We were the only people who were sat on this side of the pub that evening. As we headed towards the table the member of staff said” You’d better be quick in case people take your table” ??? Never had to worry about losing a reservation from other people in a pub before? How to describe where we were sat. We sat in the main thoroughfare to the toilets. I myself was sat at the end of the table so close to the ladies toilet that I could, if I so wished, open the ladies toilet door from my seat. Women negotiated around my chair to go to the loo. Drinkers congregated in the walkway basically standing directly over us dining, my sister had drunk men placing pints down on her part of the table while she was eating and bumping into her, in her own words “ If one more person leans into me I’m going to lose it” The music was so loud where we were we gave up trying to chat to each other at times. When we booked they never once mentioned where they’d be seating us and I would have said no immediately if they’d told me that when I booked and would have gone elsewhere as I know the pub very well and never in a million years would I want to have sat there during a Friday night of live music. I had considered just leaving, but people were hungry and not long finished work and they needed to eat and trying to book for so many of us last minute would have been impossible. The food. I’m not sure it’s the same chef as we had a month ago, I could be wrong, but the difference was surprising. My steak pie again was great, but one of our group had a burger and said it was “disgusting” Two members of the group had coleslaw with their meals and I was shown both, untouched by them, it was grated cabbage and carrot in a small dish, dry, with no mayonnaise and the veg was curled and dry to the touch as if the “coleslaw” had been standing out for hours. Every person who had chips said the same thing, it was like a child’s portion, the amount of chips on each plate was a joke. Others weren’t overly impressed with elements of their food. It was all so good a month earlier. I do also have to say that later in the evening I had the misfortune of talking to the chef, I’m sure it’s not the same guy as I spoke to before, I mistook him as a member of the bar staff, in my defence he was behind the bar quite a few times while I was there. I asked this man a non food related question and just got attitude from him, you would have sworn he owned the place, he was rude and condescending to such an extent that mid conversation I turned my back on him as I refuse to be spoken to by anyone that way. Maybe I’d suggest keep him away from customers, and coleslaw obviously. I have to end by saying the staff were excellent as always, with a special mention to Emily behind the bar, friendly, helpful and a real asset to The Red Kite. So, our meal was ruined by The Red Kite squeezing people in to maximise profit, a very short term gain that will cost in the long term. We have already started to organise our next get together but it won’t be at The Red Kite. I said in my last review that I’d be back, I came back, but I won’t again."
