"We booked the table at the Pheasant for 14th Dec 23 as we had our work Christmas dinner last December which was exceptionally good and we all enjoyed it. We expected the same level of service and quality of food this year but were shocked how standards have dropped.. Firstly, we booked the table few months ahead for our Xmas meal. When we arrived we were given two different menus Christmas set menu and usual pub menu. This is where some confusion has started. Two members of our team ordered starters and mains from the ordinary menu whilst others went for the Xmas set menu. We placed the order with the waitress who returned twice as she was confused who ordered what... After half an hour, we had another waitress coming to the table saying that the Chef and waitress were confused with our order and she needed to re take it. We repeated ourselves for the 3rd time. After awhile, the waitress came to say that there were only 2 trout starters left so we we had to choose a different option.. So from sitting down at 18:30 we finally had our starters at 8 pm... Mains I ordered Sirloin Steak (as Med Rare) from the Xmas set menu, others ordered vegetarian pie, Xmas Turkey meal and beef burger. Well, I had steak many times before and this was one of the worst I have ever had. First of all, it was Rare completely red and ****. I wanted to complain but there were no any members of staff around. I waited hoping that someone would come to the table asking if we were happy with our meals, but no one came. I carried on cutting it which was not easy as I have just had my hand surgery and the meat was not easy to cut due to the fat around the steak which did not melt as it was cooked as Rare, not Medium Rare. I was very hungry as have not eaten all day so continued eating it reluctantly hoping that I could catch someone 's attention but there were no staff in our area at all. The peppercorn sauce was lumpy and lukewarm and had a film on top which is indication that it was not freshly made. When I tried to pour it it came out in lumps.. Mushroom it states on the menu that steak comes with the Portobello mushroom.. Well, it came with 2 normal medium size mushrooms, not one large Portobello. I know what Portobello mushroom looks like and was looking forward to it but again was not impressed with that substitution. Chips were lukewarm (I tried some of them whilst I was waiting for my steak knife which was not given to me with the meal) so I ended up leaving some of them as by the time I started to eat them they were cold. My colleague who had the burger said that his burger was stone cold but he didn 't want to make a fuss in front of the team plus he needed to catch a train and it would have meant that he would need to wait for a fresh burger to be made and miss his train... Deserts you would think that nothing can go wrong here.. To start with we were given wrong menus again. Instead of Xmas set menus the waitress handed us standard menus and left. After she returned we asked for Xmas menus. Finally only two of us ordered a desert we went for the Sticky Toffee with honeycomb Arctic slice. I never had arctic slide before and wanted to know what it looks and tastes like. When two deserts were brought over, they had a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. The waitress has gone by then and we carried on eating and asking each other where is the artic slice and why we have the scoop of ice cream instead..? All of us commented that the desert did not look and had any reference to Christmas and was just a standard sticky toffee not as described on the menu.. Any way, we all carried on as were keen at this point to pay and live the pub. When we were given a bill, we couldn 't work out how much each of us had to pay as it was not easily stated on the bill and had some items which we did not even had! I questioned 2 deserts on the bill as they were added to the bill at £8.75 each and not as part of the 3 course set meal. Waitress then just took off one of deserts. it is at this point we realised that we were served wrong deserts! We were given a sticky toffee pudding from the standard menu, not Xmas Set menu hence no Arctic slice or honeycomb... It was the same waitress who gave us Xmas menus and took the order.. There was also a wrong double Gin and Tonic added to the bill which none of us had.. The bill should have been easy to read and understand as all bar two of us had a set menu meals but the bill listed starters and deserts as separate items. The waitress couldn 't work out the bill for each of us (i.e. ask who had what individually so that we pay) but told us to work it out ourselves. We did and then paid for what we have had including drinks. When half of the team has left to catch the train, we were heading to leave and was told by the same waitress that there was an outstanding amount of £22 left to pay! This was the cherry on the top for the whole evening and we had to call the manager and complain about the whole evening, including service and the food. I am glad to say that the Manager, although he was not happy to hear our feedback, let us go at that point which was a relief. So, overall, we are definitely NOT coming back to the Pheasant again. Both service and food were below average and unacceptable for the amount of money we paid for our Christmas dinner. Staff should be better trained on how to serve customers and Chef and Kitchen staff on improving their cooking standards and skills. It was very substandard on all fronts. The only good thing was the decoration of the pub, but no Xmas crackers on the table which we thought was a standard feature for Xmas Dinners."
