A top-rated pub has fired back at a two-star review from a disgruntled diner on Tripadvisor who described their vegetables as "mushy". The Green Man at Inglewhite, which has been voted one of the best pubs in Preston on the review website, was hit by a negative review by a customer who slammed the "uncuttable" meat and said good reviews were "not to be believed".
Tucked away in the heart of the Lancashire countryside, the pub is currently rated the 12th best restaurant of 329 in the city on Tripadvisor with 641 "excellent" reviews. The popular eatery, which is celebrated as one of the cosiest pubs, and the most dog friendly, is famed in the area for its Sunday roast dinner.
But in amongst the many five star reviews is one two-star review left just five days ago on the public reviews site reports LancsLive. The diner, headlined the post: "Disappointing and reviews not to be believed".
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The two-star review reads: "Disappointing as reviews said would be good. Restaurant was cold. Wasn’t walked to table they just told it where it was. Had to ask for menus. Ordered food before drinks were taken.
"Vegetables were boiled to mush, beef couldn’t be cut. Empty plates left for ages, in fact we waited so long for dessert menu and table to be cleared that we decided to leave. Much better elsewhere I’m afraid, we won’t be back."
The team at The Green Man were quick to respond to the negative review, saying that they were 'confused' by the claims in the review and asked them to not call their other guests 'fibbers'.
The pub's full response read: "I’m hugely confused. I’ve looked into your feedback extensively. Spoken to each team member and gone through all reports on the till. Firstly from what I have found we had our busiest Sunday to date (which in January after a very busy festive season cannot be predicted) due to how busy we were it left us a little short staffed.
"I apologise you weren’t shown directly to your table but had you observed just how much the team were tirelessly running around surely that can be forgiven.
"I believe one of your table did complain about the wait time for food and this was compensated by issuing you some discount to your bill ( no mention of that in your review) and when checked back you said everything was fine, ( had you raised your unhappiness then it would have given us an opportunity to rectify) you then said your empty plates were left for a long time while waiting for the dessert menu.
"Well it surely cannot have been that bad if your plates were empty? As for desserts we don’t have a menu, as these are all home made and can change daily, no one at your table asked a team member so sadly they were unaware that you wanted a dessert.
"Moving now to the title of your review. Please can you not call our other reviewers fibbers. That’s a very unfair and false statement. Our reviews are very believable and are truthful.
"We pride ourselves on being a small family run business who has managed to keep going after some very tough years (pandemic etc) sometimes like all humans things aren’t always perfect but we always strive to go out of our way to apologise and rectify when given the opportunity."
Presumably having seen the review, the next day, another person who visited the restaurant took to to Tripadvisor to back up the pub, giving them a five-star review under the headline "Karen below must have been at the wrong pub", and said the food was "faultless" and that they would "definitely be back".
Established in 1809, under new management since January 2017 and operating as a Freehouse since 2018 the pub is credited with having some of the best roasts in the North West. It has many five star reviews praising the quality of the food, and accommodating staff.
One positive review reads: "Superb, independent pub. We had a roast dinner and an Irish stew. Probably one of the best bar lunches I've had in a long time. Staff were friendly and couldn't do enough. Highly recommended eclectic relaxing country pub."
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