1st birthday disaster @ The Dulwich Woodhouse

[aceface]

Did anyone experience the disaster that was Bank Holiday Monday at the Dulwich Woodhouse? We had booked in advance a table for 8 @ 2.00p.m to celebrate my daughters 1st birthday with my family who had travelled up from Sussex. On arrival it was pretty busy but with the sun shining we looked forward to the advertised "weather permitting BBQ". We were shown to our table, then left to our own devices, we managed to find our own menu's and once we had been served a round of drinks we had bought from the bar, we overheard the next table say they had been waiting for their food for 2 hours. Having complained to the staff they were likely to wait at least another 20 mins for their food. A number of their party were young children that were beyond hungry, they voiced further complaints and then had additional problems getting a refund on their food orders as they were not prepared to wait any longer. They were not given a receipt when the order was placed as the machine had broken, so they battled to get their money back. Another table had paid ?200 in advance for a private party celebrating an 18th and had similar waiting times for food. I sent my cousin to speak to someone to be told exactly how long the wait would be as I had my one year old to consider. He came back informed that they had closed the BBQ and we were looking at over an hour + for food to be served. It was a nightmare, we decided to head to an old reliable fave The Crown & Greyhound (Dulwich Village) Although busy we were served and fed fairly quickly, but our lunch ended up being a 4.00pm meal! I would have preffered to have been contacted (they had our contact details) and warned about the wait, or advised on arrival, instead we witnessed many disgruntled customers voicing their complaints and utter chaos. Needless to say...we wont be going back.