A clear plate is normally the sign of a good studying meal……Fino felpham

So I have to say we went back to fino ( A local restaurant based in felpham) having tried it a long time ago

The pizza I had was ok, my son asked for extra chillies and suffered accordingly and my wife said her chicken was very nice.

So why comment when it seemed ok…. Because of inconsistent service from the kitchen….gorgeous huge prawns on my pizza. First one was” without shell” so I presumed the others would be. A bit of a shock to be chewing shell. And not a nice surprise

More disappointingly, the solution when I asked was more prawns for me, and that would only take 10 minutes, this would mean I would not be eating with the family…..poor show on the prawns, and poor show on the service

If you are looking for a family restaurant in this part or the world…. Head into felpham there’s a choice

Not what you expect to see demonstrated as management in front of customers and especially children – Parkdean Resort – Warmwell

There will be several blogs about our recent trip to the #parkdean resort #warmwell site as it really was a break of many different levels of Service.
It was a proper family UK summer holiday (3 generations) and one of the things that appealed to us about Park Dean having used their sites before was the activities that you could do whilst you were on site.
So off me and my two sons went to try and have a little go at archery, and I have to say the lady who was there who was showing us what to do was excellent she was keen to show us, and she was very helpful she was young but that didn’t stop her being supportive of us. I won’t name the lady because I don’t think it’s fair to do that and I understand that she is soon to leave the site anyway

As anyone that reads my blog header will know I’m a 50-something dad and I think that good old-fashioned values are important that’s why when I was waiting to shoot(if that’s the right word) some of my arrows I was very surprised when an alleged manager or supervisor came over and in front of me my two children and two other children that were there and gave this young lady a dressing down the like of which I have not seen anybody do in public for about 30 years

The supervisor concerned was actually quite aggressive and didn’t seem to want to say anything to the lady that was constructive, didn’t want to really let her speak, and also didn’t seem to worry that unfortunately, he made her cry which I didn’t think was very nice.

So you can imagine my surprise when I said to him as a slightly larger than average gentleman that I wanted to have a word with him and ask him why he thought what he had done was right and proper in front of children and maybe ask him to even apologize all I got from him was” whatever” as he walked away from me

So I took the only action available to me I asked the young girl if she was OK and she said she was, she was just wiping her eyes and her face and I asked her for the gentleman’s name and I went and saw the manager and told them what I thought of the service and way that people talk to each other at park Dean obviously that what I had seen as everyone goes through the same training regime would have been typical management.
But as I said there will be other blogs about our trip to this place because this was an isolated incident and I hope that by raising it with the team at Park Dean something was done about it

Credit to park Dean for the image which has been taken from their site and obviously to confirm that this is not in any way a sponsored blog simply my opinion my reaction to a situation that wasn’t very nice

Parkdean holidays….saved by a subcontractor that actually helped

Update 15/8/2023….found out today that this fault was reported 2/3 holidays ago and that parkdean were aware of it..as it was checked on 14/8/2023 for electrical safety it’s seems that parkdean didn’t mind people staying in it in the mean time…we certainly were not advised of it as unchecked and due for inspection.

So pleased that the subcontractors were able to fix it

Park dean holidays warn well….happy to have guests in a lodge with bare electrical wires in a bathroom. Didn’t seem quite right to us so we thought it best to report from a safety perspective. Did this on the day of arrival and were told by the maintenance manager that there was a new appliance(radiator) on order and it would be fitted Monday. Well that didn’t happen. No sign of the maintenance manager from park Dean.

Fortunately we had a subcontractor turn up to say he was there to check the item was electrically safe. He knew nothing about fitting a new unit. But when he saw the situation and spoke to our “grandma” he took it on to go and find a heater and came back to fit it .

In so pleased that the contractor was human about this…. Such refreshing service. Well over and beyond the centre staff….. Thank you

Just to be clear, the service from the engineer from duffett was excellent…… Just a shame it took a dangerous situation and a park Dean site that just didn’t want to know, to sort it

Just trying to pass it along the line

On a dismal West Sussex day when there’s not really a great deal to do. there are no trains running into Brighton so we can’t go to pride and it’s really just a little bit ….”sort of not a nice day” So the only thing for it was to go out and try and get a few little bits that we needed to purchase for home and as we were going up to Chichester we decided that we would pop into the garden restaurant which is the little place inside the brickkilnl garden centre and have a bit of breakfast

Only one thing for it…. The big old breakfast , to set me up for a morning of retail browsing all the things we wish we could buy.

This isn’t a blog about the breakfast. That was ok. Nothing wrong with it and reasonably priced.

I blog about service as you’ll see, and what surprised me was then when I asked to take advantage of the offer for”kids eat for £1″ and all I wanted to do was put a lunch “down the line “for some one that needed it….. I got 3 reasons why I couldn’t do that. Not any one who wanted to work out what COULD be done.

Poor show #brickkilnursery. I’ll stick my pound in a charity pot somewhere it begins. Because that isn’t at the restaurant in your center

I think it’s only fair to the business that I add to this that when I came out of the nursery at the tills I was asked if I had a good day and I said actually …no,that I haven’t I explained what had happened and the site manager came and explained to me that if I looked at the terms and conditions on the offer then I was too early and also that the child I was getting the meal for had to be with me at the time. ( I know I don’t look old but my two are both adults) Now I fully understand the reasoning behind this but surely if somebody wants to actually put some money in a box or use it to buy somebody a little less fortunate some food then that’s more about the spirit of the offer .brick kill nursery of Chichester West Sussex would rather not work in the spirit of the offer but live by factual terms.

I did suggest to the nursery that what they could do would be to put a box near the checkout and if anybody wanted to buy a little token or a ticket to put in that box that would give somebody that needed it a small free meal then that would help a lot of people potentially and it would also bring people into the nursery that may not already have come in.

This is in no way to detract from the garden centre as a garden centre which is one of the nicer and better ones in the area but the restaurants side of things I think they’re approach to actually helping people is terrible

And just to finally add to this I did pay for my food my drink for me and my wife and this is in no way a sponsored posy

So you have found my blog…. It’s one without any pictures and I would love to hear your comments once you’ve read it

What’s your favorite thing about yourself?

A bit of a new style for me but I’m gonna give this a go and see if I get any responses it’s a simple question and I’m just curious if you can answer below in the comments

what is your favourite thing about you

I don’t need to know what other people think of you and I don’t even need to know what you think of each other it would just be nice to have somewhere positive where people can say for example that they are friendly, they are honest they are whatever positive value they think they are….

I’m going to put this across all the categories and all the tags of my blog, the good ones and the bad ones and I’m curious to see what comes back.

When you go back to a place, hoping it’s improved……

As me and Mrs Oldman Leslie were out doing a bit of shopping to get the parts to finish off the amazing decorating at home after we had www.freshcolours.co.uk in to do some painting. We made the pilgrimage to the hard water store. Arranged the parts we needed to get.

Typical winter afternoon🥶 in West Sussex so we thought about popping Into Costa coffee on the shripney road in bignor Regis

Nothing wrong with the coffee. But the service is a different matter

All we wanted was 2 drinks, and for one of the team to drop it over to us when ready. as im a little wobbly when carrying trays

I was just a little surprised that whilst I was sat waiting for our drinks to come over .to see the drinks go to another table and having waited 10-minutes when I went up to the counter to see where they were the staff just looked very blankly at me and made no apology at all

I then asked another one of the staff if I could have a paper copy feedback form to complete so that I can get a response from Costa and unfortunately at time of writing this hasn’t been given to me either

So as I mentioned there is no problem with the way the product tastes but basically has anyone who is followed by Brian eno it’s all about the service and this place that doesn’t seem to matter

Foot note … When we left, I asked again form the feedback form and I was told quite abruptly that any feedback I had I should leave online

So here is my feedback if you want nice coffee and great atmosphere and people who actually want your business in bognor Regis then head to the high Street to the London road coffee shop which is amazing and if you just want to sit and have something served at you which might be drinkable then Costa coffee is where to go.

A definite tale of 2 halves Cheddar Woods Resort & Spa

Everyone looks forward to their summer break, and the news is full of people having #staycations. Not sure possibly about getting on a plane just yet. Or maybe looking as if we were for a short break somewhere nice, Just to unwind and relax.

So a group of 05 of us picked a day to get together and thrash out what we wanted for a break / all of an age where there were no children or babies to consider and we had someone to look after the pets

We decided that for the accommodation description and the facilities on site the cheddar-woods-resort-and-spa- looked like one of the best and were pleased that we could get a lodge.

The best way I can think to review this 4-night break is to be factual and at this stage NOT Name Specific people as I think some of the negatives we experienced were down to training

• Accommodation – very Clean & Tidy. Nothing was broken or worn out I will admit to writing the date in the dust on top of the extractor fan though. so, if I had to find 01 thing inside, that would be it

• Fixtures – Excellent, No wobbly fences or balconies. Posts were all solid and sturdy
• Setting – Excellent, Nice that although there was a short walk to the car, there was no car noise at the lodge
• Beds – this one is a bit subjective, only that the mattress we had (double) was soft and I like a firmer mattress. So, all Ok I guess as only for 04 nights

• Facilities – Pool and sports complex – Clean, tidy and well managed however last session was 6PM during peak summer hols. so, no sessions for grownups to swim. We couldn’t see either an early morning session

• Site generally – neatly kept and clean however it needs some investment in the access system that is meant to allow you onto the site via #ANPR on your car. This only worked once for us and involved a trip to reception each time. Once we had spoken to the manager, suddenly for the last day it was all fixed

• Bar – just like many others from a price perspective. and not a massive selection. But OK I guess as most nights were either off-site or at the lodge

• Restaurant – The Achilles heel of the place. Looked good, so we went on the first night and booked in advance for the 3rd night as well.

o The staff told us of an hour+ wait for a table which was Ok. We had to chase them up at the allotted time
o The table had not been cleaned properly, so we asked for that to be redone. we were served quickly with drinks, and our order was taken
o When we asked about how long to wait, we were told 10 Minutes which became 25+
o No one seemed to want to explain why or tell us any update.Or ask us if our meal was OK
o The food was Basic and didn’t look like it had been prepared on the spot , simply reheated
o When I raised these points at the end of the night and the restaurant told me they would offer a refund, I did accept it. I hadn’t asked for it .I Moved the other booking and hoped that would be an end to it ….

Later in the break, I had the misfortune to deal with the restaurant again for a service that was advertised for delivery of food to the lodge. To be told that this service wasn’t running anymore and that any adverts for it would be taken out of the lodges. I asked to speak to a manager about this and I got a meeting the following Morning. I explained that the “staff “had told me that I could possibly have been told what I was told about the delivery service and that they couldnt even give a guide to how long we would have to wait for food if we ordered takeaway ( as the restaurant was busy )
Suffice to say when i met with the management. they listened to us, acted up on our points raised and made us an offer to Placate us.
In Summary. For a short break, I think it’s unreasonable to have to spend in total about ½ a day sorting out a company’s problems, I’m not sure whether this was due to training from the https://darwinescapes.co.uk/ team, or compliance to the standards of the www.hoseasons.co.uk/ brand. I would just add that for the short break in somerset when you are looking for a relaxing break, I would give this site a Miss as there are better around

www.cheddargorge.co.uk/ and the caves are well worth a look www.cheddargorge.co.uk/explorer and make sure you leave enough in ” the tank ” for the Jacobs ladder

That part of the country is full of places to visit, and we had good days in the “gorge”.

https://www.cheddaronline.co.uk/

For the Wallace and Gromit fans

We had an excellent #seasideday at #westonsupermare
Just give this site a swerve or be prepared that you might have to raise points to get the smoothest experience for you and your friends

Park Dean resort’s – Nodes point – Isle of Wight. Be sure of what you are getting before you arrive

We Have used Park Dean resort’s before for a holiday, when we had to book a UK holiday due to the covid restrictions preventing us from taking our overseas trip. We thought that this would be a good break for us.

We selected the accommodation that we wanted online. And paid accordingly, we made a couple of covid calls to make sure everything was fine for the booking. We even confirmed (or so we thought) the location of the accommodation we had.

This is where it all went wrong, we were either misled, or lied to about the location we had. We asked for somewhere Central, near the entertainment and facilities. We were stuck in a field about a quarter mile down a steep hill.  When we raised this on arrival, the staff were very keen to get the general manager involved. Emails were allegedly sent, updates were promised. We were told that the recorded calls would be listened to

However, and here is the thing, for a site that deals with 3 and 4 and in our case 6 day holidays.I was informed that they have a 7 day window to respond to issues raised. We won’t be holding our breath for any sort of update

We made the best of the holiday, and as a venue, the island didn’t disappoint plenty of dog walks, beach trips and stuff to do.

However, and this is only my opinion based on the pictures I have added. This site needs a big overhaul and Money spending on modernisation and cleaning

Thick cobwebs in our kitchen

The Safari tent sleeps 6 so there was plenty of space for us 3 and the dog

But only cereal bowls and crockery for 3

No tin opener, no plug on the sink, no bowl to wash up in so we used the pan. No WiFi even though the mast was 20 feet away. It took 4 days to investigate this and no actual fix.

Confusingly, the kitchen tap, shows hot and cold, only does cold water

Oh look, they repaired the loo roll holder that was hanging off the night before

The shower block, shower wall coming away, you can’t see the grime in the photo (sorry)

The shower that won’t give you hot water after about 10 am, as per the staff I asked

My overall thought is that Park Dean are basically all about the money & have no interest in customer service or responding to questions raised of them

I do acknowledge that because we spent 2 hours + on the phone to customer service prior to arriving waiting for someone to answer they did give us a small discount off the cost of our holiday

This was primarily because one of their staff had phoned us and did not have all the information to hand that she needed therefore we thought that it was a #phishing scam

As with some large organisations I think that the people who are dealing with customers at face-to-face level need to have the ability, the authority and the power to actually resolve issues for them locally ,efficiently and in a timely manner . As opposed to hiding behind terms and conditions

this would have given us a whole different experience of parkdean. More like the one we had had previously

as it stands at the moment me and my family will not be using park Dean again and would discourage others

Update 01-09-20 despite being promised a call on the Saturday (7) days. We had to phone in to chase it up. No calls were being listened to, and as per parkdean, they would not have told us what accommodation location we had.

If you are thinking of a UK holiday. My suggestion if you are looking at parkdean. Be absolutely sure you know what you expect. If possible, look to any of the other suppliers of camp holidays. The service couldn’t be any worse.

One that I would avoid, as there are surely better places – The royal Saracens, Beaconsfield

Firstly,I will start with what I would describe as the good aspects of this place. The staff that are obviously instructed to be attentive, they are after your drink order pretty much as soon as your bum is on the seat. The lady we had, and I won’t name her was polite, help full and all good. She knew the range and was keen to help.

Then our food order was taken. And that was when it went wrong. Things that were in the dishes ( in my case onions, that I can’t eat) we were told we could have something else instead. But when the bill came, it was as well as, not instead of…

A long wait for food ( 20 mins) and when it arrived, very small portions on what I would consider large plates.

Food tastes ok, but I don’t think at £16.95 for a burger it’s any sort of value for money… Also the usual”is your food ok” was just a passing question from a chap who looked like a customer…
Last time we were in the Saracens was a long time ago so I don’t know if it’s changed hands.

The pictures on their www and face book are not representative of the food that is served

I would just say there must be other places in Beaconsfield that are better

Oddly enough, when I filled in the feed back card and tried to hand it in at the point of paying the bill, no one wanted to take it, can’t think why

Maybe we just had a bad time, but we did have “not the best time”

The saving grace was the staff who served us, and the meals that the people we were vising had, were all good

ASDA – FERRING – NOT supporting customer in store food donations to charities.It really isn’t about the money,Service counts for so much

Today unfortunately I have to blog about some  appalling customer service.And a shocking Lack of support for local charities shown by my local Asda Store

I had the misfortune to go to visit my local Asda Ferring to return a product which was broken.My issue is not about the actual product although I will come on to that in a short while my issue is how appalling the service was.

I had also visited the store with my youngest son to look at the Halloween goods and decorations for the house that he wanted to buy

The product i was returning was simply a pair of jeans that I had worn about 5 or 6 times the problem with the jeans was that the little tag on the zip has broken and therefore they were not usable

This should surely be a simple procedure of Taking Back the broken jeans and exchanging for a new pair however as there were none in my size available at the store  that were out on display I picked the next best suitable pair .I tried them on and decided I would take those when I went to the customer service desk who makes the transaction I was charged an additional £10.00 extra because the selected pair  were different to the ones I brought back and the ones I have brought back were possibly at the lowest price they have been sold at  since I had bought them.

I was not happy about this and therefore I dared to question this with the person who has done the exchange (Sam). Then colleagues were called   and there was lots of going to warehouses and looking for stock and another person at the customer service desk that came to help me who said “we would sort out of Goodwill” because of the mistakes.

Finally somebody came back from the warehouse with the exact same style of jeans I had brought into the store and it was a simple exchange and swap this you would think would be the end of the problem however when I went to see the lady who had told me about the Goodwill she genuine  gave me a £3 Goodwill Asda card. So trying to show my son that you pass these things on  when you get the opportunity , I told him to go and get something from the shop ( and we would top it up ) that we could give to a food bank  or a charity or some other good cause that the store was collected for.

Whilst I was talking to the lady in the store about my disgust that there was not a food bank I could give a small amount of shopping to she actually said to me that if I wanted to talk to the manager of the store he was actually walking towards us and my comment quite loudly when he came past was it’s no good talking to the managers here because nothing gets done surely this would have been some form of maybe a trigger or something that the manager could have observed and may be stopped and said is there anything I can do but no unfortunately the manager of  Asda Ferring just walked on by.

This is the whole reason for me blogging about this sorry incident I think it is disgusting that  if people want to buy food and donate to a charity of the stores choice  then there should be a facility for them to be able to do that in-store

As a family  we have done this at a Tesco store I believe we’ve also done it in Salisbury’s as well however it appears that Asda Ferring store don’t want to support the local food banks and charities that are around them at store level  and they don’t want their customers to  either  .

So in a very brief summary I personally would not use Asda Ferring because the service is terrible they’re solution is to throw  you a good will gift card at you, and then when you want to pass that on to somebody else or to another organisation and help those less fortunate you can’t do it so just for the record we gave the gift card to the next person that we saw came into the shop we pointed out (Sharon)  as the lady who had said probably that we shouldn’t do this and lady and husband that we gave it to were really really really pleased. Asda Ferring my opinion is you need to sharpen up your customer service. Whilst for you as part of the massive multinational  Chain, its all about the Profits. This is not the case when it  comes to your customers. I  also now have to explain to a young child why we can give to a charity box or trolley  in your store.

No, I was not paid for the blog, The opinions are mine based on events and service I experienced Yes, we did  give away the gift card to some one we didn’t know

 

 

Gallery Restaurant & Tea Rooms – Littlehampton ( There are better alternatives )

We popped into this restaurant for a bit of lunch today, Its right in the middle of all the Harbour park development in Littlehampton  ( west Sussex ) . Just a brief review…so here goes

Dirty Cutlery that we had to clean,No means of anyone with a wheelchair actually having a card terminal brought out to them to pay,so in this instance “the real oldmanleslie  had a freebie ” No one bringing cutlery out to you, the waiter staff behind the counter ” threw/ dropped ” the bottles of drink on a tray. and for a restaurant on the seafront serving predominantly fish, NO Tartar Sauce available. The fish was OK and enough of it.

2@scampi& chips, 1@cod & chips with 3 soft drinks £29….so not exactly “cafe ” prices

My recommendation , if its fish you want , then for take away, it has to be Freds of littlehampton and if its a restaurant then always the fish factory . both of which i have used previously and can recommend.

first one of the Holidays…in future i will take pictures

its the weekend, and its sunny, and its the school hols. so why not. suddenly realising that KFC portions are getting smaller  if you don’t ” go large” and they are candidates for the  ” nice enough tasting, but looks nothing like the picture ” 1st prize

 

I looked at the picture  of what i thought i was getting,  and realised  when my food came out , one main reason why Bloggers  take pictures of their food. What i got was nothing at all like the picture.

Over the summer holidays we are  going to be in a few different places so i guess we will get to see  if  its just a local thing to the Bognor Regis drive through  ” near halfords ” that should be avoided  if you are here on holidays 

 

NO ONE PART OF MY FOOD LOOKED LIKE THE WWW SHOWS

Subway store in bognor Regis….best avoided

For a lesson in the most complex buy one ….get one free. That actually ended up costing more…and staff that encourage people to push to the front of the queue…cold subs by the time I sorted out the drinks and general bad service…

No non fizzy juice for the kids..

This is your best bet…..

Shame really as I like the brand

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