park

[elastic band]

went there last night for a birthday meal and were very disappointed -first words uttered to us were "we stop serving at 8.30pm" -this was at 8pm when we entered the bar. No good evening or even a hello. When the starters came we were given the impression of being constantly hurried ! not once but twice someone came to take the plates away when we were still eating. Main courses -very, very average -my sea bass was pretty tasteless with claggy, bland mashed potatoes and not one vegetable in sight for £14.95, one son had lasagne which was very dry, other two mains were okay but nothing special. Again we were still eating when not one but two waitresses came to clear plates away -my sons just felt they had to then really hurry up and indeed no-one felt they then wanted to finish their meals. We didn't even consider puddings -not a way to create a nice atmosphere for diners. Won't be going back.

[upolian]

went there last night for a birthday meal and were very disappointed -first words uttered to us were "we stop serving at 8.30pm" -this was at 8pm when we entered the bar. No good evening or even a hello. When the starters came we were given the impression of being constantly hurried ! not once but twice someone came to take the plates away when we were still eating. Main courses -very, very average -my sea bass was pretty tasteless with claggy, bland mashed potatoes and not one vegetable in sight for £14.95, one son had lasagne which was very dry, other two mains were okay but nothing special. Again we were still eating when not one but two waitresses came to clear plates away -my sons just felt they had to then really hurry up and indeed no-one felt they then wanted to finish their meals. We didn't even consider puddings -not a way to create a nice atmosphere for diners. Won't be going back.

Am i not glad you said this,due a meal there soon,ill be going elsewhere! Cheers

[Amowat]

Sorry, but have to disagree. We went to the Park Hotel on Sunday early evening and couldn`t fault the service or the food. Two of our party had duck from the specials menu and it was beautiful, served with lovely vegetables. One of our party had steak, and again this was well served and someone else had fish which again was very good. We found the waitress very friendly and helpful. Surely if a meal was really bad would it not be best to complain to the Management first?

[elastic band]

Re-msge from Amowat
whilst i am glad your experience was better than ours i stand by every comment i made and the only reason i did not complain to mngmt is because my son is very shy and asked me to please not say anything. He would have been mortified had i then gone ahead and complained. However, i put the comment on this site to perhaps allow others to make up their own mind did they wish to go ahead and try.

[ABC]

I find this very surprising, we eat there most weekends and can never fault the food, sometimesthe waiter leaves a bit to be desired but on a whole its great

[Gronnuck]

The phrase, "we stop serving at 8.30pm" says it all. They wanted to clear up and go home. [disgust]

[Jenni]

We often eat out at the Park and I have never had a bad meal there yet. I agree with ABC though, the waiter guy can sometimes be a bit offhand but we just ignore him as the rest of the staff are great. To be fair if you were told that the place stopped serving at 8.30pm then you should have realised that only gave you half an hour to have a meal. I think by being told that, it gave you the opportunity to either having a quick bite to eat or to go somewhere that would serve beyond that time.

[Metalattakk]

went there last night for a birthday meal*/

What time did you book your meal for?

[kazcog]

We've eaten in the Park alot and have always found the food to be good and never felt rushed. Your experience is not like the Park, I would definately suggest you should try them again some point in the future.

[WICKER10]

Been in the Park a few times and always First class service.
There Roast Beef is Excellent.
if you had a problem you should have asked to see the manager at the time as i am sure it would of been sorted there and then

[elastic band]

if you had read my post you would see why i didn't do that.

[Scarybiscuits03]

I go to the Park quite often, so much so Im getting a bit tired of the menu, in fact I was there on Fri night. Had a good meal and good service, but as others have said the waiter could do with a few lessons in customer service, but as long as you're aware that you wont get much more than a grunt out of him then all is well!

[telfordstar]

if you had read my post you would see why i didn't do that.


I read it and i totally understand why you wouldnt say anything if i was you I would probably of done the same, thing is on here you will never please some of them and i often wonder how many of them has actually been in the same shoes and actually complained themselves!!!

[elastic band]

Hi there,
thank you very much for your message -it was very thoughtful of you to take the time to respond and very much appreciated.

[KHanna]

As owner of the above establishment l was very disappointed to hear you had a poor experience. Unfortunately anonymous complaints are very hard to address, you are always best to express any dissatisfaction at the time and although l understand your reasons for not doing so, surely you could have contacted the hotel direct the next morning without your son knowing rather than this ?
LAST ORDERS on Sunday are 20.30, you can order sweets/coffees etc long after that time and staff are on duty until all guests have left. Vegetables or salad are offered with every dish on the specials and checked by kitchen so the waitress must have stated they were not wanted ? Was a shame you did not book as we like to make a fuss of any birthday boys/girls !
If you would like to contact the hotel direct we are happy to offer some form of compensation.
Karen Hanna

[MR_A]

Great post Karen Hanna!

I'm glad to see some of the establishments in Caithness pay attention to the org, as I for one feel reputations can both be built and heavily tarnished on here.

I love the fact you come right out and say who you are and what can/will be done to rectify the situation.

I generally base meals out on what I read on the org as hate paying for poor quality or service. Like elastic band I am not one for complaining as I feel completely uncomfortable in such a situation but I too would post on here to make people aware.

Unfortunately living in Wick I haven't been in the Park in a long time but some very close friends and family rave about how great the food is.

[Poppy_88]

I feel it's very sneaky, as well as possibly damaging to local business, for people to complain anonymously on a local forum, especially in a RECOMMENDATIONS thread. Especially if they have not even made the Hotel aware of their dissatisfaction.

If you are unhappy with the service, bring it to the management's attention. Most decent establishments will go out of their way to apologise, and rectify the situation, to ensure a happy customer and maintain their reputation. If you are happy with everything, shout it from the roof tops. Perhaps you could even post your delight on the internet for local people to see (!)

Every public-serving business (from hotel, hairdresser, gift-shop etc) welcomes feedback, it is essential to improving the overall customer experience. I'm personally sick of seeing local businesses being slated, and hope sensible people will just ignore such childishness and make up their own minds.

[mama2]

I feel it's very sneaky, as well as possibly damaging to local business, for people to complain anonymously on a local forum, especially in a RECOMMENDATIONS thread. Especially if they have not even made the Hotel aware of their dissatisfaction.

If you are unhappy with the service, bring it to the management's attention. Most decent establishments will go out of their way to apologise, and rectify the situation, to ensure a happy customer and maintain their reputation. If you are happy with everything, shout it from the roof tops. Perhaps you could even post your delight on the internet for local people to see (!)

Every public-serving business (from hotel, hairdresser, gift-shop etc) welcomes feedback, it is essential to improving the overall customer experience. I'm personally sick of seeing local businesses being slated, and hope sensible people will just ignore such childishness and make up their own minds.

I totally agree with this. I have seen on more than 1 occasion people slagging off establishments on the org that they have a personal grievance with. It's bang out of order as you can hide behind an assumed name with no come back. How can they improve the situation if they are not made aware of it in the 1st place.

[jaykay]

I totally agree with this. I have seen on more than 1 occasion people slagging off establishments on the org that they have a personal grievance with. It's bang out of order as you can hide behind an assumed name with no come back. How can they improve the situation if they are not made aware of it in the 1st place.

I am 100% in agreement with your comments and I feel that this is something that our orgmaster should be addressing. It is completely outrageous that these people can anonymously slag off businesses without having the decency to at least discuss their grievence with the business concerned. It should be remembered that not every business person in Caithness goes on the org so therefore they can have there businesses slated without even knowing it is happening. I am also quite sure that the "recommendations" message board was never intended as a means to slag off local businesses.

[NorthernValeting]

Well done to Karen for coming on the org and trying to sort this out.

Have been to the Park several times and food is always good

[Poppy_88]

Thank you very much to the people who sent me 4 messages of positive feedback on my post, I wasn't aware you could do such a thing on a forum! :)

I'm certainly not trying to offend anyone in any way, just put a simple and widely agreed opinion across. There is not a thread on this site for anonymous dissing, for a very good reason, so let's get busy anonymously recommending our local businesses like we ought to be doing!

[Bobinovich]

We have had many threads on here making negative recommendations about local businesses - wherever there is a recommendation, you will usually find someone who has had an equally bad experience. It is rare when there are absolutely no bad comments - off the top of my head only business such as the consistently excellent Wickers World have managed such a feat.

Even my own business has had a less than favourable comment made. However on further discussion and investigation it turned out that the poster was not in full receipt of the facts - I was able to put them right, and even received an apology for their post.

Did I feel any malice or dismay at that? No I didn't. I realise that a local forum such as the Org is an excellent way to gain feedback (anonymous or otherwise, positive or negative) on my (or any other) business - it is then UP TO ME to determine if that puts me off using said business.

Many people do not like face-to-face confrontations, myself included. Some of those who have made face-to-face complaints to some local businesses have reported here being abused verbally or physically, manhandled off the premesis, or often just being ignored or fobbed off with an 'having an off day' excuse, so it's no wonder some refuse to make a personal complaint and prefer to use an anonymous method instead.

There is nothing stopping any business from registering (as many have done) and answering the post directly.

[EDDIE]

went there last night for a birthday meal and were very disappointed -first words uttered to us were "we stop serving at 8.30pm" -this was at 8pm when we entered the bar. No good evening or even a hello. When the starters came we were given the impression of being constantly hurried ! not once but twice someone came to take the plates away when we were still eating. Main courses -very, very average -my sea bass was pretty tasteless with claggy, bland mashed potatoes and not one vegetable in sight for £14.95, one son had lasagne which was very dry, other two mains were okay but nothing special. Again we were still eating when not one but two waitresses came to clear plates away -my sons just felt they had to then really hurry up and indeed no-one felt they then wanted to finish their meals. We didn't even consider puddings -not a way to create a nice atmosphere for diners. Won't be going back.

Ive had meals in the park hotel before and have always enjoyed them and the food was spot on and will go back there again if were eating out totally recommend the park hotel for good food.
I think everyones different for me i hate the wait times between getting and going on to the next course in any restaurant but thats my pet hate
If your not happy with the service you should have told the waitress there and then your concern so they could have the opportunity to sort it out

[zzzzzzz]

I went to the Park on a Sat night 730 - 8ish about a month ago havn't been there in years. We didn't book which I now know was stupid I didn't realise how busy it would be but still the staff were very nice I do know the Italian waiter so understand how some people may take him wrong, but on that night he just said sorry we are very busy would you like to wait and we all decided we would we had a drink at the bar and the barmaid was really nice and had a laugh with us after 20mins I think of waiting we were taken to our table (this is not a dig we didn't book and we had been given the choice to wait) we all thought the meal was fantastic and my partner had steak which was perfectly cooked aswel as my duck we all got piles of sides which I actually don't think we finished but my veg was cooked great as usually I find I don't like veg in restaurants especially when they come on the side always seem soggy but not here. we did feel we waited sometime inbetween courses but I don't think they expected to be quite so busy and others I spoke to hadn't booked either so thats not a complaint as I have worked in this industry and I know how stressful it can get when so many people come in at the same time but since then I have done nothing but rave about the place it was a good price great food and great service I now just keep trying to find an excuse to go back. Big thumbs up and I also think thats great the owner replying to this aswel :D

[crashbandicoot1979]

I went to the Park on a Sat night 730 - 8ish about a month ago havn't been there in years. We didn't book which I now know was stupid I didn't realise how busy it would be but still the staff were very nice I do know the Italian waiter so understand how some people may take him wrong, but on that night he just said sorry we are very busy would you like to wait and we all decided we would we had a drink at the bar and the barmaid was really nice and had a laugh with us after 20mins I think of waiting we were taken to our table (this is not a dig we didn't book and we had been given the choice to wait) we all thought the meal was fantastic and my partner had steak which was perfectly cooked aswel as my duck we all got piles of sides which I actually don't think we finished but my veg was cooked great as usually I find I don't like veg in restaurants especially when they come on the side always seem soggy but not here. we did feel we waited sometime inbetween courses but I don't think they expected to be quite so busy and others I spoke to hadn't booked either so thats not a complaint as I have worked in this industry and I know how stressful it can get when so many people come in at the same time but since then I have done nothing but rave about the place it was a good price great food and great service I now just keep trying to find an excuse to go back. Big thumbs up and I also think thats great the owner replying to this aswel :D

I haven't been to the Park for a while, but I agree with your comment about the veg - for me the veg is an important part of my meal but its usually a soggy afterthought in most places, but the veg in the Park is always cooked perfectly and much better than the usual frozen peas and overcooked carrots that most places give you. Can't say I've ever had a bad meal here, the foods always been fine.

[Bazeye]

I had kippers for breakfast once in The Park in 1985. They were delicious.

[rogermellie]

I had kippers for breakfast once in The Park in 1985. They were delicious.


i agree, i had the same ones 2 weeks ago and they were eye wateringly tasty

[Bazeye]

i agree, i had the same ones 2 weeks ago and they were eye wateringly tasty

The same ones? Did they smell a bit funny?

[espadartecars]

On a more positive note my family went to the park for a bar supper on saturday night and said they could not fault a thing.
Got the last table in the bar and said food was lovely,:lol:

[Swannie]

Hubby and I had a bar meal in the Park last night and couldn't fault the quality, quantity or service. The staff were friendly and the atmosphere was very relaxed although both lounge and dining room were busy. It's been a while since we've been there we will return.:lol:

[bish667]

Last time I ate at the Park it was the best steak I'd had in many years.