Prince Alfred & Formosa Dining Room

We live around the corner from the Prince Alfred and for many years this used to be our absolute favourite place to eat and drink locally. We had lunch there today with our family and were terribly embarrassed to have brought them there after a disastrous meal. The food is not up to scratch by any standards, the service poor and we had to wait almost an hour and a half for our main courses during a fairly quiet lunch service with barely half a restaurant full of diners. One of our drinks orders was not brought to the table with all the other drinks but despite pointing this out to the waitress the drink never ever arrived. All we got was a confused look from the waitress and a deep sigh.

We paid rather a lot for the meal and left feeling disappointed and deflated. The food sat badly in all of us for the rest of day so much so that we lost our appetites for dinner in the evening. A huge disappointment for what used to be one of our favourites.
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1 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Saturday, January 28, 2012

This restaurant isn't half bad compared to how bad it used to be. The food can be quite okay, and the service is fine. Try the lunch weekday special if you really need convincing that things have changed.

Weekends are a child friendly environment and there is room for the whole family.
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Roland H - View all reviews by this user
6 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
Sunday, April 17, 2011

You might as well chuck your money down the toilet..... this place is crying out for new management..... After reading the poor reviews i thought it can't be that bad, given its fantastic location - but it woz... Thankfully we only had bar food instead of joining the real muppets in the restaurant. First, they only had about half the food on the bar menu available, this was only revealed after payment had been taken, when alternative cheaper options were shown no discount was offered, third when the so called Beegam freezer section food turned up it was only half of what we ordered, fourth the guy behind the bar then just walked away as we complained. Is this how you operate a retail establishment in the credit crunch??.... Finally after complaining again we did get two free pints, but quite frankly by this stage the lager had gone sour...

Please, Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, Gary Rhodes take this place over as it has the location and image…
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0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Very poor tasteless food. Every dish was under-seasoned, very small portions, and every dish was lacking in flavour.

We were so dissapointed with our meal here and won't ever be returning again until they change the chef - and get some more imaginative vegetarian food on the menu.
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2 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 0
Sunday, June 06, 2010

I am a local to this area and whilst a drink in the pub is great, the restaurant here is very different. I went there around a year ago, on a Sunday evening and was unimpressed and with the standard of the food in comparison to the prices they charge. However I decided to give it a second chance this weekend. Big mistake. Nothing had changed. Too much money for below average dishes. I heard the diners to the right of me ask for their service charge to be removed and had to admit they had a point. There are better places to eat round here. I definitely won't be back.
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3 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 2
Sunday, February 07, 2010

Made a relatively last minute booking for ten for holiday drinks followed by dinner. Revisions to numbers and timings were all handled exceedingly well and the service and food were very good. This is my third visit in the past year and all have been very positive. A few minor detais if I wanted to nitpick but nothing serious enough to impact negativel on the evening. Not generally a fan of the gastro-pub genre but the balance of quality, interesting food options and value for money I feel are good.
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8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Thursday, January 07, 2010

This used to be my favourite place. The food is great, atmosphere very nice, although it can get a little bit noisy. I had a bad experience on my last visit however with the service, arrogance and rudeness of the staff and manager.

I can appreciate that kitchens get hot and people get frustrated but the staff and manager made no effort to address our problems. So our group - 10 of us left there and went over the road to the pizza place. Even after emailing them the following day, the manager replied and basically called me a liar. Not sure what ever happened to the customer is always right. My girlfriend and I live right around the corner and have visited there regularly, they must be doing well though if they are prepared to lose thousands of pounds of business by being stubborn and arrogant. Judging from the other reviews and my experience it seems the management and staff could benefit from a course in customer service.

Won't be going back.
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6 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 6
Tuesday, September 08, 2009