Beefeater Gloucester – The Longford Inn #Review

This Father’s Day Beefeater are offering dads the opportunity to tuck into a 6oz* Flat Iron Steak for FREE (or they can upgrade to one of their favourite cuts) when someone else orders a main meal after 5pm.

“Beefeater offers a selection of the best cuts, cooked to sizzling perfection. Each mouth-watering Beefeater steak is primed for greatness; aged for exactly 21 days and then grilled by specifically trained chefs. Meat lovers can choose from a wide range including a lean and tender ’74 signature steak’, a centre cut ‘8oz sirloin’ that balances leanness with a juicy flavour and a ’10oz Rib-Eye’ super succulent steak.” With over 140 restaurants nationwide, with affordable quality and great value offers.

Beefeater Gloucester – The Longford Inn

I was asked if I would like to do a review ahead of the Father’s day offer, and as it was my 12^th wedding anniversary I gladly agreed. We were booked in at the Beefeater Gloucester – The Longford Inn for 12 noon as a table of 6. We were provided with £50 worth of vouchers through the post.

Initial impressions of Beefeater Gloucester – The Longford Inn

We normally visit the Beefeater in Cheltenham (The Cross Hands), rather than Gloucester. It immediately felt that it was lighter and more spacious at Gloucester. I do not like to be late so arrived at a couple of minutes to 12 noon, which I made allowances for when standing around waiting.  After about 5 minutes a lady asked us if we had booked a table, but no-one seemed to know anything about it. The restaurant was very quiet at this point. The lady apologized lots and explained that someone had called in sick. The Sensory Seeker had spotted the picture of a cow on the lady’s t-shirt and said, “hello cow lady!” It sounded a bit rude so I apologised and explained what he meant. He really liked the Beefeater cow and so the lady placed us on a table with the cow above us.

The Good at Beefeater Gloucester – The Longford Inn

The menus and the offers seemed straight forward. There was a fantastic Mr Men menu for the children and we were impressed that they could have steak, as we haven’t often found that in restaurants. There was a good choice of meals and our selections were carefully taken, making sure things were to be cooked exactly as we had wanted them. The food was fantastic, well cooked, well presented and tasty. There was a very tasty range of desserts.

The staff, although slow, were very accommodating (I did not let them know I was there for a review). My son knocked over his Pepsi and they gave us napkins to clean it up, and immediately got him a fresh drink. When he knocked his fries on to the floor they ordered him some more. The Mr. Men activity books were really good, and kept the children entertained for a long time – I liked how they had two different levels of difficulty. The toilets were clean and tidy, and easily accessible. There were three sets according to my children. Pepsi refills were easy to obtain from the bar.

The Bad at Beefeater Gloucester – The Longford Inn

They were very slow.  We had to ask for the Mr Men activity books – and that was because the children were starting to get irritable. It was 1pm before we got any food and we were in there for three hours just for mains and puddings (in fact my family had left whilst I sat waiting for the bill still). Children were getting bored (not just my own). My biggest annoyance I feel is my own fault but the waiter clearly said (as I checked like a gazillion times) that the milk shakes were part of the children’s meals and FREE. I ordered one each for the boys with their kids’ meals despite the fact that it said on the menu that SQUASH and MILK are what were free. But again I was told that no, fruit shoots and everything were with the meal, and that the prices were for EXTRA drinks. Sure enough I was charged the £3.40 for the two milkshakes. I also did not like how it was unclear how to get a refill for the Pepsi and when my 11 year old asked (as many places we go to have a refill machine) he was sent to the BAR – which I did not think was legal, with him being under 14 years of age. Despite spending almost £100 I was not asked if I had a Beefeater Reward Club card, nor whether I would like one.

I understand completely the very nature of the restaurant being a “beef” eater, but there were steak knives in every position. We had to remove the one by The Sensory Seeker’s place immediately, and later on one of the knives was not collected (even after my son with Asperger’s got agitated enough to ask the waiter to remove it, but instead took our refillable Pepsi glasses). The Sensory Seeker managed to pick it up and start waving it around and it was lucky that nothing more serious happened as my oldest son took it off him. I appreciate that this has a lot to do with my son’s special needs but think that with a lot of young children it would be better that these sharp objects were not just on the table.

Conclusions

Personally based on my experience I would not risk going to this particular Beefeater on Father’s Day as it was not that busy last weekend (plus they had run out of beef for the roast) and it took a long time. I would not want such a special day to feel so unimportant. I appreciate that the slow service may be down to them being a member of staff down, but I have never had such problems at the Cheltenham branch. I have no problem with Beefeater as a whole and really enjoyed their range of foods.

* Approx weight uncooked.

I received a £50 voucher for Beefeater which covered some of the cost of our meal. This is an honest review, all words and opinions are my own.