Camping Adventures ..... 2 kids, 2 adults .... no car - Tower Bar and Grill @ Alton Towers (review)

As you'll already know when we went to Alton Towers we decided to experience The Tower Bar and Grill.  This is situated right near the entrance/ exit and serves right up until 7pm.  A word of advice tho we left around 6.15pm and the place was packed, people were queueing for seats.



Menu

The menu is very simple and basic but with something for everyone and designated kids options.

I had a bacon and cheese burger with chips and it was probably one of the best burgers I've had in a long time.  Hubby had the gammon, he was rather disappointed in this (having had melt in the mouth gammon the night before) and had to find a member of staff to request a steak knife as it was too tough to cut normally.   Noah had chicken goujons and chips which he wolfed down, however Ben went for just fries.  He refused to have goujons as they "weren't chicken nuggets".  No amount of explaining would make him opt for them.  **strange child**



Experience

Upon entering the building you are shown to your table and given menus, you would be mistaken for thinking you would be getting a restaurant experience for the price you are paying.

Just like a far cheaper chain pub you are expected to go to the bar to order your meals, where there is one slow member of staff to serve everyone.  

The food is served relatively quickly and then you never see the staff again.  No ones checks if your meal is ok.

Noah hadn't eaten all his chips by the time we had to go so (with 2 fast food establishments backing into the building) I found and asked a member of staff if it was possible to have a takeaway box to put them in.  I got a resounding "what?!" off him.  I repeated my requested explaining why and got told "probably, got and ask a member of serving staff".  Clearly he was only employed to empty tables and this request was a bit too tricky for him. How I was supposed to differentiate between the different staff when they were all about 18 and all wearing black is anyone's guess.  So we ended up leaving half a meal.

The kids also wanted doughnuts for desert (as they are one of the establishments backing on so the amazing smell wafted through) but we were too short of time to eat in (and it would have cost us almost £20 for 4).    I nipped outside to get some but unfortunately the queue was horrendous.  It would have been fantastic if you could have bought some to takeaway in the restaurant but sadly they only offered eat in sundae options.

Price

Prices vary from around £6 for a child's meal to £12 ish for an adults so it is far from the cheap chain pub prices and the service was a lot more disappointing.

Was the food worth the money?  My burger was and Noah's chicken was lovely, as for the gammon, no.  As for the non-existent service the staff need some customer service training.

I was absolutely gutted that I forgot to let them know I was a Merlin Annual Pass Holder as it would have saved us 20%.  But at the end of a longggg day I just wanted to get settled and eat, it would have been nice for the waitress/ bar staff/ server (whoever she was) to have asked if I had a pass (just like shops ask for a loyalty card).

Would we eat here again?

No.  If I am paying almost £40 for a meal I expect a decent meal with a high level of customer service.  Not a do-it-yourself ordering system and rude staff.

(apologies for the lack of photo's on this post, for some reason I completely forgot to take any).