Ballards At The Royal Albion - Thanet

We were looking forward to a good roast lunch as a family, but were left disappointed. We dined as a group of 9 and there were lots of little issues that led to a bad experience. The roasts were advertised as beef, pork and vegetarian outside, but on the actual menus there was chicken, beef and vegetarian, when we asked the waitress about the pork it was shrugged off and we were told they didn 't have it. Not really the end of the world, but a shame. Then when we asked for a wine list we were told they didn 't have one and had to choose a wine from the list of Merlot, Shiraz etc etc . Then when the wine arrived the glass had lipstick on it. I wanted to order a mulled cider which was advertised, but they didn 't have it. We placed our food order quite quickly, we ordered 4 of the chicken roasts which were described as coming with cranberry sauce, and one of our party didn 't want cranberry so asked for it without which was noted down and repeated back to us by the waitress. We ordered some sourdough to come as soon as possible to tide us over while we waited for the food. We must have waited nearly 45 mins for a small sourdough roll £4) and the main meals were about an hour after ordering. The chicken roasts all arrived without cranberry sauce and when we queried it with the waitress we were told they don 't do it . I pointed out that it was in the meal description. The food was tasty and portions were decent but there were so many little issues and the long wait really let it down. When I was halfway through eating my chicken the waitress brought a dish of cranberry sauce that she had found ! At the end of the meal we expressed our concerns to our waitress but they were shrugged off and there seemed to be no recognition that it had been a poor experience.

I have to disagree with the negative reviews. Our family gathering of 4 cousins and our spouses had a wonderful dinner experience. The service was outstanding and friendly, the food was delicious, and the wine selection was excellent (especially the NZ Sauvignon Blanc). In my opinion, the prices were reasonable despite the inflation. Some people are too picky! Congratulations to the hotel team for a job well done!

Superb Sunday lunch, very tasty well presented and so delicious. The staff were friendly and welcoming

Extremely disappointed. Didn’t get all items on the full English menu considering it cost £11 per breakfast!

Visited early Saturday evening and it was busy so had to wait a while for food, fair enough. The fish and chips were good but the burger was very very poor the bun was rock hard and inedible and the burger itself overcooked and looked like a small burger from the freezer aisle. We did complain but were just told that feedback would be given to the kitchen and nothing else… great but I’ve just paid £15 for a portion of chips that came with it. I don’t really want to deal with confrontation on a family meal so just left it at that but would have been happy to pay for the chips and not the burger. In summary, the food might be good or might be inedible but if it’s inedible then there is no refund.