Premier Inn Stansted Airport

Youseff our waiter this evening was brilliant. We have stayed at the hotel and eaten at this restaurant numerous times and this was by far the best. No waiting around for a drink, meals served in good time but not rushed. Youseff was very responsive and kept the other staff on their toes Food was also a lot better this time.Thanks to all the team for a good experience tonight.

We travel around the UK a lot so stay in a lot of Premier Inns and this by far is the worst restaurant we have ever experienced. We were showed to our very cosy table of 6, 2 of whom where our young children. The restaurant was not busy at all. The waiter came over and asked what we wanted to order so we ordered a couple of starters then my husband wanted a steak. The waiter then advised oh we don 't have steak . OK I 'll have lasagne instead please. Oh we don 't have any of that either! So my husband asked what else don 't they have before he went onto his 3rd choice. The waiter advised that they don 't have any steaks, mixed grills, lasagne or pizzas. Therefore not a lot of choice left! Surely that 's the 1st thing you tell your customers?? In the end he settled for a curry. My children wanted spaghetti bolognaise so I asked if they had it. The waiter said he would have to check so off he popped. To my relief they did have it so I ordered this with garlic bread. He then came back and asked what sides they wanted. I didnt really know what to order with spaghetti bolognaise but as it was included I just ordered corn on the cob and peas. Sitting waiting patiently for our food when the waiter turns around and asks if we want all our food served together. Now in any other restaurant, we usually take this to mean do we want the kids food served with the adults so we just said yes. A few minutes later, my order, a chilli con carne appeared and was placed down infront of me. I asked where my starter was and the very short tempered waitress stated you wanted all your food together? To which I agreed but assumed as I 'd ordered a starter, that would come out 1st.....clue being in the word starter ??? So I told her I didn 't want that yet and would like to start with my starter to which she huffed and took my meal away. The starters came out a few minutes later, this time by different staff again. This was ok but totally not as described in the menu!!! Far from it!!! Shortly after this my kids spaghetti bolognaise arrived. Well....all I can say is that I saw it was inedible as soon as it was put infront of my kids. I investigated with my knife and fork.....it was just a congealed mess and stone cold. The peas and corn on the cob were a shriveled up dried pathetic mess on the side of the plate. Then my chilli arrived so I tried it....absolutely stone cold, clearly left on the side under a heat lamp. At this point, I lost my mind and sent mine and my kids meals back, asking the waiter how on earth they could serve stuff so inedible. My husbands curry was also like warm but he was so hungry he ate half of it. I complained to our waiter and told him we were off to McDonalds. All the staff wanted to do was stand around and chat and clearly didn 't give 2 hoots about their customers or what they were serving them.

An absolute car crash from start to finish. Reception advised we book a table as they were busy so we did. As we sat down the “waiter” advised that some items were crossed off the menu as they had run out. Opening the menu, half the items were unavailable. We decided on fish and chips and a starter to share and ordered 2 drinks. Our server advised that the fish wasn’t hand battered but oven baked in breadcrumbs and that they had no tartar sauce left. When we asked why she muttered something about Brexit and Covid! No discount was offered for the substandard fish and chips advertised at a staggering £14.95 so we ordered a cheese burger with additional maple cured bacon at an extra £2 and a veggie burger on a brioche bun. A table of 6 came in after us and 2 tables of 2 who all got drinks served and we were still sitting there without any. The restaurant wasn’t even half full and I counted at least 8 serving staff who all seemed to be walking around with food in their hands not sure where it was supposed to go, or taking full uneaten plates back to the kitchen all whilst giggling, flicking their hair and not a single mask in sight. We should have realised then and gone to McDonalds next door or ordered a delivery. We asked our server if she had forgotten our drinks and she seemed clueless. The other tables then got their starters so we called her over again and she just said she would go and check. We had been sitting there 45 minutes and still didn’t even have a drink. They finally arrived and after sitting in a taxi for 2 and a half hours from Great Yarmouth were very welcome. Our starter arrived an hour after ordering and was nice. After watching the other tables have their mains, finish and pay while we were STILL waiting for our mains all we could say was “we should have stayed at the Hilton”. A server turned up with a burger and stood at our table in silence. When we asked what it was she said a burger. My husband said I asked for a cheese burger with bacon, where’s the bacon? The server launched into a rant about she just brings the food she doesn’t make it it’s not her fault and if he carries on having a go at her she will call management. My husband merely asked where his bacon was, then proceeded to say you work here therefore it is your responsibility to check the order. He should have said, give me a chip off that plate to put on your other shoulder but he didn’t. The burger wasn’t even for us as she then gave it to someone else. Our meals finally arrived and were underwhelming. The over inflated prices and substandard food is just not acceptable especially considering we had just spent 2 weeks in Great Yarmouth where fish, chips, mushy peas and yes tartar sauce are on every menu. I suggest the staff do some work experience at Wetherspoons which have quadruple the amount of items on their menu and far greater footfall of customers who all seem to get served on time with a friendly smile. The bacon was minuscule not even half a rasher (see picture) also check the picture on the front of the menu, trades description I think! The brioche buns were not at all and were rock hard. No onion or tomato was found even though the menu stated that it was served with both. The bill should have been £62 the most expensive meal in the 2 weeks we had just had but we refused to pay for both meals. As a vegetarian I don’t go to McDonalds but I’m sure I could have found something to eat at a quarter of the price and better quality.

Stayed here a few times for work and the food is very average at best, certainly wouldn 't pay my own money for it. Today 's salad with a 'dressing ' was very poor, the salad before has looked a bit on the edge of going off so I guess they decided to drown it in French dressing instead to hide that. Add to that a rowdy bunch watching football on their phones in the restaurant that the staff didn 't seem to care less about and all in all, a very unpleasant experience!

I'm rolling my eyes writing this half a day later. The layout is weak at best, but once seated in the dining room we were ready to order. The food came out relatively quickly. My wife hated mine and I hated here, however together we both liked the food. The curry surprised me. It was really good. However, I added chicken and it was very clearly a frozen Tyson chicken breast. Cut and dry. We both decided because we liked our food and drinksthat we'd only eat half and get a dessert to split. We asked the waitress to box the food, to go, in a take away bag. I said it three ways because she kept looking at me but not really engaging and I wasn't sure if I was suddenly a mute or if she was daft. Well, long story short we paid 50 pounds to eat half a meal and when we asked the server where our food was she just kind of shrugged it off, no refund or replacement offered. Keep in mind that all this would have actually been fine. I wouldn't have even blinked. Everyone has bad days. That's cool. What wasn't cool is that we watched a large party next to us served by our server get their check immediately. The same for the 2 tables in front of us. However, and still a mystery to me, we didn't get our check for over an hour after dessert. We didn't have drinks. There was absolutely no purpose for us to be there. We asked multiple people for our server, our check, waived people down, etc. We couldn't have been more proactive without being rude if we tried. I don't know if they wanted us to stare at the ugly colored walls, the 1982 wallpaper, or grandma's outside smoking tables. But I assure you no one comes for the deco. We ended up ordering Indian takeaway food later for 1/3 the price and 2x the quality. We won't make the same mistake again.