Pub forced to apologise after ‘joke’ Christmas meal which skipped dessert

A boozer has been forced to apologise after serving up a lacklustre Christmas dinner that punters branded a 'joke'.

The George and Dragon pub in Staffordshire was hit by multiple complaints after three members of staff were no-shows when it came to cooking the most anticipated meal of the year.

While most of us would imagine that a pub Christmas dinner would be guaranteed to be a winner, customers were left more than a little disappointed when they were served the likes of 'cold' soup and 'burnt' stuffing, 'Yorkshire puddings that looked like pancakes' and a total absence of dessert.

A total travesty for anyone with a sweet tooth, we have to admit - and it was apparently all down to the kitchen closing at just 4pm.

Punter Debbie Conway said it's a Christmas dinner she won't be forgetting in a hurry - but not for any of the reasons we imagine she'd hoped for.

She told Stoke on Trent Live: "When the main arrived, I had ordered sea bass, it was cold, I had to search for the fish, and there wasn't enough to make into a fish finger.

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"The prawns were only cooked on one side. No management came to see us - we had to find them."

Claire Trenfield, another hopeful diner, said that things were so bad that her party of 12 actually gave up on their meal at the pub.

"We were in the party of 12 that left without waiting for our desserts to be served. It was an absolute joke," she said.

Another angry customer, meanwhile, took to TripAdvisor to express their disappointment about their Christmas dinner.

They wrote: "The main meals arrived with a few small bits of turkey, pigs in blankets, burnt stuffing, rock hard vegetables, cold beef gravy for turkey, and no cranberry.

"I partly ate mine because I was starving. We did not wait for the sweets to be served. Other parties in the upstairs dining area had the same experience we had."

Another reviewer joked that the pub table would have probably made a better Christmas dinner than the food that was served.

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They wrote: "I was ready to start eating the table - and it would probably have been the tastier option. Overcooked veg, a Yorkshire pudding that resembled a slightly puffed-up pancake, and gravy that was just brown water."

Marston's, which runs the pub, subsequently issued an apology for the disappointing Christmas dinners.

A spokesperson told LADbible: "We are extremely sorry that our guests had a disappointing time on Christmas Day. We had three members of the team who didn't show up for the later shift and unfortunately errors were made.

"We have spoken to the customers directly to apologise and resolved the situation. The standards were not up to what our customers should have expected and for that we are very sorry."