The Dundas Arms

Yet another wonderful Butcomb pub. I am never disappointed at the location, service and quality of the pubs we have visited and stayed in. The Dundas Arms was no exception. Wonderful location, Sunday lunch was perfect and fantastic gluten free puddings. Highly recommended!

Ok so this place looked lovely... It wasnt good at all and in fact really weird and badly run. Now I will tell you the events as they happened. 😳 We booked a table for 6 via email and said there was one gluten free and they said they could cater for that so all seemed well. When we arrive we were shown to a table inside on a lovely sunny day when there were lots of lovely tables outside in the shade that would have been much nicer. We asked if we could eat outside (other people were and there were plenty of tables) and were told no because they only served to a few of the tables and they were taken. We asked if we could be served inside and then take out food outside to eat and then bring all the plates back inside and were told no like this "no, please don't do that... There would be riots, literally this place is weird there would be riots." So we moved table to a different and nicer indoor one and we're given menus. The gluten free menu looked great, plenty of selection. Then I came across giant cous cous on the menu which seemed a bit weird as cous cous isn't normally gluten free but I gave them the benefit of the doubt. We all ordered starters and mains and after a long time a waitress came over to tell me they didn't have any meatballs to give me the starter I'd chosen... So I chose the mackerel instead. Then a period of time passes and the starters comes out missing mine (the gluten free mackerel) and everyone has nearly finished theirs when a waitress comes to the table and says 'the mackerel' and I say yes and then she gives me a prawn cocktail... I am very confused. I call the lady back as she dropped of the dish and legged it. I ask why did they say mackerel and give me prawns and she said 'sorry but we don't have any mackerel but this is gluten free'. Now I have never been to a restaurant where they chose your food for you but I told them that I don't eat prawns (they don't agree with me) and so they asked me what I would like instead and I said I'd just skip starter as everyone had finished theirs now and they went away... Sometime later they came out to tell me they didn't have any of the main I had ordered and what would I like, so I rechose. Then they came out to tell me that the menu they had given me had been replaced and they didn't have any of the things on it now and gave me the normal menu for a couple of dashes on it. One thing came with fries so I asked 'are your fries cooked with other things that have gluten like fish or onion rings?' and was told yes... Meaning that when they say their fries were gluten free, they mean they are definitely not gluten free. So I ordered something that should not have gluten in it (that I wasn't super keen on but seemed the only option) and at least now my food came out with the rest. A very very salt duck with salty cabbage and salty mash. It was edible. We then looked at their pudding menus which they brought and we ordered and were told that they'd closed the kitchen for 30mins as they had a lot of orders (this place was way less than 50% full) so we ordered drinks and were told they'd closed the bar for 20mins so they could wash some glasses. 😳😑 They then added 15% service to the bill which we asked to be removed as it had been laughably bad. We had tried to speak to them and tell them we'd been waiting and had been rebuffed. Soooooo weird. Have never experienced a place like it. We paid, left and won't be back. They say they have a gluten free menu but the place seems to be so chaotically run that I wouldn't go back. Mental! Decide for. Yourself... Here is a picture of what they gave me saying mackerel pate.