Sloppy service at the Inn

Watching the recent TV series of Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares brought to mind the fact that, keen though some people might be, we all need direction when faced with new challenges.

When I first entered the hospitality industry, I was trained by the female equivalent of Ramsay. She was uncompromising and tyrannical, but she also had a team of extraordinarily adept operators in her stable.

Conversely, when David Bruce founded the Firkin chain of pubs back in the late Seventies, customer service and staff training were new. Bruce had studenty, beer pubs for heaven's sake - why would anyone be bothered with looking after the customer?

A quarter of a century later and Bruce, with his latest venture, a series of pubs under the Capital Pub Company moniker, is bravely going it alone with his original ethos.

One of the obvious signs of zero training is when staff fail to give you eye contact when they're serving someone else, which inevitably results in them asking the question, 'Who's next?' (It is not the role of the customer to work out the roster of service).

Further evidence comes when staff slouch over the bar and see nothing wrong in customers clearing and wiping their own tables, and emptying ashtrays. It bugs the hell out of me.

I can level this criticism at Mr Bruce as I have experienced this ineptitude at five of his venues in recent months, including two of his flagship venues - The Ladbroke Arms in Notting Hill and The Anglesea Arms in South Kensington - so I assume he just drags people in off the street and tells them to get on with it.

When I'd finished directing the management, staff and chefs (I had to explain how not to put hollandaise sauce on a plate of asparagus - the waitress had no clue what I was talking about) at Bruce's latest venture, this former coaching inn in the remote environs of Kew Gardens, I did manage to sit back and look at the place properly.

Two TV plasma screens, with roaring volume, are close to the entrance. The room is smartly done in the contemporary faux-traditional style, with a smart, no-smoking dining area, a lounge with squashy furnishings on a mezzanine level, and an attractive outside terrace with picnic tables.

The range of beers is to be applauded. Five ales were on tap when I visited - Greene King IPA, Abbot Ale, Deuchars IPA, Fuller's London Pride and Hogs Back TEA - and there was a good range of international draught and bottled lagers. An unnecessarily long wine list starts at £11 for the lamentable house offering, but has several bins in the under-£20 category. Not sure how many of the £48 Barolos they'll sell, though.