A Swindon restaurant has issued an apology after poor service led to one family claiming it had ruined their Christmas.

One family hoping to celebrate Christmas Day at the Hall and Woodhouse pub in Wichelstowe were left waiting an hour and a half for their food - and in the end decided to leave without being served.

One family said it led to her two-year-old daughter getting stressed and restless in a busy pub.

The mother, who wishes to remain anonymous, said of her experience: “It did ruin Christmas.

“We decided to go to take the stress off the day but it was just a disaster.

“It was getting stressful because our little girl was going hungry and it was getting hard to keep her entertained.

“It was just disappointing, I couldn’t believe it, they open every week for Sunday roast, a Christmas dinner is so similar to a Sunday roast, so I don’t know how they get it so wrong."

The family chose to eat at Hall & Woodhouse on Christmas Day because they thought it would mean they would get to spend more time together rather than have the parents disappear while they made dinner.

They arrived at the pub, on Peglars Way, at 1.30pm, having pre-ordered their food, but after 30 minutes still had not received their starters.

By this point, their two-year-old was starting to get restless as she had not eaten. The woman asked staff for her daughters' starter to be brought out as it was not an item that needed cooking, she was told this could be done however no food was brought out.

The woman claims that there was another person who was waiting to be seated for more than 45 minutes.

By 3pm, none of their food had been brought out and they made the decision to leave the restaurant as they needed to feed their daughter.

The trio were then forced to go home and order a curry from one of the only takeaway restaurants that was open on Christmas Day.

The family say they were incredibly disappointed by the experience and said that they were not offered an apology by staff.

James Newman-Webb, General Manager at H&W Wichelstowe, said: “As a proudly family-run business we wholly understand the importance of getting Christmas right. At H&W Wichelstowe, we regret that our service fell below our expectations and standards on December 25th.

“Having reviewed guest feedback from Christmas Day, while many guests enjoyed celebrating at H&W Wichelstowe, it is evident a number of guests felt their experience fell well below expectations.

“I wish to extend my deepest apologies to all families who didn’t receive a quality service on Christmas Day.

"This is not the standard we pride ourselves on at Hall & Woodhouse and we work hard to make every guest’s day. I am contacting all affected groups to offer my personal apologies.

“We understand that this was an isolated drop in service quality as a result of operational challenges with the Christmas Day booking process.

"We are committed to learning from our errors and have already begun implementing improvements to ensure H&W Wichelstowe offers a high-quality hospitality experience for every guest, every time.”

TripAdvisor reviews for the restaurant appear to show that the family were not alone in having a poor experience on Christmas Day.

One user described it as the "worst Christmas dinner ever", and another claimed it also ruined their day.