My husband and I came here for dinner a few weeks ago after much anticipation. We had heard some great things about 185 Watling but we also heard so-so things as well, so we decided to find out for ourselves.
Let me just preface this with the fact that 185 Watling is probably the nicest restaurant in terms of aesthetics in Towcester. The decor is really fabulous and the energy in the restaurant is certainly bustling. There really is no competition for them, so now I understand why we had to take a 9pm reservation (we didn't book far in advance).
Overall, service was great and attentive. We really enjoyed our time here but the food was just hit or miss. For a starter we decided to share the charcuterie board and to be honest, it was basically just like eating some ham slices from Tesco and some other meats. Overall it was a weak dish and typically meat dishes are enough to share - my husband and I were battling each other for the meat (literally two pieces of ham and two pieces of chorizo and then a chunk of foie gras). For the mains, they knocked it out of the park (excuse the expression, it's American for REALLY F'ING GOOD). My husband had the porterhouse steak and I had the fish special. We both were really happy with our meals and were basically licking the plate at the end. The dessert (which I can't remember if it was a special or if it has just been removed from the menu) was some weird merengue with rhubarb and it was just disappointing.
It was our anniversary so they gave us a complimentary glass of Prosecco (which was very kind of them) and we were able to sit at our table and polish off a second bottle of wine without feeling rushed. I feel really bad giving them three stars and hope that next time we visit that the food has improved, because the service and the ambieance was really fantastic. read more