My friend and I went to the Fostons Ash for dinner, upon arrival we were impressed with the decor and furnishings the light and airy pub had to offer however that is all we were impressed with as the eveining turned to be dissappointment after disappointment. I began with a starter of smoked salmon, crab and chilli fishcakes, as a fish lover I was looking forward to this but was met with the disappointment of not being able to taste the smoked salmon as it was so overpowered with the amount of chilli mixed with it.as for the crabwas it even in therehard to tell. My friend had the cod and mussel chowder which she could only describe as tasting like salt water mixed with vinegar.perhaps the mussels had been kept in vinegar??? it certainly tasted like it, lucky it was a small portion and yet could not quite be finished due to the sickly flavour..with an accompaniment of one slice of supermarkert sliced breadvery overpriced at £6.95 they were frankly making a huge profit here. So on to the main course; I ordered the Pan seared fillet of hake with mussel and crayfish ragout with buttered baby potatos. The hake was dry and flavourless, the mussels tasted as though they came out of a bag of mixed shellfish you get from the supermarket and the crayfish were dry, shrivelled and tough. The buttered baby potatos were unbuttered boiled potatos cut in half which held a metallic taste rather than that you'd expect from any potatoes you cook for yourself in your own home let alone that of which you pay for in a restaurant. My friend had the pork belly with chorizo and bean cassoulet and mashed potatoes. The cassoulet was overpowered with tomato and yet lacking in any other flavour, the pork belly, whilst it had a good texture had little flavour, and what flavour it did have was unpleasant.
We eat out a lot, and I have never seen this friend of nearly 15 years not finish the meal put before her even if it is very average. Foston's ash managed to produce a dish that she couldnt even eat half of. The only upsides we can really give them is that the mash potato was good and the zinfandel rose wine was lovely. But with this in mind, a bill of £62 for 2 courses and a bottle of wine when we disliked all the food we ate was massively overpriced. We do not recommend this place at all, especially when there are far better pubs with some excellent food for less in this area. read more