Hennessey Restaurant Ltd, Torquay ~ December 2009
OVERPRICED BLING!
If you are looking to eat with the it crowd then definitely choose this restaurant. If you are looking get a warm feeling inside about your hard-earned cash being well spent on good service and great food, then avoid like the plague.
Let me explain. The establishment is split into two tiers. The first a plush, lush, rich and stylish cocktail bar. It feels great. Your effort to get that little bit more dressed up feels great. Your expectations for the evening are already super elevated, but unjustly so. The lower tier is the restaurant a vast expanse of dining awaits you.
The bar area for pre dinner drinks is waitress service. Don't be so foolish as to try and get a quick soft drink from the bar. Oh no! Take a seat and wait at least 15 minutes for some liquid to pass you lips. Hopefully, unlike my experience when it does arrive your drink will be what you ordered otherwise you'd better be prepared to wait again.
Once in the vast dining area, we waited a really long time again to order wine. Whilst waiting you cannot help but notice the waitresses look more like they are dressed for clubbing than working.
We opted just to have some marinated olives and sun dried tomatoes before dinner. They came in a really awkward, pretentious dish. Like a china boat that was on a rough sea, because every time you tried to stab an olive it nearly capsized. Why do some restaurants try to choose style over practicality?
Still no wine.
When phoning earlier in the day to book, we were told that because we were only two ordering from the 3-course Christmas Menu would not be a problem. However, now the time had come we were told it was too late. I asked to have a look at the menu anyway to see what we may be missing and infuriation set in as most of the dishes were extremely similar/identical to the main menu anyway so why be told no?
My fiend suggested the Whisky Flamed Wild Mushrooms as a starter. She had them recently and said they were really great. The trouble was I have eaten at the restaurant before, some 2 years ago and had the exact same dish, surely they weren't running the same menu? Yawn.
Finally the wine arrived.
We decided just to bypass the starters and go straight to main course. The choice is not overwhelming, but adequate. We opted for the Foil Baked Monkfish wrapped in Parma Ham served on Pesto Crushed Potatoes with Balsamic Roasted Tomatoes and a fresh Herb, White Wine and Cream Sauce (£17.95) and the Slow Cooked Lamb on the bone served with a Parsnip and Sweet Potato Crumble, finished with a Red Wine and Cranberry Sauce (£16.95).
The monkfish was cooked beautifully, but the rest of the dish was not executed well. Pesto crushed potatoes would have been just fine, but for some reason they were bound with mayonnaise turning them into a gloopey, stringy mess. The meat was again beautiful, but the sweet potato crumble cold.
Disappointing, considering that a bowl of green beans and broccoli was £2.45 on top of the £17.95.
Service was really impersonal. .
They have certainly tapped into a trendy market and if to be seen comes above service and food then fill your boots.
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Hennessey Restaurant Ltd
41 Torwood Street
Torquay
TQ1 4DZ
01803 290900 read more