We
are just back from the Bell Inn pub in Hampton. As being a very
reputable and expensive pub, my partner and I always kept the chance to
go for the first time like a treat.
We have finally decided to
go tonight after living in Station rd for quite a while now. The
experience we had was utterly disappointing.
Let's start with the service.
I
ordered a burger and my partner bread and oil with some chips. The
burger arrived at the table after 10 min, very fast! We thought that the
rest was coming, instead after 15 min i
had to stand up and ask at the bar what was going on. I have been told
it will come out in 2 min. After 5 min finally bread and chips were
brought at the table, with my partner who had eaten already half of my
portion brought with burger. The first
impression it wasn't good at all. How come it takes 10 minutes to bring
a burger and chips at the table and 20 minutes for some sliced bread
(which wasn't home made!) and a portion of chips which they could have
been easily cooked with my portion that came with the burger? What if we
had ordered the bread and oil as a starter?
Let's pass onto the quality of the food.
If
you pay £10.95 for a burger you would expect this to be exceptionally
nice and well cooked. It wasn't!! The bacon was so crispy and overcooked
that I have almost broken a tooth to chew it. The same was for the
meat, it was burnt and hard on the outside and very dry inside, I had to
sip beer almost at every bite to push it down my stomach.
The oil
to dip the bread in was put in a small deep pot that you would normally
use for mayonnaise or nuts. We had to dip the whole slice of bread to
reach the balsamic vinegar on the bottom, at least three quarter of the
the slice was
soaked with the oil which was also of a bad quality.
The chips were so hard that they had been overcooked or re-fried. We had to leave them as they were disgusting.
At
the end we were waiting for the waitress to come again around the
tables so we could have asked for the bill. She didn't come anymore and
we had to wait 10 min at the bar just to pay what we had consumed
already. Whilst waiting, a very annoyed man came at the bar asking for
the bill for his table, he was the man sitting next to our table in the
dining area. He might have waited even longer for the waitress to
come!!
Surely I won't go there for food anymore.
As I was planning to dine out next week, luckily I went first, as surely i won't bring there my
friends from Italy next week and surely won't have the business dinner there either next Saturday.
In
conclusion, what has this experience given me more than other dinners
had at pub chains like Wetherspoon, Fuller, etc? About 40/50% higher
price and very bad service and food. How much their burger should be
worth? £16.95?
Mirko read more