REALLY poor service - from, of all people the Landlady (!) Carol Frewing. From the moment we walked in to the pub at the start of a Sunday lunch time we got the vibe that this wasn't the most welcoming establishment my husband or I'd been too (outside of a particualrily memorable experience in Paris, France,,,)
We were going as a family, the kids (a toddler and a tween) were hungry, so under pressure to feed 2 complaining children, instead of getting the hint from the rather less-than-warm welcome (a tersely delivered "Can I Help you??") from said landlady, to which we would have normally said 'no thanks' and gone elsewhere, we made the mistake of staying to eat (what we had already identified outside, looking at the menu) as a rather lackluster offering of pub grub.
The meals were filling, quality wise nothing outstanding. The decor is dated and needs refreshing...The price was high (£14 for the carvery's 2 course option - the beef was fatty and not the best) so value for money rather poor - which was surprising the fantastic location right by the English Heritage castle..
Not content with giving us the attitude at the front door (well it's her business I s'pose) Mrs Frewing followed us to her our seats as we installed ourselves. I had not even got my behind on the seat before she'd conveyed the ordering protocol and asked what we wanted to drink...I politely asked if we could have a minute (to sit and settle for a second)...seemingly not "we'd have to go to the bar then" was the reply..the final blow was her venturing up to us to ask if everything was to our satisfaction half way through the meal - I started to reply "yes, thank you' but before these words had passed my lips she'd already turned on her heel and gone...Gee thanks for asking!
The dessert was a rather undercooked and over-sugared (fruit crumble), it just about summed up the fare for The Cormorant. rather substandard for such an up market location, not that imaginative, and tourist-trap expensive...but then, considering what I just discovered regarding the £14,000 fine the pub got for Health & Safety offences in 2013 (Google Portsmouth News + The Cormorant, you'll see the public reporting) i am not surprised, they probably need the money...
Pity they won't be getting our business again then eh? read more