I've eaten here twice when visiting family in the UK, once last summer and again this year. The service and food the first year were very good, definitely 4 star worthy, and had me looking forward to a return visit. Disappointingly it didn't quite meet expectations, hence the 3 overall.
Nothing was truly terrible during my second visit, but there were a few areas that I feel could be improved. Although not incredibly expensive, prices are sufficient for me to expect better than average food and service (that said my brother thinks I've been living in the USA too long and my service expectations are too high for the UK...)
I ordered a special for the day we visited, topside roast beef with seasonal vegetable accompaniments. The beef was cut rather thick, which is either generous and rustic or, as my grandmother with extensive food service would have said, completely wrong (beef thin, lamb thick, pork in between...) I also would have preferred the meat a little rarer, but despite the apparently longer cooking time it was tender and flavorful.
The vegetables were generally good; could perhaps have been cooked a little less for a firmer bite but that's certainly open to a range of preferences.
The Yorkshire pudding was overly-crispy for my tastes, and with the gravy already poured (a separate boat would have been nice) was hard to rescue.
The one item that was really disappointing though was the courgettes (others in my party with those on there plate agreed). They appeared to have been cooked in an olive with strong vegetal/pungent/sharp/bitter tones to it. It would seem the oil was not hot when it met the courgettes and they have a tendency under such circumstances to soak up oil leaving them tasting rather funky. One wonders if they were taste tested in the kitchen...
My wife ordered a risotto of some kind which she felt was lacking salt (unusual for my wife so probably true).
Desserts were well received -- didn't have one myself but they looked good and were said to be good and tasty.
Service seemed well intentioned but I found it odd that we had all three of the waitresses visit us for different things at various times -- this did not appear to enhance the level of service but rather to leave them all confused as to what stage of the meal we were at. We received multiple queries on things such as whether or not we had ordered drinks, starters, dessert, etc. read more