We visited the Tailors Arms (a 40 minute drive for us) for a second time yesterday - and I have to admit that in terms of food and "gastropub" it was a disappointment after our first, stellar experience about a month ago.
Sadly the menu has changed (not necessarily a bad thing of course) and the new offerings are somewhat less tempting. Both of the dishes that we experienced last time (lamb and the hake - see our pics) are no more :(.
As an appetizer we had the duck pate (same as last time) which was excellent.
The three stars is a combo of Mrs G's 2 stars for her disappointing fish and chips, and 4
Stars for my steak. The fish she found tasteless (no seasoning in the batter? Or was it just not a good source of fish (cod)) and the chips were just not cooked and se we had no choice but to send them back.
Perhaps I am being generous but I give 4 stars to the filet steak. The steak was good and prepared medium rare as I requested - and the peppercorn sauce was really good. Mushroom was good, as was the 1/2 tomato. But I also had the inedible chips :(
The chips were so thick that they should be twice cooked (first at lower temp to soften the inside, and then higher temp to make the outside crispy). They were sent back and (credit to them) they made a fresh batch (which came as we finished what we could eat of our meals). Sadly these too were inedible (hard raw interior to the chip). Of course the cost of the chips should have been deducted from the cost of our dinner but it wasn't - so sadly I had no choice but to not tip. Conclusion - if your gastropub doesn't know how to twice cook thick chips - take them of the menu. And if your fish is not as good as what you can buy from the street corner chippy - don't bother...
Disappointing - I wish the manager had been there :(
Will we be back? Only when the menu changes again. read more