Having failed to manage to book to get in here on many occasions, we had high hopes of a nice meal. The bar area is very nicely done, with some traditional features with a modern twist and light colouring which is rather nice.
They managed to add 2 to our booking for 2, which was good, but after that the service was polite, friendly but slow and inept. When we moved from the bar area to the table we were asked if we wanted more drinks, to which I asked for a diet coke. The menus arrived, the orders were taken but no coke which took another request before it arrived. When we ordered wine, some of it was spilt on the table and over one of the diner's napkins which wasn't replaced. We also had to ask for salt and pepper: it was missing from the table.
The starters were quite good, but flawed. I had smoke haddock fishcakes which had lots of potato, not much fish flavour and were served with an unintentionally warm salad and a curry mayonnaise which completely overpowered them. My partner had lamb koftas which instead of being meat-ball shaped were sausage-shaped more like a seekh kebab, but the flavour was OK and the yoghurt and mint sauce was nice, shame about the warm salad.
For the mains we had spit-roast chicken with garlic and thyme: one piece was nice, one was rather dry, but neither tasted of garlic or thyme. It was served with a sauce, yet had garlic mayonnaise plonked on top of it! I had lamb rump roast rump of lamb, sauce soubise (onion sauce) asparagus, pancetta, button onions and baby potatoes. The lamb dish was probably the highlight of the meal: the only problem was the lamb was requested pink but was overcooked, however it is difficult to get it right when meat is served with a sauce.
Overall a disappointing performance for an up-market pub meal that cost £6-8 for our starters and £12-16 for out mains. Salads wilted by the hot lamps of the pass and sauces that don't go with the meals are unacceptable at these prices, and the service was poor too.
I hope we caught them on a bad day, but on the basis of this trip it will be a while before we go back. read more