"My partner brought us here for our anniversary. Sadly the food was a real pretentious mishmash (a lot of purée in every meal including a really unattractive grey sludge in the main), we were freezing cold in the restaurant, and the service was absolutely awful. Wildly overpriced; we’ve spent the same amount of money at Michelin-starred restaurants in London. And the level of quality/overall experience here in no way felt aligned with, or deserving of the steep prices. Firstly, we went on a cool night in early October and the restaurant was freezing. People were eating in their coats…at this point it should be fairly obvious to light a fire or turn on the heating, but it seemed management couldn’t read the room there. The service was incredibly sloppy and careless…spending so much, you’d expect more of a well-rounded experience, which could be as minor as making a small note as to who’s eating what on a small table of two people. I had to ask for cutlery twice when I already had a plate of food in front of me, and at every stage of the meal, “right, who’s having the XYZ??” just seemed so out of place and charmless when you’re digging deep into your pockets. The waiter got one of our drinks order confused, and then later on, after saying he’d remove it from our bill we discovered we’d still been charged. We didn’t really feel like they gave a hoot about us to be completely honest. My partner’s wine glass had also been unhygenically cleaned and imparted the wine with a stench of fish. It was quite shocking. Thankfully on that occasion they were apologetic but wow, that really should not be something happening to customers. The menu was really confusing, and when the waitress tried to explain, only led to further confusion. Firstly, small plates really aren’t tapassy small plates as they’re served in huge domed bowls. just call them “starters”. “Snacks” as a header for the menu too feels like it belongs somewhere much more casual. The experience overall was unnecessarily pretentious and lacking any real substance. I’d really urge you to strip things back to wholesome pub fayre and get solid on the basics first before aiming for the stars, as this was all very shaky. I’d go as far as to warn friends to steer clear of the restaurant at this pub, unfortunately."
