"Popped in because the Botolph was closed and had a pleasant surprise. We don't trust places that offer two meals for £8.99 usually but we initially just went for a drink. Plus, it was Mother's Day so we assumed there would be no tables available. Immediately, the lady behind the bar was warm friendly, recommending a particular Gin for my wife and my Abbott's was perfect. After smelling the lovely roasts coming out of the kitchen, we decided to ask the restaurant lady if there was a table and she said she'd try to organise something. Only 5 minutes later we were shown to a table. Kylie was great as our waitress, she had a bubbly, confident air and left us to choose. When we ordered, my wife had been tempted by the lovely aroma of the roast and I chose to treat myself to a fillet steak. I was wary because it wasn't likely that many fillets were sold so I asked for rare as I expected it to be overcooked and love a juicy steak. We were again very pleasantly surprised by the speed with which we were served and the colossal size of the plateful of delicious roast dinner...my wife even left some and that NEVER happens! My whole plateful looked lovely as I'd decided on ALL the extras, calamari was tasty and not chewy, prawn scampi were piping hot and succulent the steak was cooked to perfection...ALAS the cut was more like a braising than fillet steak and was interminably chewy. Such a sad thing to happen because it just shows the penny pinching meat buyers ruined it for the chef and the customer. Can't praise the staff more, especially young Kylie, but their management let them down BIG STYLE and, even though we will definitely go again I will never eat the steaks... HOWEVER, the shredded beef ends are TO DIE FOR!"
