South Oxfordshire
Cafe Rouge

Cafe Rouge

37 Hart St Henley-on-Thames RG9 2AR, UK, South Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

Cafés • Steak • Seafood • European


"We usually love coming to Cafe Rouge in Henley, always a treat for us and we are always looking forward to it. However the most recent visit was awful and it’s been going downhill over our last coupes of visits. We booked a table for my father in laws birthday. Upon being seated, we were informed that 3 of the main course dishes were unavailable.. pretty much half of the ‘mains’ options. We don’t come to Cafe Rouge for Burgers or salad! We opted for 3 portions of Mussels as had them here before and they’re very good! Mother in law just had pate as there was nothing else she wanted. These were possibly the worst mussels we’ve ever had. You could tell they weren’t fresh (cooked from frozen for sure) and there was barely any sauce in the pot! Usually they are flavourful and abundant in sauce! No check back was performed by the manager on duty..it was a quiet Monday so wasn’t exactly run off his feet. So we couldn’t alert him. Even upon clearing we weren’t ask how our meal was! Just asked if we had finished. We decided to mention they were awful to which the manager told us he would inform the kitchen. When he came back to finish clearing, my partner asked if they were frozen or fresh mussels, to which the manager replied yes, they are frozen. Wasn’t expecting that but you could totally tell! They tasted like cardboard! We had a coffee and a pudding and to be fair to the manager he didn’t charge us for one portion of mussels and the coffees we ordered. The Bill was certainly not worth what we had. Didn’t leave a tip, which we never normally do, but the service was non existent. Manager was more interested in what was on his phone. Won’t be rushing back"

Shellfish Cow Restaurant Bar

Shellfish Cow Restaurant Bar

28 High Street, South Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

Steak • Seafood • British • Steakhouse


"We'd planned a day out on an exploratory trip for Antiques and collectibles to Wallingford and planned to leave home early (45 minutes drive) so we could treat ourselves to lunch somewhere. When we found the Antique centre (over the road) we decided to check...out the menu and it immediately grabbed our attention as we love fresh fish. After our antique browse we popped in, to be greeted by the manager owner? who led us up the (apparently scruffy from one reviewer) stairs, he apologised for lack of carpet but I remarked we liked it, sort of suited the style of the place. Led into 1st floor one half of the restaurant, seated where we chose and had the style of the food and serving well explained to us. We picked the shared taster from the menu and also a salt aged steak. A lovely bottle of red and a home made lemonade to keep us going but we didn't have to wait long. We'd picked the sampler as I love scallops and prawns and my partner likes everything but especially Mussels. Well the food was excellent and even I had about 8 mussels where I normally don't eat them. So fresh and tasted of the sea. The steak was cooked to our request and was again excellent. An excellent feed too as we'd skipped starters but couldn't manage a pudding. The chips were really lovely too, we went for the ginger and chilli dressing for the sea food which wasn't too spicy and the ginger came through really nicely. All in very fairly priced, lovely staff and we'll certainly return. The only thing I would say is a lack of veggie or straight fish options, as we were talking to friends today about taking them here and one of them only likes fillet style fish or veggie vegan options, so if there's not a fillet of fish on the specials she'd be stuck. However as a couple we couldn't fault our first experience and will be back."

The Vine And Spice

The Vine And Spice

The Vine High Street, OX14 4QL, South Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

Meat • Vegan • Indian • Chicken


"I have had a few take away meals from The Vine Spice and enjoyed them, so my wife and I treated friends to a meal at the restaurant there. Sadly and surprisingly I was extremely disappointed. One of our friend 's found that the chicken in their meal was undercooked (it was still pale pink and highlighted this to staff. It was taken away and a replacement given. The chicken in this was cooked fine, but the sauce was now much more watery and lacked flavour due to this (the other had a nice, thick creamy sauce . My wife and I are both vegan and member of staff taking our order didn 't seem too sure what this meant. During our meal, we had 3 different members of staff coming up asking us the same questions rather than one member of staff being given responsibility for this role. All the staff were very polite, but it was a little disconcerting to be trying to have a conversation only for another member of staff interrupt to ask a question asked a few minutes previously (e.g. whether everything was alright, whether we required any more drink etc. Our vegan curries had several hard pieces of veg (we don 't overcook our veg and enjoy a slight bite to them, but numerous bits of veg were virtually raw and must 've been chucked into the sauce moments before dishing up and my wife found some onion with the root still attached. Also, I did find the meal to be expensive for what you get. Given this experience, I won 't be getting any more meals from The Vine Spice ."

The Red Lion

The Red Lion

39 Wallingford Rd, Cholsey, OX10 9LG, South Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

Pub • Pizza • Coffee • British


"Had a bewilderingly terrible experience 3 weeks ago. At 12pm on Saturday I phoned to book for 8 people at 2pm the same day. My booking was taken with no problem. On arrival the pub was basically empty with a couple of people eating inside and a few drinking outside. We put in our food order and waited at least half an hour with no update from staff on our food or anyone coming to see if we wanted more drinks. We asked about our food and were told it was coming. We had to specifically ask for some water for the table. More time passed and then the manager came over to say there was only one chef on (not that unusual for a quiet pub in the middle of Saturday afternoon and he hadn't made a calzone before so he had had to teach him there and then(! Still no offer of more drinks. The food eventually arrived about an hour after ordering. It was surprisingly alright even the calzone! When we came to pay we were given the bill with no offer of taking any money off or goodwill drinks. My wife went to the bar to say we didn't want to pay the full amount and they offered to take the 10% service charge off, which they'd had the audacity to add before giving us the bill! To top it all off, my wife knocked on the kitchen door to ask if they had a container so we could take away some of our food, and she saw the chef eating coleslaw out of the tub with a spoon! We have since checked the Food Standards Agency website to find that an inspection in March 2023 gave this pub 2 out of 5 (improvement necessary . Just wanted to warn anyone else who was planning to eat here please check whether they have made any improvements before booking a table. Vegetarian options: There are veggie and vegan options. Dietary restrictions: There were vegan options."

Luscombes

Luscombes

United Kingdom, South Oxfordshire

Fish • Steak • Pasta • English


"so. for a kick-off, this place has many potentials and is a very attractive and beautifully positioned place, right at the main train of the fair mile at henley on thames. good. that said the experience of our meal was less than satisfactory. After we decided that we didn't want to start and have only preferred a main course, we were surprised that our food came out within 5 minutes after the order and was ploned before us. that's good, but what we were greeted by has given us the feeling that we were back. the 80s with a beefeater art of experience. my friends steak was floppy and looked like something from tesco for 3 pfund and her veg was overcooked and black. with young, trunk broccoli, they only need to blanche for 2-3 minutes, as they wipe very quickly. on my head. this was 4 crevettes, deep fryed with a dressing that was good; no problems there at all and a lacking 1970 style prawn cocktail with super market marie the rosesoße pressed about what had been frozen on the bed of the shrunk iceberg salad. the chips, were stacked on the side and were dry and bleeding to be honest. no taste, and they were probably too long in the many remaining ofenchips. When I came back from the gents, I found my friend who knows the very polite and young waitress that eating was not good at all. that said the ingredients were good, it was how they were cooked and presented. pretty awful. each cook worth weight white how to cook a good steak and present young veg without being floppy and crowned. then we saw the young waitress who left the owner who then went to empty us. I guess she was upset that we had complained. I understand, but this is not professional and shows a significant lack of customer service as home personnel. the barman was polite and we paid quickly. we couldn't get out fast enough."