3 /5 Maxi McNaughty: Let me start with the good stuff. The parmesan, truffle, rosemary chips are fabulous - the portion was small but we had a lot of other stuff. The Halloumi chips are out of this world; a large portion, crispy on the outside spongy inside, big chips., the calamari (didnt get a picture) was outstanding, not the usual (pig bum) rings, but actual long chip size tentacles. We loved the cauliflower fritters its quite a small portion but the batter is crispy and substantial. In general the portions on the small plates we had as well as the prices are very decent.
We came in November 2023 and were blown away by the food (and service). They said they were thinking of making it a gastropub and I was super enthusiastic about the idea. The food was so good we all agreed to share everything.
The pork belly was chewy none of the soft mouth quality you expect with belly pork all (& I mean all) the fat had been removed, It was a bit like eating steak (which I dont like) I think people who usually dont like belly pork would enjoy it. red wine sauce and apple ketchup - both were absent, there was a thin, tasteless gravy instead of red wine sauce, the red cabbage was ok. The cook had clearly not a clue of what crackling is we were served a piece of roof tile masquerading. its the rectangular bit on top of the food with the little saucepan.
When I asked the 2nd waiter to look at it, he wouldnt, but gave us that meal for free.
Last year the buttery mash was mind blowing. It was scraped baked potato mixed with butter, super fluffy, literally melt in the mouth. This was watery and lacked flavour yet too salty, no butter taste.
Steak and Ale pie - pastry was hard, tooth destroying lid, also quite dry inside the pie case, the filling was about 20% of the inner space, few steak pieces again too salty but otherwise tasteless thick gravy it missed the ale flavour. The savoy cabbage was nice and crunchy but the stalks were too big, so a bit hard - my companion doesnt have the strongest teeth and wasnt expecting the challenge with ordering a pie. See above for the mash and the red wine sauce was seriously unimpressive. Though why you would serve red wine sauce with an ale pie is beyond me, which is why I didnt order it.
I ordered the pan fried sea bass with chorizo and peas, sauteed leeks and a lemon, thyme white wine velouté.
The fillets were over cooked. I asked what ratte potatoes were and the chef (who is clearly better at making up bullshit terms than cooking) said they were just boiled cut and pan fried. He didnt say they would be covered in cheese.
What kind of person serves sea bass with cheese covered pan fried potatoes?
The other things were all under the fish, indistinguishable from each other, chunks of chorizo completely wiped out all the other flavours didnt see a velouté just the chorizo fat at the bottom of the plate. All too salty
Now the service. When we arrived there was a funny, engaging, helpful man who was charming and told me Id really ordered enough food - he was right. The stars are for him!
The guy who replaced didnt make eye contact, didnt listen. Seemed to be utterly terrified and got really defensive when I said I wasnt totally happy with the food. I didnt dare to say anything else, but I really feel I should have said that we found it all way too salty. The waiter insisted we have the money back for the belly pork as soon as I mentioned the tile
When I went to pay he paid me back and gave me the credit for the belly pork. I told him (out of the goodness of my heart) I hadnt paid yet and proceeded to do so. He didnt thank me.
I could have walked out without paying the 120 quid and 17 quid up and he didnt even say thank you!
Hoping to have racked up some brownie points with the karma fairies...