wood1591's Qype profile

The bar reminded me of a Chinese takeaway waiting area with no room to move. We ordered drinks and after attempting to pour the first pint of real ale the bar tender declared that the barrel had ran out. The menu was limited which shows that the products are generally fresh, a good sign. We were a party of six adults and the ladies all had wine. We ordered our food and when the starters were ready we were shown to our table. The table was dressed extremely well with crisp starched napkins and quirky chairs! Our starters were passed over peoples heads as they could not reach the rear of the table. The dining room was not that busy that they could not have altered the table configuration to allow the waitress to serve the food. The starters seemed to be a good sign, the whitebait was lovely with plenty of fish. The crab was also nice, served in a ramakin with the brown meat served on toast. All was going well until the main course arrived braised lamb with a cauliflower puree and fresh carrots drizzles with a rich jus lie. The lamb had been shredded from the bone and packed in a round cutter before removing the cutter before service! Very odd it reminded me of a type of Egyptian burger! We sent our meals back due to the fact that the cauliflower puree was cold! They had tried to shape the puree into quenelles which had failed and it just looked like a dollop of horse radish! The jus lie was very tasty as were the carrots but the dish was let down by presentation and temperature. My wife had pork loin with haggerty potatoes. There was far to much going on in the plate. The potatoes had been sliced out of the larger dish and placed on the plate these should have been served in a separate dish. The pork and garnish were overcrowding the plate. The sweets again very odd! Banana bavarois was far to heavy and stodgy not at all light and creamy as intended. No compote no colour no additional cream just a slice of honeycombe, very bland! The spotted dick and jamrolly Polly both went down well. Coffee and teas were acceptable but to petit fours or after dinner mints. Just a £210.00 bill, we all chipped in £35.00 per head. We will not be visiting again if they are going to charge bistro pub prices then they should serve bistro pub food and this is a poor example and costs far to much for what you get. No reduction in the bill for 3 cold dishes!