Having passed this Hotel loads of times, I thought it was about time we went in to try their bar meals, having noticed their "open to non-residents" board.
The Hotel is situated on a very busy road, with very fast moving cars, it does have a private car park though.
I telephoned first, a) to check they were serving food, and b) to check they had some Veggie options. The chap that answered the phone said they had lots of Veggie options and mentioned a few on the phone, he asked if I ate fish, and when I said no he said "Oh, your a Vegan". :)
For clarification....(taken from Wikipedia).
- A Vegetarian does not eat meat, including red meat, game, poultry, fish, crustacea, and shellfish, and may also abstain from by-products of animal slaughter such as animal-derived rennet, found in most cheeses, and gelatin.
- Pescetarians, also called pesco-vegetarians, is the practice of a diet that includes seafood and excludes other animals. In addition to fish or shellfish, a pescetarian diet typically includes some or all of vegetables, fruit, nuts, grains, beans, eggs and dairy.
- Veganism is a philosophy and lifestyle whose adherents seek to exclude the use of animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose. Vegans endeavor not to use or consume animal products of any kind.
Anyway, my partner and I decided to go and give it a try. They stop serving at 8.30pm, we just made it.
The young lady that greeted us in the bar was very pleasant, friendly and smiley, which always makes you feel welcome. This lovely service continued throughout the whole time we were there.We were shown to a nice looking restaurant which looked quite modern and fresh. We were given a leather bound menu with a good selection of choices - except only one Veggie option. The other Veggie options mentioned on the phone were starters and a salad, so I was a little dissapointed, especially when the only one left was a Tuscany Bean Pie with peppers (yuk! - peppers are just not my veg of choice).
However, I asked if I might have an omlette, and even though it was not on the menu it was "no problem at all" Phew! I opted for Cheese, Tomato and Mushroom.
Delivered to me was a nice big fresh omlette and home-made chips. No veg though, no trimmings, no side salad, just a rather large gap on the plate. Unless they thought my veg was all in the omlette. It did taste good though, but the home-made chips had been kept warm so were a bit soggier rather than crisp.
My partner had Gammon, it was offered with Egg or Pineapple (he choose Egg) and tomato & mushroom, which he asked to be left off. Again served with no other vegetables, not that he was worried about that. He said it tasted 'very, very' nice.
We decided we would try a pudding, as when we walked in another customer was having a "Queen of Puddings" which looked totally delicious. When we were given the menu at the beginning there was a full page of puddings, but when we asked for the desert menu at the end of the meal, we got given a small blackboard with 5 options on it.
I queried this and was told the "Queen of puddings" had been an error on the menu, but if I 'really, really' wanted one she would ask the Chef if he would do one. I declined, feeling that I would really be putting them out, but my partner said I should have said yes and gone for it.
I am guessing this is because it was past the last orders time of 8.30pm and suspect the Chef had tidied up and left just easy-to-prepare puds to be served to the stragglers.
My second choice was Creme Brulee with Shortbread biscuits. This is one of my most favourite puddings.
Sadly, this one was lacking. The Shortbread was quite salty, and the Creme Brulee, although tasty was very small. It measured around 2" square and was less than 1cm deep. At nearly £5.00 I thought this was a bit mean.
My partner had the Sticky Toffee Pudding and Ice-Cream. He said....."it was microwaved, nothing special, just a light sponge & sauce - expensive for what it was".
We only had one drink, were not offered a second, so didn't bother asking.
I visited the Ladies during the meal, and had to walk through the lounge, there was big holes in the carpet and a faded wall which looked like a radiator was missing, how odd !
Not sure if the place is being done up or not, but it does need a good spruce up.
The total bill for two mains, two puds and two drinks was £35.00 not including a tip. Quite expensive for what we got.
So, would we go back?
Well, it was OK, but just OK, nothing special or memorable. There are much better places within a few minutes of driving. If we were staying there, we would probably eat there, but as we will never stay, we will probably not bother eating there again. In a nutshell "nothing to write home about".
Here is the website.
No comments:
Post a Comment