The Diary of a Foodie

These food blogs are made up entirely from my own personal views. I do not work for, or get paid by any of the establishments that I mention.
It is a personal account based on a personal experience, and should be treated as such.
Please use the search box to search for your favourite style of food.
If you would like to suggest anywhere for me to try, please feel free to get in touch.




Wednesday 16 April 2014

The Shoulder Of Mutton / Richmond / Yorkshire

It has been a long time since I posted on this blog, mainly because I use Trip Advisor now.   But after trying to leave what I thought was a polite, yet constructive criticism of an establishment, the owner keep getting it removed because I "didn't eat  the food"!   Well, the reason I did not eat the food was that there was nothing for me to eat.   But I sat in the pub and drank a drink so I feel a review should be allowed.   

As the second attempt was also removed from Trip Advisor I have decided that I am entitled to my view being out there so am adding it into this blog.

The original post is as below.


This is my second attempt at this review as it was reported and removed with the reason being "General discussion that does not detail a substantial experience will not be posted." 

Well, let's be more detailed then. 

I DID visit this establishment on Sunday 13th April 2014 at around 2.00pm, with the intention of eating, we had travelled off our beaten track to get there based on the Trip Advisor reviews. But because of the lack of vegetarian options available we had no choice but to drink up our drink and leave. 

On entering the establishment the first thing that hits you is how dark it is, on different levels too - it felt like we still had sunglasses on and was having to watch our feet as we walked. It was very busy and looked very popular. 

I am vegetarian, not a fussy one, but I have to say I do like a choice, even if it is just out of two items. To have one vegetarian choice on a menu is not a choice at all - it's a take it or leave it option and I chose to leave it. 

Amongst all the lovely sounding offerings of different roast dinners was a spaghetti with courgette, peas and parmasan. For one, parmasan is NOT vegetarian, but I was told when I pointed this out that it could be made with a different cheese. Actually, I didn't hugely want to sit eating pasta while everyone around ate roast dinners. And I certainly didn't want to pay £10 for a bowl of spaghetti when it was the same price for Lamb, Beef or Pork. What is wrong with doing, say a big grilled mushroom, with the roast trimmings (and veggie gravy) or even a Quorn fillet, or even a meatless roast dinner like Toby Carvery does? 

Sadly we had ordered one drink when we realised there was no option for me really, so we didn't order the second drink, still had to pay so we drank up and left. 

The original purpose of this post was to warn vegetarians of the limited options and to ask the chef/owner to perhaps think about offering something different for us. I am actually a little annoyed that 'someone' reported it to be removed as I could not give a detailed report. I hope this is more detailed and I have taken off a mark for the hassle of me having to rewrite it. 

Obviously someone cannot take constructive criticism. 

Just to be clear, I WAS THERE, I PLANNED TO EAT, THERE WAS NOTHING SUITABLE. If there was, I would have stayed and eaten as we were starving.