The Cock & Bottle — Restaurant in St. Helier

Disappointed is the main feeling I had after eating at the Cock and Bottle in St Heller. I visit on the 17th June.

Although we were sat quickly, we had to wait for service and on two occasions had to go up to outside bar to ask for service and cutlery.

One of my real bugbears when going to a restaurant is not being told any foods which are no longer available (the Cock and Bottle are not alone in this). The server comes to take your order and then tells you your choice is not available so you have to hurriedly choose something else. Customers should be advised of this when they are given the menus. My sister, having worked in food and beverage establishments for many years, agrees that this is a basic customer service

My sister and I both had the lamb scrumpets for starters - these were dry and barely any lamb flavour. Everything was overpowered by the anchovies.

My sister had the salmon fishcakes for main course which were bland - more potato than salmon.

I had the chicken pie for main course (my second choice, first was not available). Sadly the pastry on sides and top of pie was thick and not cooked, it was inedible (picture attached). The chicken filling and veg/mash was ok, not full of flavour but at least edible. When I mentioned this to the waitress she just said 'oh well'. An apology would have been nice.

The saving grace of the meal was the pudding. We both had the rhubarb and apple crumble which was delicious.

There were only two positives which I can take from our time there. The first was that we were sat at a table quickly and the pudding. There was a group there at same time as us. We noticed they had drinks at the Cock and Bottle then went to the restaurant next door....

Honestly, we saw the name on maps and thought it was hilarious and decided to come in for food, not expecting much. After looking at the menu we realised that the food here was going to be much better than anticipated. The pub is fairly large with a huge outside area facing a little market square, where on this day in particular there was actually a little market on. There seemed to be lots of people in nice suits eating and drinking there, seemingly from the nearby court houses and workplaces. We had thr chicken kofta, fish finger sandwich and some jersey royals. All perfectly cooked and so flavourful. My partner literally will not shut up about the fish finger sandwich. A fantastic little spot which looks so un-assuming from the front door side and opens up into this enormous great pub with great food. We...

Had dinner on 23/10. Although we have had drinks and snacks here before we haven’t had dinner. Have to say we were pleasantly surprised. We have always had good service but service last night was excellent. The young lady serving us was delightful, happy and so attentive and fun.

The food was excellent and some dishes on the menu have a wee quirky twist. The battered sausage with curry sauce was really good quality and the scotch egg was obviously home made and you could really taste the sage and herbs. Fish and chips came with proper double cooked chips and fish was generous and tasty. So reasonably priced for that quality of food....