Ego at The Old Ashfield, Sutton-in-Ashfield — Restaurant in Ashfield

I have been here several times now half the times have been lovely food and service but a few times now had issues with the food. I never complain or leave reviews and just put the past ones down to a busy day and left it at that. But today has really annoyed me.

We waited over an hour and half for the food to come out, it had died down and 3 tables had come in after us and ordered and finished their food before ours came we hsd to ask if they remembered our table, so I think they may have missed our ticket but never admitted it, no one checked on the table we had to ask if they were still making our food, we were told 5 more minutes then 20 minutes later we had to ask again. Not the end of the world... but the meal came out the 2 junior Sunday roast was a shock we had to share our meals with them it was literally - 2 roast potatoes and a 1x1inch piece of beef with peas and 1 baby carrot. Again not the end of the world would have just ordered an adult meal for them in future, just a shock for nearly £13 quid so expected it to be more.

The worst part however what mainly led to this review as well as the above was the response i had when i asked for a different gravy and also that no one came to us at any point before, during, or after the meal? i.e would you like a drink, your foods running behind, is everything with the meal ok, can I clear your plates, do you want the bill all the norms and several times staff were stood chatting by the serving areas. I never like to shout server's over as I feel it's abit rude shouting excuse me across tables.

The gravy had an extremely strong taste of burned pan to it and smelt like charcoal, these things happen so we politely asked if we could get a gravy from another pan. The one brought back out was the same gravy? I said im so sorry its still really strongly got a burn taste which had already been tipped on 2 meals that got left and wasted and others on the table didnt eat their meal because of the gravy as they had tipped it on the whole meal... to which the manager sniffed it and said no its fine. There were 5 different people and none of us could stomach it, I said no please ask them to taste it its really strong he said well I have severed over 200 people today and no complaints. I'm sorry but surely 1 pan doesn't serve 200 people and the smell was really strong so I have no understanding how he could say no its fine? He did after the 3rd attempt offer the veggy gravy and this was absolutely fine didn't have any burn taste or smell to it.

The point is 2 of us couldn't eat the meal as the gravy had been poored on the entire plate and 2 of us had fortunately only poored it on the Yorkshire pudding and had the 3rd gravy which was fine, and there is nothing worse than someone being defensive and in denial when you cpuld smell the burned smell to it easily let alone the strong taste of it. We never complain ever, why on earth would we make that up and have to argue with the manager that it smelt fine.

There was no service what so ever I had to wave down the servers for service 3 times which I feel is rude and there were many around available would have been nice to have some service. We were left sat as tables came and left before any service, most of the food was left because of the gravy and a manager that was defensive and argued that the gravy was fine is just ridiculous and it ruined our meals, stuff happens easy mistake but don't stand and argue that others haven't complained because a lot of people don't like to also 200 people didn't share the same...

While visiting the UK my girlfriend and I went here for our anniversary and the food blew me away with how good it was! I could compare it with some of the best restaurants here in NY hands down. The waitress was great she was attentive and very efficient the only thing I would change would be we had 2 waitresses for half the meal but other than that they were great! Now food review time!

Calamari fritti: The calamari starter has a light but crispy batter. The meat is tender but a little bouncy giving it a really great feel. The lemon mayo pairs really well with the dish. But I would have preferred a garlic aioli with a hint of lemon.

Gamba ala pil pil: The prawns are nicely cooked and goes very well with the chilli and garlic oil that give it a splendid little kick.

170g rump steak w/ fries: The steak is cooked to a perfect medium rare and seasoned with good size garlic compound butter. It has really nice grill marks and is really tender and cuts like a hot knife on butter. The fries are crispy but soft on the inside and fried to perfection. Definitely a perfect combo for the dish.

Truffle and grana pandano fries: The chips are covered in a light coating of truffle salt and a few shavings of grana pandano on top. The truffle mixed with the grana pandano gives the fries a subtle nutty flavor.

Sticky toffee pudding: The pudding is warm with a subtle toffee taste but what brings it together isn’t the scoop of vanilla ice cream it’s the rich taste of the warm toffee sauce that fills your mouth with joy!

Strawberry and honeycomb ice cream: The ice cream is excellent is very creamy and rich with a nice velvety feel...

Updated 16.05.24

Booked a table for two on a Wednesday night at 5.30pm. We were late by 20mins. There is no telephone number on the website to call ahead to let them know. We did not receive a booking confirmation so we also did not have that option to try and rebook or cancel. On our arrival the member of staff that greeted us was rude and abrupt. We were told our table was held for 15 mins so we had lost our booking, by 5 mins. This would have been acceptable if the restaurant was full it was not. I went outside and was able to book another table for 6pm but yet we were still turned away! I cannot stress enough how rude and unhelpful the staff member was. We will never return after being good customers for some time.

Reply from Ego After asking me to contact them.

Good morning, Marie,

I am sorry to learn about your disappointment when visiting us but after investigating the matter with our team at Sutton-on-Ashfield. We have been informed you were 30 minutes late for your table. You wouldn’t have been able to book again at 6 pm as we were fully booked. None of our team came across as rude or abrupt in the conversation with you they were just explaining what had happened with your booking. The team did offer you a table outside if you wished to dine.

Regards

Peri

My reply-

Hi Peri,

Thank you for the update.

However none of the information is correct. This comes across as if i have lied which i have not.

I would have rather you not asked me for further details than receive this insult...