The Sherwood by kook — Restaurant in Bassetlaw

This is the 3rd and final time me, my friends and family will be coming here. The past two occasions the food was lovely but every time the staff were either very unorganised or rude (especially the old woman behind the bar) but last night was horrendous…We booked a table around 2/3 months ago and specifically asked if they could cater to one of our friends who suffers with certain food intolerance, to which they said yes that was no problem. Upon arrival we were seated upstairs and when it came to ordering we asked if my friend was able to have any of the starters on the menu or if they had prepared something else prior so that she could order something, they simply came back and said “no there’s nothing you can have off the starters especially at late notice” I’m sorry but I didn’t realise 2/3 months notice was classed as “late”. So we carried on with our evening and when it came to order the mains we asked again, “what can she have off of the mains or did you make certain things differently for her” to which she was told “all she could have was the beef and veg but nothing else” my friend doesn’t like beef and if your a normal person you can imagine it would be pretty awful trying to eat a dry roast dinner without gravy. They also didn’t do any sides of potatoes for her either so it was pretty bland to say the least. Then it came to deserts which we had to wait half an hour to order after finishing our mains. We asked again, is there anything she can have to be told “I’ll go and check” after 20 minutes they bought our deserts out and mentioned nothing about our friend until I asked if there was anything to which we were told “no.” So I asked for the bill twice. When it was finally bought up it was rolled across the table to us with a fake smile and a “there you go” as we made our way downstairs to pay it was more than a struggle trying to squeeze past the massive crowd of drunk people. Once we got to the till to pay I was met with eye rolls and huffing from the older woman behind the bar as we were all paying separately. I have never been so glad to leave an establishment. I don’t blame the young girl that was serving us for getting irritated as she was constantly up and down the stairs all night with a broken hip which I think is completely unacceptable and irresponsible of any owner or manager to expect an employee in that circumstance...

Updated - Sept '25 Perfect ! It's like coming home .. smiley faces , happy staff, consistent good service , quality food . The annoying thing is NOT having something to moan about ... Brilliant . Consistent high quality food with good service. - Sunday lunch . April '25 - warm weather is here at last. Bit the food standards remain high at The Sherwood. Brilliant ... Sunday Lunch. Pink beef, lovely homemade, as big as your child's face, Yorkies are to die for ! .. veg is aldente. Nicely cooked. Good options .

Staff as friendly, efficient , professional , but more importantly appear as happy as ever. Thoroughly recommend this venue ... Even in this weather.. Only half full, I'm putting that down to the weather - but makes a pleasant experience inside. ( It's cool inside !) ...

Mar '25 - Friday night pie night ! .. 2 X pies with chips & garden or mushy peas @£20 - includes a drink ( pint or wine) . Lovely home made pies to choose from .. had beef & ale + venison in red wine. Handmade chips. Extra gravy in jug alongside. See pictures. Good portions. Excellent quality. Also... a lovely portion of toasted slices of baguette & balsamic/olive oil as an amuse-bouche beforehand. ( Ate most of it before taking the picture - sorry ! ..it was lovely .

Unbelievable value ... ( Also a 'pot' of grated cheese + a pot of crispy onions to 'pimp up your pie'!) Amazingly .. the place was only half full ..

Recommended. + Recommended to book , just in case.

Friendly professional staff . It's like coming home. So pleasant that the host+ chef always finds the time to have a little chat & see if everything is to your satisfaction. All 'round good experience. Nice informal seating area to front of pub .

Dec '24 - Food lovely ( sometimes a short wait for fresh food to be cooked) ie Roast spuds. Yorkshire's are a dream. Really soft pink roast beef. Turkey & pork. Extras are pigs in blankets or cauliflower cheese ( buy one get one free). Multiple Veg options. Real gravy. Staff are young, friendly ,helpful & accomodating. Dining areas clean ,light , & tables were being constantly cleaned ,not left dirty. Recommended for a Sunday...

Update: I finally managed to get booked in which was more hard work than it should have been. Could this review have had something to do with it?! Upon entering, I was greeted by a lovely waiter who was very helpful throughout the evening. Unfortunately, I was greeted by an almost empty restaurant which set alarm bells ringing, why was it so empty on a bank holiday weekend? After having taken a seat, the waiter came over and explained how the voucher worked and took our order. I ordered the duck burrito and my partner ordered the paella. We could see in to the kitchen and a lot of the food was microwaved, this didn’t fill me with confidence. When the food arrived the paella was lukewarm and to be honest wasn’t very tasty, there was an over powering taste of smoked paprika, and not much else. The burrito had slightly more flavour, but was only lukewarm also and could have done with being heated for longer. For dessert, I had the panookie and my partner had the cream egg cheesecake. The panookie was okay, very tasty. The cheesecake on the other hand was quite bland and could have done with some more vanilla/sugar in the cheesecake mixture.

Overall I gave this restaurant a 3/5, mainly due to the waiter who was the best part of the experience for us. The lack of people and the lukewarm, bland food unfortunately fetched the rating down, as well as how the Groupon voucher was so hard to use.

Original review: Was bought a voucher via groupon for here and I can’t book a table as they don’t put any availability on there. I also can’t get hold of them. Would not recommend this restaurant given their communication...