The Hermitage — Restaurant in Broadland

The restaurant area was lovely decorated for Valentines and great a small local establishment going to some effort on the presentation of such an evening.

This is then where the service quality started to show. We were asked if we wanted our glass of prosecco (came with the per head amount for the set menu) as soon as we were seated which we said yes to, these two glasses of prosecco arrived in two wine glasses!! Yet looking around at every other table they had prosecco glasses, very odd, and it really did look silly, plus I don't like to stand out in ways where you look different to others. I can only presume they had run out of prosecco glasses but with this part of the restaurant (reserved for the valentines meals) only half full at this stage, this was poor organisation not to ensure enough glasses.

Within 3 minutes of sitting down, two people arrived with Main courses in their hand for our table, it was odd as I thought they were customers, it turned out they were waiting staff, I replied, can't be ours as we've only just arrived and not had starters yet.

Let me explain though why I thought these two waiting staff were customers. They approached our table with plates in their hand dressed in tracksuit bottoms, grey hoodie which had dirt marks on it and trainers which looked like they had just finished playing in a muddy field. It's the most un professional looking wait staff uniform, if it can be called that, I've ever come across. Now a local establishment such as this a pub/restaurant, doesn't need to have fine dining uniform but it does need to show some care, and allowing waiting staff to dress like they are 'hanging out with their friends' isn't appropriate in the slightest and unfortunately the dirty trainers left me thinking, I wonder if this establishment cares for food quality and safety standards as much as they care for waiting staff appearance.

As you can imagine we discussed this at the table and my partner said, although he found the, what we can presume the head wait staff very friendly, this being the person for sat us, he was also surprised to see this person wearing what looked to be those typical horse riding trousers. It just all looked very odd for a establishment serving food and to be honest was just so unnapropriate for a Valentines Menu evening, just a little bit of care by the owners in this regard wouldn't have gone a miss and surely isn't too much to ask.

Now onto the food, the food was delicious. It was the quality we expected from this type of establishment, its not fine dining but its good quality home cooked food, and my Starter of Scollops was beautiful as was my partners beetroot salad. We both opted for pie (this was an important choice for us as was the second anniversary of my sister passing and pie was one of her favourites, so we had to order it for my sister) and I can say having been once before to try their pie menu, this Pie lived up to standards, it was delicious, equally I don't know what they special trick is with the chips but these tasted amazing, so much so we had to order an additional portion.

Dessert was lacking, the cheese plate contained quite cheap cheese options and was without the standard luxuries of brie and blue cheese you'd at least expect on a cheese plate for a special menu evening, Valentines. The cheese was also served with Marmalade, I would be very surprised if it wasn't straight out of a jar, which I'm not sure if this was just a mistake but cheese is served with a chutney not marmalade you'd have on toast for breakfast.

Overall, the food was good, bar Dessert but unfortunately I will always remember being served by people in tracksuits and dirty trainers which is why I'd find it hard to give this place my money again until a little more attention is given to areas customers deserve. By no means was the experience bad, as I say some parts of the menu were delicious but lack of attention will for most people always stand out and be a remembered part of...

Had the fish and chips with garden peas and homemade tartare sauce. Chips were nice and crispy with skin on, peas were standard (microwaved), homemade tartare sauce was chunky and lots of flavour, fish was a bit of a let down ( small portion, probably because of the amount of crockery on the plate consisting of half moon plate for the lemon and salad leaf, with a ladle of sauce and a ramekin of peas sat on that too, with all of that sat on a fairly big plate with fish on top of the chips) batter was nice and mostly crispy, a little bit greasy but there was a section at the back that was all batter and no fish! The fish was flakey and definitely cod but the size was a let down! Although my son said the burger he had was amazing and huge! Overall...

This pub should not advertise opening times.I arrived at around 8:15pm,only to be told we're closing.I said I've only come for drink,only to be told"we close when we're quiet".However there were at least 5 people still drinking and not nearly finished their drinks.It is nowhere near a valid excuse,and not a good way to treat potential regulars.I had driven for 5 hours,and I will tell friends and family "Do not use this pub".Surely 1 drink would have done no harm?After he said what he said,I thought I wouldn't tell him there were another 11 on the way.His loss.Having worked behind bars for a few years,I learnt don't turn custom away.Obviously he has his regulars,and they line...