The Fountain at Clent — Restaurant in Bromsgrove

I’ve been coming to the Fountain for years. Firstly as a kid with my parents after a Sunday walk, during my teens when I wanted to impress a young lady or to satisfy my desire for great fresh mussels.

The Fountain has lost none of its charm through the pandemic, they continue to produce good quality food cooked to a high standard, the service is always friendly and not over bearing (thank you Natalie x) and the real ale is always a top pint.

Latest visit was to satisfy my partners yearning for their excellent beef Wellington (see images) and they did not disappoint.

We have not been eating out during the pandemic as we don’t feel comfortable but the Fountain are taking the whole pandemic extremely seriously.

In addition to the individually printed menu, we had a small hamper on the table with everything we needed, napkins, cutlery, condiments and a small hand sanitizer, along with a note assuring us the items had been sanitized and by whom, Thank you Holly X.

This made for a great day night, we were able to relax and not be anxious about hygiene or standards.

Add to this the fantastic Azabache Crianza we drank the evening was perfect.

4 good drinks, starters, mains and desserts for under £90 was exceptional value particularity considering the cut of meat in the Wellington and the good quality wine.

The Fountain have set the standard of how pubs need to operate if they are to survive the pandemic. Well done guys and thank you.

If I have one tip for you though, improve the air curtain over the front door, I appreciate you have to keep the door open to circulate air but that is going to be a nasty draft in winter a good heater above the door will...

Really surprised on the back of all the positive comments and recommendations but overall it was a fairly poor meal with reasonable and friendly service. The Large Prawn starter read well in the menu but in reality was 6 small and rubbery prawns served in a hugely oversized serving bowl with not much else. If anything it accentuated just how small the prawns were and looked a little comical! A similar story for my sons fish and chips (and tartar sauce which never actually came), being that the fish bites were mainly batter with a tiny, barely imperceptible, strip of white fish running through the middle. And my partners chicken gyros was grey, also rubbery and not overly appealing. It also came with the plastic bottle cap from the sauce bottle hidden away in the dipping sauce which wasn’t a great finisher for the dish (but the nice lady did get a replacement once notified very quickly). Our mains of roast turkey Sandwiches were dry and flavourless with a tiny circle of presumably microwaved and processed stuffing thrown on top and with a little drizzle of gravy to try and give some semblance of moisture to the dish. The chips and roast potatoes had been cooked to the point where any remnants of soft potato inside had packed up and run away leaving behind some oily hollow crispy shells that tasted awful. All in all it felt like the food we were served consisted of the scraps from earlier service. Once again, a real shame judging by all the other positive feedback and really hopeful that we just ended up being there...

service! Shown to our table 5 minutes late due to the previous customers still using the table. Chose drinks then immediately asked for our food orders. Natalie abruptly demanded our order as it had to be with the kitchen immediately, she then relented and came back less than 2 minutes later. Of 5 guests only 2 of us ordered starters, of which my mother in laws prawn starter came out with butter but without bread rolls, on asking for the bread Barry responded 'I'll sack the chef immediately and put an advert on indeed for a new one!" I'm sorry but if the kitchen makes an error there is more room for sarcasm an apology and I'll rectify this would have sufficed! The beef stroganoff was more mushroom. Stroganoff with the odd piece of beef and my chicken was half pink! The battered cod ordered by my daughter what pathetic! She's a VERY small 11 year old and rarely finishes her meal,she ate the small potion which was mostly batter and was still hungry.

My in laws Mrs and Mrs Noakes have been frequenting the Fountain for years and have nothing but good to say about it, however if this is how regulars are spoken to and treated then I shall never set foot there again.

Massively disappointed as we had a meal just 5 days previous at the fountain and it was marvelous! It shows how shoddy the place is when the proprietor Jaque isn't around.

All that said I must now praise Holly and Julia who where wonderful, really polite, friendly and helpful, really personable and both...