The Monk — Restaurant in Charnwood

Having been left in lurch by a local hotel I was searching for a local restaurant that could accommodate our party of 26 people. Having found The Monk via a Google search I placed an enquiry via the website initially and followed up by phone a little later. No to fully understand the complexity of this I must outline the timescales, I made the initial phone call to this establishment on Thursday evening asking if they could accommodate us for the following Tuesday evening. Simon answered the phone and, understandably so, hesitated at the possibility. My outlook, even before I made the enquiry, was not hopeful owing to the size of our group. Simon phoned back with positive news albeit with a service time a little later than we hoped for but beggars cannot be choosers right? Simon forwarded on the menu for pre-selection, clearly communicating the required timescales etc. The level at which Simon was communicating with me gave me confidence in the venue and the menu looked enticing. Fast forward to arriving at the venue on Tuesday, Fantastic setting, great vibe to the place, we were impressed as soon as we walked through the front door. Owing to the size of our group we were seated in the "The Inside Out" area of the venue which is as impressively appointed as the main restaurant area. The food was fantastic, not one of our group had a bad word (not even a minor grumble) to say about the food. The service was constant and quite frankly superb! Real credit has to go to Simon and the team at The Monk! With barely any notice at all they manged to make our experience a most enjoyable one and all at a reasonable price. Thank you all so much for making the night a success it really does mean a great deal to us. Highly, highly...

Best experience in a restaurant in a very long time! Very attentive service throughout, knowledgeable staff, good wine knowledge they even offered us tasters of 2 different wines to let us choose from before ordering the whole bottle, couldn't fault the service. We shared a board of Italian meats, roasted veg, olives, mozzarella pearls and salad between 2 of us. The roasted veg which included some artichoke which elevated the dish and set us up for mains well. I had the herb crusted lamb which was rich and full of flavour, the veg that came with it was perfectly cooked and well seasoned, we had some mint sauce on the side too which hit the spot. My friend had the sea bass with similar accompaniments and was impressed with his main too. Panna cotta for dessert was great too. Lovely meal, left very satisfied and full yet not bloated even after 3 courses. The wine was fantastic too. Will return soon and highly...

We booked a table here for dinner since we were staying locally but didn't know the area at all. There is a free sizable public car park just across the road. We had a lovely greeting as soon as we walked through the door and were shown to our table. The waitress was so sweet and patient. The food was outstanding - beautifully presented and very tasty. The drinks were delicious and everything was reasonably priced. The restaurant is very clean and comfortable. The toilets were also clean with lots of little thoughtful additions in the ladies loo! We were there for a couple of hours and the time flew by! As things got busier, service became a little slower, despite several staff members. From what we could gather, they weren't working sections or tables which did leave us feeling a little neglected later in our meal but we were happy to sit and enjoy the ambiance while feeling stuffed...