The Pear Tree Inn — Restaurant in Charnwood

Went to the Pear Tree for the first time on a Saturday afternoon. Arrived around 4 and ordered some drinks. I asked about food and was told it wasn't on until 5, and due to how busy they were, we would have to sit in the Ski lodge outside, no issue, heaters and blankets were provided. 5 o'clock rolled around, so I headed back in to order, where I was told someone will be out to take my order from the table shortly, nobody came. Another 15 mins passes, so I head back in, where I'm told to order at the bar. I make an order of 3 pizzas and pay upfront. When I head back to my table outside, the staff then begin setting up the area, laying out cutlery and lighting candles, only out table is missed. After around half an hour we are told they will need the table back shortly due to a booking, to which I inform them we have ordered food, so we aren't moved. Another group arrives, their order taken at the table, and their food arrives within 10 mins. I enquire about my groups food, as it turns out, our order never made it from the bar to the kitchen. After an hour of waiting we finally get our food. Credit where it's due, the food was very good, all 3 wood fired pizzas were very tasty. We leave somewhat satisfied, if a little perturbed at waiting an hour from order to eating for 3 pizzas.

I returned again today, a Sunday afternoon, having quite enjoyed the drinks I had last time. Ordered at the bar, again to the Ski Lodge area outside. The young lady brings out the drinks and proceeds to spill an entire bloody mary onto the table and into my lap. She was very apologetic, and these things do happen. She remade my drink, bought it out, and then proceeds to ask us to pay. While I'm not at all the sort to ask for discounts, having totally ruined a brand new pair of white (fabric) shoes and covered me in tomato juice, I was a little surprised that no accommodation was made.

All in all, the pear tree is a very nicely presented pub and restaurant, with very good food, and well mixed cocktails, but is just entirely let down by it's service. 2 less than ideal experiences in a row, I likely won't...

So, as like most people I read the lesser star reviews first as normally it’s a clearer indication.

We decided to go to genos as the theme indicated an authentic Italian experiance, some notes on that.

We decided to go for the pizza (salami) with black olives and also the chicken supreme dish.

The pizza was soft and fairly nice, a good ratio of cheese to bread etc. I’d say a fair 7/10. Not quite worth the £10.50 it was priced at, but it’s a restaurant so it’s expected to be a little more.

The olives however were awful, straight from a jar, and not a “Tesco’s finest” jar, more like the ones you get for FREE in the salad bar in harvester (in-fact, I’m pretty certain they were the same ones) 😬... wasn’t impressed.. this is an Italian restaurant and they use the cheapest olives available?

The chicken supreme was £14.50, it was basically a quarter chicken with 3 cooked cherry tomatoes. The chicken was seasoned & cooked well but it was also very small (for a child it would be adequate) and most certainly not worth £14.50! Didn’t even come with sides...

^ This isn’t a london based resurant guys, you can’t just make up a price and provide subpar portions - surely longevity from customers is more important than instant profits and non returning customers?

A nanos would have been half the price with MUCH better Olives and MUCH bigger chicken portions, cooked just as well.

I know this sounds like a very negative review and I can assure you it’s not intentional but at the same time, I eat out pretty much every night and the food to price ratio just didn’t cut it for me.

Would I recommend to a friend? Mm maybe the pizza (without olives). Everything else? Probably not.

Just for reference - total price £40

Pizza Chicken “supreme” Large glass of house red wine Small glass of house red wine.

Also

The service was friendly...

Been on the bucket list for some time and we were excited to try this place. Sadly the first venue we have visited (out of 4) who are abusing the government eat out scheme. They have conveniently introduced a fix price menu with 2 courses as mandatory and which costs £20 so uses your full £10 allocation on food. Really disappointing. They also have no kids menu at this time again up selling you a mandatory fixed price 2 courses. We booked online where they openly advertise being in the help out scheme, kids and al a carte menu but dont share their compulsary fixed price menu or any additional "rules" they are applying. Had we known all this we would not have booked. We were 2 adults and 2 children and ordered three 2 course meals (no other option) and were discounted £30 and we could not get any further discount even though there were 4 of us dining. All our non alacholic drinks were full price and not included in the discount (which directly goes against the governments rules) as they only give you £10 off per set course, not 50% off up to £10pp. Sadly a business who is profiteering during this difficult time. The food was good but the integrity of this business means we will not be returning again. Avoid...