Brasserie Blanc Cheltenham — Restaurant in Cheltenham

It seems a shame to give this restaurant such a poor rating as it's only down the road from us and looks so nice from outside. There is an ambiance of being somewhere special inside the great dining hall, as the fervour of diners and architectural lends itself to. The table we sat at was a little unfortunate at being next to the cashiers desk, with dirty washing rags clearly visible fairy nearby. This was not noticed by me, however it was by my wife who immediately commented on it, and as a result we shimmied our seats around to create the necessary blindspot. The menu looked good and promised much, and upon asking advice from the waitress we decided upon the pig for the main course. She had advised us this was to die for. Unfortunately once it arrived for both of us although it looked very nice indeed the proof is always in the pudding as they say and the taste was rather bland. To be exact the pig itself tasted of nothing the potatoes tasted of nothing and the gravy (as weak as brown water and extremely limited in supply) tasted of little enough to be of consequence. The crackling which was the aspect of the dish that first caught my attention was seemingly made of concrete. Had I wanted a cheap dentist on the day to remove a troublesome tooth, he or she might have opted for so torturous an instrument. Being a man only in my 40s and not in my 90s I thought that the delivery of the crackling had been a gigantic mistake upon our person, and henceforth I ordered a new plate for both of us in the vain hope that a more luscious and indeed more edible crackling would be forthcoming. The waitress who seemed fairly uninterested, had advised me that this probably would not be the case as all of the crackling looked the same, however this I found incredulous as I could not believe that such a large room full of diners who had similarly ordered would be pleased enough with their offering not to force a correction. Nevertheless it was so and the replacement crackling arrived only for us to endure more pain and more despair as we tussled with our lifeless plate. In search of a better end to the evening we left quickly after consuming our beige meal and headed to the ivy where upon marvellous desserts and excellent cocktails made up for the dearth of experience earlier in the night. I'd award one star for ambience, another star for decent wine but no stars at all for the food. I've had more interesting tasting...

I am sorry to give just 2 stars but really don’t feel it warrants more.

The welcome into the restaurant was warm and friendly, the decor of the building itself liked good and had a certain grandeur. The waiters and waitresses were friendly and polite.

We were walk in customers, and shown to our table. This is where it started to go wrong in our opinion. The tables felt of poor quality and were not that stable - not wobbly due to floor- just not very sturdy. Even worse, the tables were set really close together, at this point we were almost the only ones in so it wasn’t an issue.

The menu had a good choice, and we chose the duck and the pork ribeye along with a Merlot.

The food was hot, but the pork ribeye lacked seasoning and flavour, the jus seemed more like water with some pork juices in it rather than anything else. The food was edible and cooked but, I’m sorry to say was nowhere near what I expected from the name above the door. My wife’s duck was similar- the carrots overly salty but not any flavour for the rest. The glass of Merlot was good.

During the meal, more customers were seated and whilst I appreciate that the restaurant was getting busy, to start with, we were all sat in the same area and this is where the closeness of the tables really detracted from what should be more fine dining experience than it is. If I had stretched out an arm I could have touched the person at the next table- a downside of having a long bench seating system? We could hear their every word in conversation and they were not talking loudly. When the waiter served them, the gap between tables so narrow that my wife pretty much had his arse in her face whilst eating (not the waiters fault on this). Really didn’t live upto any expectation here.

The toilets themselves: The room was good and nice hand soap, but the cubicle had a lock missing and the backs of the doors needed a repaint. Apparently the ladies cubicle doors were in the same need of a paint.

We were really looking forward to trying this restaurant for my wife’s Birthday, but sadly will not be returning. We have had better quality food at supposedly lesser establishments and eaten in far more spacious surroundings with food quality way in excess of this. I hope it was just a poor day, having seen many of the other reviews; but was not the quality we were looking for...

I was a little disappointed to be honest as I had invited an elderly friend to come for lunch with me before the 2nd lockdown. Firstly we both decided on the crab for mains and then carried on chatting together until the waitress came to take our order and then she told us there was no crab! We again looked at the menu and chose 2 different mains. Mine was the Beef Bourguignon which was a favourite of mine as a child when my mother made it and was shocked to see that it arrived as a chunk with a large piece of fat attached to it! If you research that dish online it should be steak cut into chunks not just a slab of meat on the top of potato! Then my elderly friend was SO disappointed that it was absolutely impossible to cut the broccoli served with her sea bass! I watched her struggling to cut it and she did not want to say anything to the waitress at all but finally I told the waitress and she took away the whole dish which left my friend holding her knife and fork in her hand waiting for her lunch to be returned! I would have thought it would make sense just to bring a side plate of broccoli stems! Properly cooked. Then finally her lunch came back and I watched her struggling again. After a while I asked if I could try a piece of the greens and it was chewy and really hard to eat it actually! I was not impressed with this at all - it is not difficult to cook/steam vegetables and she said she really needed the greenery at the moment. We did not complain again! It was my friend's first time at your restaurant and I felt this was a great shame for her to have this experience. On top of this my mocktail arrived with so much ice in it that even after 2 hours it had not melted so I felt I was paying for half a glass of frozen water. I love the decor and have had a good meal there in the past but do feel that this needs to be addressed. I do look forward to coming to try again once you open your doors again though and hope...