Gatwick Manor — Restaurant in Crawley

Sadly, my partner and I have just experienced one of the most disappointing roast dinners of all time. I exaggerate not when I say that this culinary event makes the Crawley Toby Carvery taste like haute cuisine, and feel like a fine dining experience by comparisons. We went with high hopes. We have eaten there before and enjoyed what we had. So off we went with our Sunday roast appetites at the ready, eager to fill our bellies. Alas, it was not to be. Home we returned, hungry, disgruntled and nearly £70 poorer for two roasts and a couple of starters. Where do I begin? I was promised roast beef served pink. I’ve seen coal pinker than my offering. Its was one overdone, dry slice, leather like of beef. The trio of meats were all just over done, dry slices of almost indistinguishable meat. What was peddled as carrot mash was in fact cubes of carrot that had been boiled to within an anemic inch of their life. They were now just a pile of lack lustre, tasteless mush as was the cabbage. I almost sat in a moments silence out of respect for such a waste of delicious veg. The crackling wasn’t edible. The cauliflower cheese was an actual crime against food. It was so bad that actually we ended up not being charged for it. But the most heinous crime on the plate was those poor roast potatoes - although, I remain distinctly unconvinced they had been roasted at all, least of all in the advertised duck fat. Those poor, pale chunks of potato on my plate were the last straw. I ended up leaving 80% of what was on my plate. I ate the Yorkshire pudding which was okay, and two slices of the meat. But, by the time I’d waged war on them, I’m was exhausted from all that chewing and just gave up. I don’t ask for much. I’d like the meat that was so deliciously advertised as pink, roast potatoes with some actual bite and crunch, and veg that doesn’t look like it’s just been viciously boiled to death. If you’re going to charge that much, do better. I was so fed up and somehow perversely embarrassed that I’d left so much food on the plate, I left my poor partner to pay, and slumped off grumpily and hungrily to the car. What a waste of time, energy and...

So work away on business and eat out a lot, I love hunting down pubs where I am but this time it was a miss. Here are the negatives

Visited the toilets on arrival, and you can gauge a place by how clean they’re, these were filthy, with rot in the walls causing tiles and skirting to detach, the dryer didn’t work and they was toilet paper everywhere clearly had not been checked

Was told a table for one was not possible unless I booked, having just walked through the large restaurant and spotting only three tables in use, I asked again and was seated. Throughout my meal for around 45mins only a few more tables were occupied, they even took a phone booking for four at 745!

Ordered a Malbec and was brought a white wine, then a glass of red arrived with lipstick all round the rim this was replaced, but the wine had bubbles so was clearly tipped from one contaminated glass to the other

Found hunters chicken on the standard menu but spotted a chefs hunters chicken, this was a rather posh cast iron bowl filled with two thin breasts, gammon and bacon. It was stewed in some cheese and bbq sauce and looked very much out of the packet, the chicken was fake stringy chicken and was certainly not real chicken breast as it was translucent and pulled apart in strings (hopefully I’ll survive the night)

Was asked to come to the til to pay even though they had portable card machines which the waitress removed and handed to me, asked for my card receipt and was told it is out of paper, manager found some roll but couldn’t provide a receipt. Waitress also mentioned all the machines are out of paper

The restaurants large and they had one waitress wearing a trainee badge, she was polite but really didn’t have any skills in terms of service

Obviously I won’t frequent here again and hope you find this...

Returning after 3 years. Booked a table alongside a nights stay at premier inn next door. Booked table for 6 plus high chair. It was my dads birthday and we are flying to morocco tomoz. We got there at 5.50pm (booked for 6pm) a lady showed us to a table layed out for 7 but no highchair. They bought a high chair over but it had no straps. The side room was really hot big windows with full sun right on us we were already hot as temps soared outside 34°c. I asked if theu had a fan or a table in cooler area to be told we could sit outside but this wouldnt be table service or in the bar area but the tables were small. We ordered drinks half way through ordering with a lady a male barman came and they argued about who should be taking order the man took over but got order mixed up and missed a pint off when bringing our drinks...then later we got charged for 2 pints!! they took our food order which was also wrong as 2 orders of onion rings came all on one persins plate!! kids meal not accurate and burger had salad when we asked for non. caeser salad not bad but very basic would have been bland without chicken n bacon (which was very fatty) this was the end of table service. i had to go to the bar 4 times to order drinks to order desert to ask for bill and then to get them to redo bill as they charged us for a beer we never got 1st time and meals were put through at full price not as set meal deals there was a big difference!! plus the fact it wasnt table service at all. It seemed the other restaurant area was waited very well by the lady in there but we were neglected overcharged and it was a shame for my dads birthday and the start of our holiday....not...