Coach & Horses Thorley — Restaurant in East Hertfordshire

We came here for lunch as a family with 2 kids. We ordered all food with some cocktails and bottle of wine. We ordered a margarita which came served on the rocks when the menu does not state this.

We then ordered a bottle of wine that came to the table open, the waitress did not asked if If we wanted to taste the wine, she purely left the bottle at the table and left. After tasting the wine we didn't enjoy and asked to swap for a more expensive wine, we were told we would have to pay for a small glass which was what we tasted, bear in mind no one cared if the wine was good or spoiled.

We ordered the second bottle of wine (£36) which once again came open and it was a cork, not screw bottle, and once again it was left on the table with a "good luck" sign and server yourself. After lunch we asked the waitress why are we being charged for a glass and why are the bottles not open at the table, we were told, "if you order wine we expect you to know the wine" and "we just open all the screews at the bar, not at the table"

It would be better to change the name from Coach and Horses, to Wether spoons, and adapt prices, because in all honesty, spoons you'll get a better experience overall.

We paid £75 per person and this is not a normal pub as some might argue, with this type of price you have to give a different type of experience to your guests, and it is extremely disappointing to have this type of service where you couldn't care any less about your guests.

Cherry on top of the cake, we ordered some coffees, which came freezing cold, we then sent back and finally had some type of discount.

We ended up paying for everything and obviously never will we return here, awful service, awful care for customers and no pride in any...

Not a good experience.

We meet up for a family Sunday dinner at the coach and horses this Sunday and I'm afraid I cannot recommend it.

The booking was confusing with the manager and then assistant manager contradicting each other. After the initial food order was placed it then got lost by the kitchen and had to be retaken. Finally when the good did arrive it was very late.

Now so far while this is bad, great food could turn this around but sadly the good was really very poor. The vegetables where uniformly over cooked, soft and limp, the Yorkshire puddings had a degree of as soggy to them and the whole plate was covered in a very thick gelatinous gravy.

The vegetarian food that was ordered was also covered in the gravy and although we where reassured that the gravy was vegetarian who wants a strong beef flavour when your vegetarian! The fish that was ordered was a tiny portion size and needs looking at, it would be fine as a starter.

So these are the bad bits, what's good, well the waiting staff (2 girls looked after us) where hard working polite and really held it all together. They have a magician walking table to table doing close card tricks and he really is superb and generally the atmosphere is a good busy one.

In brief we paid a reasonable even cheap price for very poor food served late, there are better...

Coach and horses is a lovely place , the furniture is set out well and has a very relaxing atmosphere. The waitresses and staff were very helpful and attentive without being annoying. The starters smoked trout , breaded Brie , whitebait , scampi , duck croquette , were lovely. The criticism is with the mains food , 3 of us had the very meaty ribs which were very nice but a felt that the were over done , not burnt but had dried out a bit. The fish pie was again very nice except that again the top was over done as the potato top was burnt. The liver and bacon was the worst dish , the liver was burnt which made it bitter and the bacon was half fat and grissel , the mash potato was a small portion and the gravy very watery, the side salad (white cabbage and strips of carrot) which went with it seemed a bit out of place and l think required cooked vegetables but that is just a personal opinion. The last dish was the burger which was perfect, moist and succulent. In summery the place is fantastic , the food all requires the chef not to overdo the cooking. (except the liver and bacon which l think...