The Plough and Harrow — Restaurant in Elmbridge

Don’t hold your breath! Our party of 7 were very pleased upon arrival at the beautifully refurbed gastro pub and looked forward to a good night out for my birthday. The starters were good-despite the 45 min wait. Everyone was pleased with their dish and were quite forgiving. In the meantime they brought us servings of baguettes and dips – all charged for! All the reviews were correct – it was a little busy! After our starters arrived we had the added bonus of an explanation of 'the finger bowl'. Slightly unusual! We were still quite forgiving as we were in a merry mood and made light of it. Main course was a little different though – three of us did not get our first choice of meal (lamb), it happens BUT neither did we get our second choice (duck). It was busier than we thought! One of us asked if we could have an additional vegetable added to the dish, something like spinach or even mushroom? We were told 'no' and the manager came out to explain why it was not possible to get this added on. Most surprising! As a group, we enjoy visiting a variety of dining establishments of various levels including fine dining experiences and never before did a manager come out to explain why an adjustment to the meal was not possible. An hour later and the food still had not arrived. This prompted me to give them a little nudge. It worked – we received our meals 2 mins later. It was fine but nothing too special. We all had different dishes as we couldn’t work out exactly what we wanted, considering our first and second choices were unavailable. Birthdays celebrations were popular last night - 4 people including me! We watched each table get a complementary pistachio soufflé (absolutely delicious) being served along with a ‘happy birthday’ yet when it was our turn – we were offered the whole box with my birthday cakes brought to the table. I did draw the line at that point and sent it back to be properly served. After we had our coffees, little birthday cakes (brought in) and desserts (that we ordered), the manager came out to announce he wanted to give me one complementary pistachio soufflé and we DIDN’T HAVE TO PAY. Most kind indeed! Make what you will of the night, Plough and Harrow was a disappointment for us. Had it not been for a group of wonderful friends our night would have been memorable for all the wrong reasons. I am sympathetic to new establishments and want them to succeed but can't help but feel that just a little effort would have turned the situation...

We arrived at around 5.45pm (reservation) it was quite busy when we arrived, which most of the time is a good sign, the host greeted but as they weren't quite ready for us they politely asked if we could grab a drink as they was just waiting for a table to set for us. Which we was more than happy to do. Myself and my partner have lived 10 mins away for over 10yrs and never thought to come in. We was originally wanting a roast dinner but do you know what not even slightly disappointed that we couldn't because the A La Carte was fantastic (well what we had ordered)

Now I'm not one for going out for dinner as I'm usually left fairly disappointed. I was not disappointed this time round, coming from a catering background myself as a trained chef. Food was beautifully cooked. Starter was the Cheese soufflé, now I know hard these can be to make, but it was beautifully done, really punchy cheese flavour which is my favourite thing next to chocolate! For mains I had the marinated half chicken, with carrots mash and Madeira and chicken jus. Chicken was beautifully cooked again, still moist and very moreish with a crispy skin!!! The chefs even cleaned the bone, which is not always done! The carrots where beautifully prepared and again clean which anyone with kitchen experience will now carrots should be served clean. The mash was creamy and delicious and jus was beautiful would have happily sat with some bread and just dipped away!!

Dessert I had the chocolate and orange mousse and my god I was in heaven!! It was rich, beautiful chocolate, orange came through really nicely and not too punchy in your face. Crumble was a great texture to break down the softness of the dessert.

The server we had (I think her name was Rebecca, should have checked on my way out! Deeply annoyed at myself for not doing so) she was brilliantly attentive to us and little girl, made us feel very welcome throughout our experience.

There was even a outside play area for kids, which my little one thoroughly enjoyed whilst waiting for her ice cream.

Expecting the bill to come in for alot more that it did for x3 3 course menu we had bought the kitchen a round of beers and our server a drink to say a massive thank you, for your brilliant service and deliciously prepared and cooked food.

100% recommend to anyone wanting a beautifully cooked meal, great value for money and fantastic atmosphere. Thank you so much for the...

Simply abysmal service.

Having just moved to the area we were excited to try what looked like a superb pub with an interesting menu and relaxed ambience. It was a beautiful Monday evening and we saw it wasn't very busy so thought why not pop in to try the food.

We were seated by a member of staff and then promptly abandoned. Although I would have appreciated a copy of the menu we were able to acquire one from another table.

10 minutes or so pass by and we realise that our server hadn't returned. We speculate about the competency of the establishment for a brief period while watching the goings on of the staff and other diners.

Our server, every so often, scuttled out to a table for some plates or to drop off some starters, then scuttled back inside - being sure to avoid eye contact with patrons at tables that may need their attention. A floor manager could also be seen but unfortunately was equally as inattentive, focusing exclusively on the task in front of them and ignoring all others.

I appreciate that staff will often have to balance many tasks, and do sometimes miss certain queues, but in all my life I have never felt so ignored by wait staff. I would understand if it was a busy night but watching this for the best part of half an hour it was clear that the staff are simply incapable of managing a restaurant floor.

We are fully aware that we could have approached a member of staff to initiate service but if standards are this poor we wouldn't want to gamble on the food. Equally, I would feel like a bit of a fool handing over £120 for the experience of eating here.

Eventually we just left. I'm not sure...