Adam's Brasserie — Restaurant in England

ADAM’S BRASSERIE, LUTON HOO

Four of us had an “interesting” meal at Adam’s Brasserie. On a wet December day we arrived at the gates to this 1,065 acre estate looking for the Brasserie restaurant. In this vast estate we only found only one sign to it, though that sign was misleading. We therefore had to stop at the main house (hotel) to ask for directions.

On arrival there we went into a bar asking where we could put our coats, to be greeted with “in a minute” by one of the two staff in this room that had only us as customers. Eventually our coats were taken and we were shown into the restaurant – a lovely room. Two minutes after we were given menus, the waitress who had given them to us asked if we were ready to order! “No.” After waiting to see if we were going to be offered a drink we had to ask if we could have a drink before our meal! When the drinks arrived, the drinks waiter tried to take the wine glasses off our table and we had to explain that we were also going to order wine. Before our meal and the wine was served, two other staff also tried to take our wine glasses away! Even Faulty Towers do not do this.

Three of us had the Christmas menu and I chose from the main menu. When my delicious confit rabbit croquettes arrived I thought that although the staff appeared untrained, the food was going to be good. Wrong! My main course of slow roast pork belly really needed the attention of a steak knife. It was a struggle with the normal knife I had. Instead of melting, the pork was chewy. I was looking forward to the brown shrimp butter on the pork, but unfortunately this was overpowered by the mushy celeriac and apple.

Surely the chefs could do nothing wrong with the “mulled wine poached pears” and blackcurrant sorbet, which turned out to be “half a poached pear”. Again, I could have done with a steak knife to cut the pear! My wife makes much better poached pears. To be fair, the sorbet was really nice.

The highlight of the three other meals off the Christmas Menu was the mushroom soup enjoyed by one who said it was really flavoursome and intense. Otherwise, the comments were that the food was average.

Two of us ordered coffee and were served with one wrong coffee and a fruit tea! When we brought this to the attention of a waiter, he apologised and quickly brought the correct coffees.

Having said the above, apart from the staff in the bar, all the staff in the restaurant were friendly and helpful, though under-trained.

Will I go there again? I don’t think so. Especially as Luton Hoo’s website claims it is a 5 Star Luxury Hotel. 5 Star with that...

My wife and I chose Adam's Brasserie for a rare meal out on our 20th Wedding anniversary, and I have to say I was disappointed with our experience. The service was very poor; I am not an impatient diner at all, but we eventually had to flag down a waiter to ask for drinks (having long since taken our food order), and then after almost an hour sat at our table had to flag down another waiter to ask if there was any bread for the table.

To be fair, my wife's menu choices resulted in a better outcome for her, but mine was very disappointing. I ordered chilled asparagus starter, which was essentially a rough chopped lettuce salad with a few asparagus tips thrown in, and half (!) a boiled egg - which could have been served equally gracefully is it had just been turned out of a plastic tub bought at a petrol station - hardly befitting a £14 dish. Nothing special at all about this.

My main was garlic chicken with watercress and fries; this was the most disappointing. Aside from the extensive delay between starters and mains being served (over 40 minutes), the meal had very evidently been reheated at least once. Although it was piping hot, (and I mean unnaturally searingly hot) it was patently obvious it had just come out of a microwave. The chicken was tasty enough and tender, but did not seem freshly cooked; the watercress was wilted, bruised and old-looking like the last pack on the shelf at Asda, and the fries were simply inexcusably nasty - tasting powerfully of old stale grease, shatteringly hard, and significantly overcooked - again evidently had been hanging around for a long time and reheated. I have had considerably better oven chips at home; I hate to say this, but McDonalds serve much better fries than this all day long.

All in all, this was a poor show from what purports to be a more classy brasserie than your average village pub. But Adam's Brasserie failed to stand up even to the kind of food quality and service you might expect to receive at a Harvester. Don't spoil your special evening at Adam's Brasserie; your local pub will probably give you a much better evening, and would at least leave you with some time to get a McDonalds afterwards if they really...

Terrible experience here for Saturday lunch, the most basic basic food, like a poor motorway service station at ridiculous prices. Would strongly discourage anyone from ever going here.

We had a sandwich each which consists of a small amount of cheap meat (sliced ham or one piece of chicken, both tasting like from a packet) and some mustard in two pieces of regular pre packaged sliced bread which was stale, a few crisps and a handful of salad, for £11. It’s like what you’d make for a speedy sandwich at home, but with far less care. They did swap the bread for some different slices when we complained it was stale, but no apology.

Total meal consisting of two of these sandwiches and drinks came to £72.38! Included the most expensive glass of orange and lemonade (£7.85) I’ve ever purchased, a glass of Prosecco, a bottle of sparkling water we didn’t ask for, and two very small and slightly off tasting coffees we risked at the end of the meal. The service was friendly and polite but disorganised and they really didn’t look like they wanted to be there or knew how to provide 5-star customer service.

We were expecting to pay this amount for lunch, but for that we were expecting 5-star food and drink to match. You’d get a much better sandwich in Greggs. I hope they read this and improve the menu or at least the sandwiches, because the brasserie experience will put people off the main hotel (which we ate in for dinner and in stark contrast had a delicious quality experience). I will never...