Carriages Bar & Restaurant — Restaurant in England

As a former fine dining chef, I would consider the food here to be reasonable comfort food, similar to most mid-range pubs, but with an Italian twist. We started with the antipasti and the burrata for starters. The burrata, served with tomatoes and pesto, was beautifully creamy, but could have been elevated with better quality tomatoes and some decent balsamic, ditching the underwhelming pesto altogether. Overall, enjoyable, however, as was the antipasti, which was a pleasant, but largely unspecial collection of cured meats, green olives and focaccia. Was the focaccia deep fried before serving? It tasted like it, but I'm going to pretend it wasn't! It was a long way from 'fügassa' though. For mains, we had the salmon and pork fillets. Both were overcooked, the pork far too much so. It tasted like it was cooked in the sauce rather than added last minute. The sauces were good though, in particular the plum sauce on the pork, which had a brown base and paired perfectly with the savouriness of the meat. The mashed celeriac with the salmon was fine, albeit a little watery, but the pomme purée served with the pork was awful. It was obviously blended, rather than pressed through a fine screen, and it tasted like wallpaper paste. Blending potatoes is a huge faux pas, next only to deep frying focaccia (I really hope I'm wrong about them doing that). While the starters were a little too large, the mains were a little lacking in size and left you wondering why some more sides (some veg perhaps?) weren't added. The desserts, however, were well sized, and they seemed like they were made in house. We had the chocolate cake and cannoli. Both were a little like how your grandmother would make them after looking them up in a cookbook: fine but not particularly interesting and quite forgetful. For example, the cannoli shell was quite thick and chewy, rather than delicately crispy, and stuffed with sweet ricotta. There was no contrast with aromatic candied orange, no floral sweetness of good honey, and no savouriness of chocolate pieces. The ice-cream accompanying the cake, on the other hand, was quite lovely. A very good heavy coffee flavoured gelato. The wine and beer was a similar experience to the rest of the meal. A locally sourced pale ale, which was unspecial in terms of characteristics, but refreshing, and a montepuliciano that was nicely fruity but a little young and in need of decanting and was overfilled in a wine glass far too small for its volume. Overall, a little too pricey (~£90) for the quality, but friendly staff and nice atmosphere elevated...

Food: I picked this restaurant for lunch based on the website with amazing photos and menu options. On visiting today (Sunday) it seems the menu advertised is not available and a ‘Sunday lunch’ menu is the only one available. This has very limited options and was a disappointment because I had already planned what I wanted to eat. Three of the options were roast dinners so if you thought you were going to get something different and avoid the boring roast by picking an Italian restaurant you are mistaken! Starters we had truffle arancini - definitely reheated by refrying as the coating was hard and rice chewy, also a bit tasteless 3/10. Chicken liver pate-while nice was very average 7/10. Mains were lamb roast. Lamb was overcooked and a bit disappointing. Veg was average and bland. Roasties and Yorkies were very nice-6/10 Parpadelle was very oily/greasy with undercooked parts. Asparagus pieces were nice, raw spinach added on top was a bit odd but I like spinach so not too bad. 5/10. Desserts were okay Tiramisu just tasted of cream, couldn’t taste coffee at all, pannacotta not very vanilla flavoured. Again quite average. Nothing to rave about. 6/10 Service: staff are all very friendly and helpful. Food arrived super quick, almost too quick because it felt like they were rushing to get rid of you. Ambience: it’s a large restaurant, very plain decoration and only two other tables busy during our visit so lacked ambiance today. Might be better during a busy service. Overall: Despite a website with trendy fine dining photos and a write up of an experienced chef trained by Gino D’campo the whole lunch was very below average and disappointing. In fact if I was D’Campo I would be a little embarrassed my name was being used to promote this restaurant. Maybe we just came on a bad day but I could have made better pasta sauce and most definitely a better roast at home and I’m not a chef! Sorry guys, you were all very friendly but the food needs a big improvement and such a limited menu is...

We haven't been here for a while, and wont be going back anytime soon. The website claims its high quality, and demanded "smart business dress code" - I guess business dress code for many is shorts and T shirt rather than trousers and shirt. On first appearance, the place looked dirty and unkept, far from its heyday when it first opened. It has gone downhill - Paper napkins and tatty cutlery in abundance.

The food was plain, and not a patch on what it used to be and not much better than some cafes. As an example I had King Scallops. They were cold and covered in Nduja sauce which totally covered up the taste of the sea I was expecting. First time I had Scallops at Carriages when they had not long been open, they blew me away - they were amazing, but this time they were cold and bland. Main course of Veal Cutlet, the most expensive meat dish on the menu was no better than I have had in a cheap German cafe. It was greasy and bland and the spinach was bitter. To top it off, the service was appalling - staff, residents and contractors were wandering out to the outdoor dining area, where we were, to smoke with smoke wafting across all diners, without a care in the world. We had to go to the main Hotel reception to pay our bill as we waited nearly 30 mins for a waiter which never re-appeared. When we presented a voucher to pay for less than 50% of the total bill; (the voucher was a gift, and equivalent to real money, and advised on booking) the girl at the desk snatched it in disgust at us. As an update, two months on; I heard from another Restaurant that the owner at Carriages was disappointed with my review and was going to ring me. He didn't, and no point now as I wouldn't go back to a restaurant with such poor...