Christmas Dinner 2022
We came today as a huge treat to bring my elderly Mum for a memorable dinner. We have had quite a difficult year with family health issues. The meals were £54.99! Not the most expensive locally but definitely not the cheapest. So it was something that had been saved for.
We arrived and sat at our table, the first diners in one large area. It took some time before a staff member came to tell us we had to order drinks at the bar or via the Greene King app.
Starters arrived, all ok. The soup with a slice of white bread, the duck quackers.
We had all ordered traditional Christmas dinners.
It was a large plate of food but definitely quantity over quality.
The roast potatoes were definately from a ready prepared bag, the type Aunt Bessie provides, all uniform and the same powdery taste, sadly not beautifully basted and golden with oddly cut shapes as you'd expect?
The turkey was suspiciously all uniform size, a smooth texture, colour and exactly the same shaped slices with an odd fat along the edge? Not a freshly carved bird at all it seemed?
Roast parsnips were hard and very difficult to cut through.
2 pale 'pigs' and just one had a very tiny 'blanket'.
The rest of the veg was nice.
Yorkshire puds were also oddly uniform and sized?
Puddings ok, gingerbread cheesecake incredibly sweet but nice and a big portion.
They had no normal cream for Mums Xmas pudding but she had ice cream.
Finally coffee and mince pie.
Coffee poured from a pot was instant which surprised me. I had expected filter, maybe expectations too high?
Mince pies were bought, not handmade sadly. Again, were my expectations too high?
There was only 1 person on the bar the whole time so ordering drinks from the app didn't arrive after 15 mins and the bar was incredibly busy with a long queue when we went to go and collect them instead. It was servicing those just drinking at yhe pub as well as diners.
I'm not sure what I was expecting but I was expecting great quality and a bit of wow for £55.
It is a Greene King after all and we have visited the Swan at Bletchley before which has amazing food and service.
It was OK, we made no fuss as we wanted my Mum to enjoy her day. My husband tipped £20 as not the waiting staffs fault.
Maybe there was a reason like reduced staff, something going wrong with ordering in the food? Not sure but a fair review of the meal I would say.
If there was a problem today to cause these issues, I would hope they would be honest and alert us as we sat down or prior to coming via email, maybe offer a price reduction or at least an apology.
Just a bit disappointed and a little confused by what was served for £275 plus drinks bill.
REPLY: Thank you for your reply Ray. Apologies as I had cut and pasted the named pub and meant the Bletchley Swan, though we have also visited the Woughton Chef & Brewer pub too in the past. Aside from the different pricing and service at different pub chains, I do think that the Hungry Horse meal offered at £54.99 was not great quality for that cost.
We had looked at all the meals offered locally from MK buffet at £27.99, right up to village pubs at £84.99. The reason we came was because Houghton Regis is local, we knew the Greene King brand was good and your reviews also seemed good. Partly why I was surprised by our experience as the food has good reviews. We may well come back and try again...
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