Don Paddy's — Restaurant in England

A friend said they wanted to revisit this restaurant as they hadn't been since 2009. It was not how he remembered it.

First time for myself visiting..... I wasn't overly impressed. Yes we turned up on motorbikes which seemed to scare the concierge to death! He certainly gives us what felt to me the look of "what are you people doing here?" So not a good start.

Our main server was lovely, had a good knowledge of the menu and was over all helpful.

However considering it was a Monday night and there was only a handful of other diners waiting 20 minutes for drinks seemed a little excessive. Then once our meal was ordered we waited a further 40 minutes for it to make its way from the kitchen; (unfortunately not all the food we ordered was brought to the table and a reminder had to be given) which seemed to be a slow process, 2 diners had their meals and the other 3 were left waiting long enough for me to suggest that they start their food before it gets cold. We only had a main and were only approached once during our dining experience to ask if all was OK. Hence the 3 star rating for service.

The food was undoubtedly (for the most part) delicious (the meatballs were very bland and almost tasted like soap/detergent and at £9 for 4 small meatballs i wouldve expected them to be bursting with flavour, spices anf leave you wanting more), so if you don't mind a fairly long wait on a quiet night it's all good.

There was no background music. The acoustics of the place is fairly echoy so every tables conversation can be heard rather clearly. To hold your own conversation would mean shouting over the rest...... a little kike a class room. Which is why it's only 3 stars from me.

Having said all the the ladies that served us were polite and smartly presented, both with a very...

My wife and I had visited Rutland for a short holiday, and called into Don Paddy's Brasserie on Sunday 30th June, for breakfast before heading home. I had looked on their website before visiting, and although being fairly small, it looked to be a very pleasant venue. And indeed it was. We chose selections from the menu, which were suitable to my wife's Colitis issues, and also I have to take medications after food. However, shortly after we had ordered our food and drinks (paying up front), a large group of people came in, with 4 or 5 dogs. 2 of which were off leads. These people were very loud, and weren't paying attention to what their dogs were doing. Half an hour later, we still hadn't received our food, and were getting really fed up with the 2 loose dogs roaming amongst the tables. We decided not to put up with this any longer, so went to the counter and explained the situation. The young staff then told us that they regularly came in with their dogs, but offered no apologies for their regulars spoiling our breakfast visit.

There were no mention of allowing dogs into the dining areas, on their website or on the entrance to the premises.

We eventually received our refund and left. We drove back home to Hertfordshire very upset about it. The incident spoilt what had been a lovely few days, in a lovely part of...

Called on Sunday to see if we could be squeezed in for a late dinner, thankfully we were able to get in! Our server gave us great recommendations, and knew the menu off the top of his head, as well as being able to have a chat with us too.

The seafood linguine had mussels, squid, and prawn, and was very well balanced. I tried some of my partners steak, this was incredibly good and gave me food envy, and the sauce that came with it was rich and indulgent.

For dessert I had the chocolate and caramel brownie which came with pistachio ice cream and a few strawberries. The brownie was perfect, with some crunch, and some chew, just how I like it!

Definitely somewhere to return to for an...