Ego at The Grapes, Shrewsbury — Restaurant in England

We booked in for afternoon tea on a Saturday afternoon, the place advertises itself as pretty upmarket and polished but the reality left a lot to be desired.

I'm not a complainer by nature, so it's tricky when things are disappointing to speak up. This was just one of those moments. I'm not going to complain as it would certainly take more effort for me to complain than the staff were prepared to put into serving. As always, I just won't go back and withheld the tip to show, in a very British way, just how annoyed I was.

The staff were dreadful, hassling us for a drinks order before we had even sat down. The drinks arrived and we didn't have any other contact until half an hour later when the afternoon tea was plonked onto the table. Plonked as in knocked my hand away in the hurry to put it down. 'yes it's for two people ' was the only speech before the waitress headed off.

I should mention that when we arrived we did say we were here for afternoon tea and had no dietary requirements. Although the fact there was literally nothing to say about the afternoon tea speaks volumes.

Personally, when the lady delivered the food I would have assumed it was a reasonable point to ask if we would like some tea with our afternoon tea. Unfortunately it took another 15 minutes to get some attention to order that and even then there was no choice offered or any mention that there was complimentary refills.

Having failed dismally with service and delivery, you might think that the actual food would make up for it, but alas no.

Sandwiches were ok but not great, the prawn sandwiches must have been kept uncovered in the fridge as the bread on these was going crispy. The fish cake was pretty good but the falafel was laughably bad. I mean dense frozen party food style.

The cakes were mixed. The lemon tart packed a punch but had soft/soggy pastry like it had been kept around a bit too long. The Bakewell slice was pretty good but the brownie was not. It was more like a thin layer of brownie on top of a torte. Either way, not tasty enough to justify the calories.

To top it off, literally, were the scones which unbelievably were very badly made! The rise was non existent and as such the top half was edible but the bottom half was just dough. The jam seemed to be some kind of syrup, it wasn't all the things you associate with good jam, instead it was cloying and sweet. I could feel it on my teeth for hours afterwards.

As an opportunity to demonstrate to customers that they should come back for a proper meal it was an abject failure. I would question paying £15 for scallops made in a kitchen that can't make scones or falafel.

This sort of place staying in business amazes me, the fact that people return there amazes me. I can only assume that some kind of kitchen disaster occured which led to our poor experience and that usually they...

Stopped here on return journey from Wales, the food was great.

Plenty of parking, inside the ambiance of a Greek style taverna reminded me of a favourite restaurant in Tokyo, called Cicada. Didn't have a play area, but it's not that kind of place, more fine relaxed dining than pub grub.

Calimari for starters was lightly battered and not chewy which is perfect. My son had the soup of the day, minted pea and leek which was accompanied by great hunks of soft white bloomer bread. I was offered a bite and it was great, rich and thick soup. It could have been a main meal in itself. It was ordered from the kids menu but looked like the adult sized portion.

Mains, from the lunch menu which we almost missed as it was on the back after the desserts. I went for a standard fish and chips, golden beer battered and crisp with flaky white fish, very good. Chips were double cooked and thick cut and ok but I wasn't that hungry so left a few which my family hoovered up and really enjoyed. Wife had fishcakes which were a tiny bit dry, she ate them with the mushy peas from my meal which she then really enjoyed.

Sons enjoyed their pizza and pasta both devouring all which is actually unusual as they are frequently fussy eaters but they found nothing to complain about.

Children had a junior sticky toffee pudding each for dessert which the predictably devoured without sharing a scrap another vote of confidence.

The staff were very friendly and not obtrusively attentive, the waitress/possibly manager was awesome.

2 starters, 2 adult mains and 2 kids mains with 2 kids desserts came to around £55 which felt great value with 5 soft drinks.

Only disappointment was that it wasn't closer to go again. Would be a great place for an evening of fine dining out but was also perfect for a...

Following 2 visits in recent months, and others in the past, we've found the quality of food served at Ego to be tasty, plentiful and varied. There is a wide Mediterranean menu and excellent choices for non meat eaters like myself also.

Unfortunately service does let it down rather - hence the 3 stars (31/2 would have been my ideal choice). On our last visit just last week serving staff were a little indifferent (my husband used the word supercilious with regard to our main server)and we waited a long time for both main courses (over half an hour) and desserts (15 mins). It was lunchtime and busy so we didn't raise any concerns as on both occasions we were with friends and the time flies whilst chatting. However if you're starving or on a timed break/schedule it may not be the best place to go.

We always try to show appreciation and thanks in shops, cafes, restaurants etc to those on duty, based on our experiences of working in the public sector where people can be rude - however hard you may have tried - and sometimes discourteous. However we have a feeling that sometimes being over appreciative can be misconstrued and the impression given that 'anything goes'. We are laid back but we set ourselves high standards in everything we do and value good manners.

Overall we hope to visit again as it is a lovely interior and great menu. We hope that feedback will be noted and service times improve. That said we appreciate that hospitality is still suffering from staff shortages since Covid 19 arrived and it may take a while before this evens out. However just some common sense and courtesy - such as warning customers there will be a long wait or apologising when delays do occur can go a long way and good manners...