Ferry Cookham — Restaurant in England

Edit: dropping this to 1-star. After reading the copy-paste responses to bad reviews this venue is getting away with murder.

Despite the potential, given it’s the only Thames-side location between Bray and Marlow, it fumbles it. Massively.

Yes, you can sit on the river on a sunny day but the below-average food could be, and very well is, prepared in a microwave. We always come here after years pass forgetting how bad the last visit was. The last time we were here we complained as our toddler, who’d normally consume a warmed up car tire without fuss, managed to convey to us, despite lack of language, that her kids cheeseburger didnt taste nice. It really didnt. That smell you get when you revisit the can of cat food you opened yesterday - turns out that has a taste too. But I am not reviewing that time round, lets do today.

We were there for my father in laws birthday, arriving at 12:30- clearly the only booking on the schedule for that time, and greeted by an empty front of house. Fine, these things happen. After a couple of minutes I decided to poke my head upstairs, as we have been (catburger fiasco) more than enough times to know where they probably seated us. Discovered my in-laws in a not bad spot on the top floor. I called down the stairs to my wife to come up and join us. As she went over to wish my father-in-a happy birthday we were hounded by I think a manager (of which there seemed to be multiple on duty, not reflected in the number of waiting staff) who came chasing after us up the stairs to repeatedly shout across the floor if we had a booking with such gusto they were unable to hear my response of "we have a table, youve already seated" and pointing to my in laws who had already been sat and given menus. This continued for some time.

To put this in perspective: there was no one else in the restaurant. No one else on that floor. If they had just asked the single waitress, or one of the other mutliple on-duty managers of whom there seemed to be a plethora (and all of whom disappeared after this) they would not have had to shout across their floor. Red flag, big time. One might say if they had trouble with walk-ins seating themselves perhaps they should man the front of house, even if only at the time of the solitary (red flag) booking they had for the early lunch...

The red flags rung the bell of why we havent been back in a few years, which is a shame really as we have been a few times across its iterations, including when it was a Harvester (perhaps it might revert to meet is current capacity to deliver). The menus were covered in sauce, the tables were grimy, the carpet appears to have equal amounts of coffee and bleach poured onto it, one of the chairs had a suspicious stain in a suspicious location. This all mounted up before we had ordered.

After ordering the starter arrived before the drinks - if you scroll down the reviews this seems to be a habit. Once the drinks did arrive the one alcohol free cocktail we ordered was made with flat mixer, wasnt stirred, and we couldnt do it ourselves given it didnt arrive with a straw. The mains arrived - not all of them though. The birthday boys didn't and it was a close call for it arriving before we finished the others. Anything with a mash potato side appears to be a scoop of mash kept warm under a heat lamp to keep the exterior nice and crispy before the rest of the food gets added to the plate.

They just dont invest enough into the experience to get away with the below average food. They were too ready to refund but not interested in finding out the issue. Clearly regular. They have the location but let themselves down with a lack of energy and expertise.

They removed the late meal from the bill, and replace the bad mocktail, but to be honest we didnt really care by that point. The experience was ruined and, ultimately, in line with the prior engagements we've had with this establishment.

I dont want to lower my expectations when going out for a special occasion, but if you do want to enjoy a trip here you...

My boyfriend and I went for Valentine's day and had the Valentine's day set menu. The food itself was quite nice, but the service and the drinks really let us down. The service was incredibly slow, with all the tables in our region at the end of the night laughing together about us all not seeing a waiter and all not being able to get the bill for ages. Us and all the people around us were constantly waiting for drinks. I asked for water 3 times before it came. My first cocktail came with a chipped sharp glass on the rim of the little prosecco shot glass with it. The prosecco was flat and vinegary. The second cocktail I ordered was not a cocktail at all and was instead was just tonic. It was meant to have passion fruit and orange etc and you can see from the picture that it was completely clear. I asked a waiter to help me figure out if they gave me the wrong drink, but of course he didn't come back. Eventually another waiter was around to help and said she would replace the drink for another because it wasn't right, but then of course the original drink was still left on the bill so we had to sort that out. The drink I was given in replacement had the flat and vinegary prosecco and was not good. Our starter came way before our drinks and we had to wait 5 minutes for a waiter to come around to give us a spoon to eat our desserts. All the lights in the room were flickering constantly, that needs to be looked at and was quite distracting. Two salt shakers on the table, not salt and pepper. In terms of the food, I thought the chocolate bomb was really good, would recommend! We really wanted to have a nice evening on Valentine's day, but unfortunately we were really let down here and I think many people were on that night. When paying over £100 for a meal I expected a lot more than this. I understand that Valentine's day is a busy shift, so maybe more staff should be put on for...

The Ferry Cookham sits in great position by the river. From the website I had high expectations which were a little let down by the exterior. The white paint on the clapboarding is cracking/peeling and the logo is a bit faded. I appreciate that times have been tough but it would have been a good opportunity to redecorate this very visible aspect of the building. Inside it's a huge pub with multiple seating areas. The upstairs in particular has river views from several window tables. I should imagine that in summer it gets very busy so advance booking essential. The welcome was friendly and being a bit early for our 12.45pm booking wasn't a problem. We were taken upstairs to the window table I'd requested on their online booking system. This was good as quite often these requests either don't get read, or are ignored. Oddly however the table was laid for three and the placements faced into the room not out towards the river. No big deal and we reorganised easily. Menu was straightfoward for a place of this type, and tta was fine as we only wanted a single course of something quick and light. However it would have been good to have seen a 'special of the day'. Food order, service, and quality was fine and payment process prompt unlike many places despite the touchcard technology. My main suggestion for improvement (apart from exterior decoration) is the ground floor gents toilet. There are two doors set so close together they're not easy to open. When the pub is full this must be a problem. And once inside it's not that big. I doubt very much I'm the first person to remark on this and lockdown would have been a good opportunity to restructure this area to create a much higher quality facility. If I happened to be in the area I'd book again, but it wouldn't take much to make me...