Grants Of Castlegate — Restaurant in England

My partner booked this place for my birthday meal, we’re up in the Lake District for my birthday after having an extremely eventful year. We are from the south so we came a long way, so he wanted to make sure I was treat to an amazing meal for my birthday. There were many faults to this restaurant.

Upon arrival, when we walked in, the server did not greet us at the bottom, we walked up the stairs and were asked where we would like to sit. My partner picked the conservatory area as it was quiet. My partner said he wrote on the booking that it was my birthday, server did not even acknowledge this.

We were given a bottle of water that was room temperature (not good). A lady then came over to us with bread and balsamic/olive oil (OLIVE OIL) dish - she said “here’s your water”… ok thank you. First of all the lady was incredibly rude, second of all, it was not olive oil in the dip, it was vegetable oil - bit of a strange combination but hey, I guess they might want to save money right…

In the span of 5 minutes, the lady came over and asked if she could take our order twice, we felt incredibly rushed so we kind of just picked what we saw.

Food… where do I even start! Starters, my partner had the duck confit, he did enjoy it however I had the ham hock terrine, this dish looked like it had came out of a cat food pouch, in fact I wouldn’t of even fed it to my cat. It was freezing cold (it might have been better warmed) and the texture of the dish was horrendous. For our mains, now this is a troublesome one. My partner had the lamb dish… this was slices of lamb served on a bed of rocket… too much rocket. He said the lamb was luke warm, not nice, but his sauce was boiling hot so he poured it over the lamb to heat it up, the dish was not worth the price. I had the steak fillet £37 for the meal plus £4 for sauce, I understand that I ordered my steak rare, but again the steak was stone cold, peppercorn sauce which was about 50mls for £4 was like warm, mushroom and tomato was stone cold, plate was cold oh and I upgraded my regular fries to the truffle and Parmesan fries… there was no truffle on those fries. The lady server came over to ask if everything was ok, I said my fries had no truffle on them and that my steak and vegetables were cold, she took my fries away to add truffle to them, young server brought them back and I could see they put some truffle oil on them, but again it didn’t taste like there was any on there. So either their truffle oil is very cheap and poor quality, or they had diluted it. I sucked it up and ate the dinner, but the fries that I thought were the only hot food on my plate, was in fact stone cold as I got halfway through. The taste of the food was ok but it would have been 100x better if the food was hot.

We decided not to order dessert due to the poor service and extremely poor quality of food, oh and the extremely LOUD table of 6 they decided to sit right next to us as a table of 2 despite the restaurant basically being empty. My partner just asked for the bill and they made absolutely no adjustments to our bill of £97 for 2 drinks and food for the poor quality.

Even when my partner paid for the bill and got the receipt, the server just said thanks and walked off. Not a single apology for the issues, not a happy birthday, not a have a great evening, nothing.

We were nothing but polite and courteous throughout our entire time. We don’t go out to eat at all so we were very saddened by this experience. My partner was very disappointed in himself and said that he should have just booked elsewhere because he felt like he had let me down. I felt so bad for him.

If you want cold food, awful service and expensive prices, then this might be the place for you. If you don’t want an unpleasant experience, then don’t go here. I honestly wish for nothing more than an apology from them and their so called world renowned chef that they apparently have.

Thank you for a terrible...

We had enjoyed a meal at Grants a couple of years ago so getting the chance for another visit was a bonus! Unfortunately it has changed hands so we were unsure if it would be as good again! All I can say is it was a big disappointment, for an establishment that charges top prices you would expect nice modern surroundings ( not the case) and food to relax and wow you! (Definitely not the case) Starters- I had the chilli king Prawns which were served very chilly as in straight from a very cold fridge! My girlfriend had Scallops again not impressed by them! The bread served was underwhelming as well tiny slices with a oily dip ! The main course really disappointed as we had both ordered Duck breast, on arrival it was clearly undercooked and you could see blood in the meat and juices, we ate some as I hoped that it was maybe how the dish was supposed to be! Upon Googling duck it definitely was undercooked! We mentioned our concerns to the waitress who was very good and immediately went back to the kitchen and informed the Chef, In most places you can expect them at least to pop out and say something to you but not in this case! She said it was the way it should be and that’s it! We didn’t have dessert and paid our bill and left! I don’t think we...

We will definitely come back here as the food was so delicious and the staff was very friendly. For starters we had the,

Lobster and Prawn Croquettes with Lime Mayonnaise and Parmesan. DELICIOUS!!!

Seared King Scallops with Pea Puree and chop chorizo ,Very tasty and fresh.

The mains we had. Roast Lamb Sirloin with a Warm Salad of New Potatoes, Roast Carrots and Basil Pesto( gf). The lamb was cooked to perfection and the perfect amount of of pesto not to overpowering like I have had in over venues

Red Wine Braised Beef Cheek, Maris Piper Mash, Chimichurri Sauce and Roast Root Vegetables(gf) The beef just melted in your mouth. Everything about this meal was was delicious and with every mouthful brought u closer to the end which you didn’t want to end.

Dessert, we had

Sticky Toffee Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce and Madagascan Vanilla Ice Cream (v) The sponge was so light and fluffy not stodgy like iv had before in over venues a pure delight to eat

Iced Dark Chocolate Parfait with Summer Berries, Almond Praline and Coffee Syrup (v,gf)

PS: sorry no photo of the king scallops as she devoured them before I could get a pic 😂and there was three lobster and...