Grazing Cow at Lawley — Restaurant in England

Visited The Grazing cow around 12pm today, we were warmly greated and sat on a table fitting of 4 people for the 2 of us, in an area of the restaurant that had 2 other tables in use, we were asked of any allergies and i noted lactose in liquid form and that anything else we would avoid on the menu. It was very quiet with some music playing in the background. The decor was quite fitting of the premises and very clean. We ordered drinks and food within 15 mins of being seated. Order was Sirloin steak with Sweet potato fries, salt and pepper calamari, signature burger with NO BUN (as daughter has an intolerance to bread/brioche), hallumi fries and 2 medium Pepsi. Took around 15 mins for our food to come out of the kitchen. All cutlery was clean, plates and glasses clean.

Food was presented well in portion size and style, however the calamari was squidgy (should be crisp batter), burger was served in the bun (aparantely the chef didn't read the ticket fully), hallumi fries were covered in a thick layer of red chilli's (advertised as chilli jam, good job I wasn't eating it as I'm allergic to chilli seeds but am okay with jam), the sirloin was rare and therefore tough and the pea shoots (that came on everything) were wilted beyond saving. At no point did anyone pop over to ask us if everything was satisfactory, if they had I feel I would have made a complaint about the general preparation of our food. They were also very quick to clear the table and come over for payment, at no point were we asked how our meal was. Now, I regularly review restaurants and tourist locations so I have to add, the place was spotless!!! The toilets were well equipped and clean and at no point did we feel unwelcome or too much trouble, we did send the burger back to be redone but the chef merely took the bun off and put the filling back on the plate without any thought to the additional sauce and cammembair cheese that had been removed with the bun. Taste wise the burger was delicious, sweet potato fries and normal fries were crisp and perfect. The calamari ended up half eaten as it was just too 'soggy' and the side of coleslaw had no flavour at all. I feel the restaurant was very quiet and more attention needs to be considered by the chef, as they were not rushing around. I will say everything was hot, which is great. I've included some photos of the place and the itemised bill at £60.56 (overpriced for the quality of food served). We will revisit another day as I would like to see how well they incorporate a young child into the mix as they have a lovely safe, enclosed play area outside and seating.

Watch this space for an...

Unfortunately the worst food I've been served at a restaurant.

I ordered the lamb/mini pie special which comes with garlic roast potatoes, mangetout, honey roast carrots and two green beans.

Well, the garlic rosemary roast potatoes had absolutely no flavour and looked more like parmentier potatoes, which are small and fried. There was no rosemary or garlic anywhere near my plate let alone the potatoes. There was no mangetout at all, the carrots were boiled not roasted and two green beans doesn't quite fill me up. The lamb was 2 cut off's that looked like they were cut with a drill. The chef recommended medium rare according to the menu - if you cut medium rare lamb thick it will be chewy and very difficult to cut into, which is exactly what happened... So I had the experience of chewing unseasoned, boring lamb with no sear. A bit like my 'honey roasted' carrots that had been over boiled, just like the rest of my grey vegetables.

The mini pie... Mini is the word. It was empty. There was a teaspoon of filling which had no taste, hadn't been seasoned at all!

I wanted to raise this at the time but my Mrs really did not want me to cause a fuss, but what really gets me is other people will pay £22 for this. Even with a 40% off voucher I was annoyed. If you are going to post these vouchers around Telford the kitchen should expect to be busier than normal, so sending this hospital food is no excuse for me at all. I work as a chef not that it makes any difference so spotting the quality but I understand the demands of the job but there's absolutely no love whatsoever to what was thrown on that plate. Even the gravy was dropping out of the jug in clumps, because it had been left on the side too long and was going stodgy.

My Mrs had a burger she was fairly happy with, although there was no coleslaw and they were just fries, no triple cooked skin on fries as advertised.

I hope to receive an explanation for this, I don't care about the money it's wasted now. But you can get a main for £22 from some very very good places in Telford. I have attached a photograph of what rosemary and garlic roast potatoes look like. I feel ripped off even with the meal being 40% off and I really hope this is addressed. The cost of living is high enough without people paying £22 for a plate...

1st off all we had to ask to be seated as we were left waiting for quite a while at the reception desk (wasn’t busy at all most tables were empty) once seated we tried to order our drinks and we were told there was no coffee and the machine had broken we then ordered our food and asked were the rotisserie was and we’re told they don’t do it any more this is a shame as it was lovely and even the waitress said they had lost a lot of customers due to this.. moving on while waiting for our food.. 10 minutes later I’m told the starter I ordered wasn’t available. Surely this should have been advised before I ordered. So I had garlic bread for a start instead and my mom had calamari. The calamari was so over cooked it was rubbery. We then waited 30 minutes for our mains my mom had the feel good salad with chicken that was meant to be Chargrilled not burnt to a crisp and my Sunday dinner was awful the roast potatoes had obviously been Left standing as they were stale, the greens were cold and the maple roasted carrots and parsnips were 100 present not maple roasted they were as dry as anything. I was going to have a pudding but I decided against it as the food had been so poor so far. When asking for the bill we told the waitress that the food was not up to standard and as she could see from my plate I had hardly touched it. But all she did was shrug her shoulders and did nothing about my complaint. The person that put a review up about it being Harrods prices but aldi quality was 100 percent correct. Spot on….This being said I decided to read the reviews on the restaurant and I’m absolutely disgusted to see how the manager Steve / Steven is replying to customers that are not happy and leave low reviews. How you have spoken to customers on this platform is so unprofessional but this won’t stop me from leaving an honest review. Ohh and p.s we were booked in for Christmas Day but we will now be cancelling the reservation due to the poor food and poor service FYI I have screenshots of your replies to customers and I will be forwarding this to marstons head office to see what they think of your...