Meadowlark — Restaurant in England

Can be hit and miss regarding food. Today was a birthday family lunch for 8 adults, 1 child and an infant. It was also a Sunday so fairly busy.

We had reserved a table for 1pm. This was ready and waiting for us when we arrived.

All orders are placed at the bar, drinks and food. We placed our orders as couples but all for the same table. One of the party also ordered a starter as a side. I decided on a fillet steak. I rarely eat steak but like lean fillet. It was priced at just over £17.

When the food orders started arriving, the starter and another course came out first. The salad on the starter was very wilted, not edible. The other course was missing coleslaw which was ordered. A lasagne arrived, again with a wilted salad. This was sent back. Instead of a fillet steak, I was presented with a sirloin. I said I had ordered fillet and the waitress took it away. She returned with it saying that fillet woukd take 25 minutes!! And I ordered medium rare😂. I refused it again, saying I didn't like sirloin. I changed my order to Sunday roast... As this was approximately half the price of the fillet steak I had ordered and paid for, I ask for a refund of the balance. This was returned as cash. The roast when it arrived was ok. Small, but as it was around £7 was as expected. 4 small roast potatoes, a small portion of mash, carrots/peas, red cabbage, stuffing, Yorkshire pudding and gravy. Another of the roasts was missing the advertised Yorkshire pudding. This was asked for and one was brought out. Chips on all meals with chips did not seem to be freshly cooked.

Desserts were ordered after we had finished. One a creme brulè did not have the expected crunchie top. The plate my dessert was served on felt greasy and had finger marks on it.

The atmosphere inside is pleasant. It is also family friendly, the main reason we went there.

Staff were friendly and apologetic.

But there has to be an issue in the kitchen. They did not seem to properly monitor what they were...

Prefacing this review. 2 stars, to take into account the Covid pandemic and new working routines etc.

However, seated incredibly quickly, ordered food within 5 minutes of seating.. 45 minute wait on food which was acceptable.. Two hours later our food came out.

Now, we chased the food and was told by a youngish blonde waitress that it was just being plated and it would be out, 20 mins later the food still wasn't there.

Plates red hot and food dry on top (key indicator that it's been sat under hot lamp for too long). One of our guests commented, but apparently the heat in the kitchen is the reason the plates are hot and the food dry.. Then the chicken pizza came out...

I had to ask if they done half and half pizzas, as the pizza was missing its toppings on one whole half.

The (probably) assistant manager or shift leader, was flippant, dismissive and frankly not handling the situation well. She explained that they had placed someone on pizzas that night who had never worked on that station before, and that the kitchen was struggling with the orders (reduced menu, only 12 other covers in and seated) as opposed to a swift apology and maybe the offer of a pizza with toppings on it.

The actual manager (again, I think) male with purpleish shirt on, seemed to be having the time of his life going in and out of the back rooms, occasionally pulling a pint and then disappearing again.

Frankly, if the wait on food is 1+ hour, be honest. If the chefs are struggling with demand, just be honest.

If you forget to put toppings on a pizza, don't then throw your staff under the bus. As Manager's the sole responsibility for how your shift runs is on you, don't castigate staff to save face.

Would return in 6 months or so (but id phone ahead 5 months in advance and put...

Food was overall hot but portion size wasn’t justified by the price. The main was more like a starter. I ordered the mac and cheese with the additional piri piri chicken however , the meal came up without the piri chicken and we was still charged for it. It wasn’t until we returned home that this was realised as there were 4 on the table and in conversation at the time of the delivery to the table. The other negative experience was that a member of the public was allowed to walk freely through the bar and into the restaurant area with their pet Rottweiler dog who then attempted to jump up at us looking to be petted. I like animals but we found this to be extremely off putting in particular around food areas which surely shouldn’t be happening and dangerous for any young children who might have been in there. There seemed to be not enough staff on also as Jenna looked to be serving drinks, food and cleaning coffee machines, wiping tables and clearing plates/glasses from tables. Jen a was friendly and helpful which was the main positive of the evening. The chef had to be asked at 8pm if he was still cooking by the bar staff before taking our order which I thought would have been early to stop cooking if he had said no and it made us feel unwelcome due to the time of the evening possibly with the staff not wanting any more covers for food so they could tidy and close early possibly? Overall , the above experiences would put me off returning although the food was good ( minus the piri piri ) but the prices seemed expensive especially for the alcoholic drinks which was not ideal as there is a competitor within half a mile who serves the same lager for at least £2 per pint less.!

Kind...