Number Four — Restaurant in England

It pains me to leave this review but as this used to be one of my favourite restaurants in Shrewsbury (See my original review from 2017 below) I could not let this go. After a visit yesterday we were disappointed that the menu has changed so that it is no longer fixed price. Instead they have changed it to a conventional menu just like any other restaurant but unfortunately it is no longer the good value it used to be. Furthermore the choice was uninspiring, I don't think the food was cooked as well as it was in the past and as for the portion sizes, they are much smaller than we've become accustomed to. Throughout the meal there were numerous errors such as bringing out the wrong food, the wrong qty of sides and the items ordered didn't come with the accompaniments that were described in the menu. For example the herb roast potatoes with one main were omitted and for dessert, the ice-cream was substituted for standard cream and the individual eating it didn't like cream and so it was left. As for the drinks, they have stopped serving any real ale except for Old Speckled Hen (which any true real ale fan will tell you is terrible) and as we are all ale drinkers and like one beer to start things off, we were very disappointed. We were further disappointed when we reluctantly decided to have a pint of lager instead, to be told they don't do anything on draft but sell only 330ml bottles for the same price as you could buy a pint for in the pub next door. This is shocking. The staff were pleasant enough but due to all of the reasons above, overall I will no longer return and cant recommend this restaurant anymore, very sad as I used to love this place. Hopefully one day they will get this fixed so I can update my review back to 5 Stars.

My 5 Star review back in 2017 was as follows.... Steak is well worth the £5 supplement, one of the best I've had in some time, ordering it medium rare...

I'm a vegetarian, and the menu items catering to vegetarians/vegans were pretty limited, though they were there. Limited, but there, seems to account for a lot of my opinions of No. 4. The food was nice, not incredibly deep or interesting with flavour, but it was good enough. The prices weren't cheap, but nor were they OTT - for example, a small, simple milkshake is more than £3, similar to the high prices charged by cafés, but a "special" milkshake with oreos and cream was only 50p more. I've been for lunch before, on a quieter day, which I would say was very good, but for dinner the place was especially average.

Atmosphere was okay and I'm sure for someone who never usually sees it the idea of sitting with an open-fronted kitchen would be cool, however I was a bit annoyed at times by having to hear pots clanging or other loud noises while I was trying to have a conversation in an already crowded area.

Service fairly good, orders were taken and food was served in good timing. Staff were always friendly...

Great table service, even for a big group, with all food arriving at the same time and very prompt waiting for drinks and food orders. There's a good menu selection, though only a couple of veggie mains. (I'm personally not veggie/ vegan but 2 friends were and they felt the selection wasn't whelming). The place is also really interesting and modern.

Only negative for me was that my kiev was a little dry (not sure if it's supposed to have garlic sauce in but it seemed to be missing). Did get a mountain of chips though (the menu was misleading when it stated "a few fries", but I'm not complaining).

Overall very good and will happily...