Polecat — Restaurant in England

The reviews don’t lie, since this place has been sold by Oakman, everything has gone south. As a GF diner you really have to trust what the staff say and do for you, but this was a complete mess. The menu included GF pizza (and even Calzone), but I was told, when given the menu, this was no longer an option. I was then given a tablet with all the options, but this was the standard menu, not the Sunday one, so I had to find the correct menu in the list myself. If we wanted some pigs in blankets, we could have those GF, but these weren’t listed on the printed menu or the Sunday menu. The same with the cauliflower cheese! The beef sirloin roast was very nice indeed, but one slice was way too thick. And why an earth cover the roast potatoes, greens etc with the meat and sit them in a load of gravy?? Logically, doesn’t this mean the roasties are then going to be all soggy…which they were?? The pigs turned up, as did the Sunday roast, with an allergen flag in them, but the cauliflower cheese didn’t. So I had no idea if this was safe and no one came to ask us how our food was. No idea what the pigs were made out of, but they were truly awful, so were left. Veg on all plates must have had the the briefest glance at a pot of water or microwave as they were undercooked. Also surprised that my plate came with a pot of horseradish, even though I didn’t request this. Was going to have crème brûlée for desert but, even though we were in the first sitting of the day, they had sold out!! And then sticky toffee pudding…no, sold out of that as well!!! Almost £200, including service and a bottle of wine, for five adults and a child is a rip off for what we each got (the quality of food for each diner was average at best, that for my granddaughter was particularly poor, once they had served her what she ordered). Staff then chose to laugh behind our backs at a request for a cork for a half used bottle of £38 wine; sadly, for them, we overheard this. Never again, I am afraid. Restaurant manager didn’t seem interested in sorting things out, unless we were outside the restaurant. He never apologised directly for the food or staff issues and thought ‘giving them another chance’ by going back would sort everything. A nice setting won’t keep this place going in the longer term - AVOID if you want quality food and quality service, there are...

Myself and my 2 cousins dined here on 05/04/25 and it was my first visit so was really looking forward to it. When we arrived it was a lovely sunny day and there were plenty of tables in the main restaurant however we were put in a back room out the back by the toilets which we found a little odd given there was plenty of room.

Our server Immanuel was polite and attentive and took our orders. Within 10 mins a slim, older white woman with a bob poked her head round the corner to check on us, which at first I understood as we were sort of out of the way however she wasn’t our server nor did she ask us if we wanted anything so felt a bit odd but didn’t think any more of it. However within the space of about 45 mins this same woman came in the room about 6 times to check on us to the point it made us feel extremely unwelcome. Not at one point did she ask us if we wanted anything so it was clearly to just check on us, I actually urge you to check your cctv between 12:30- 13:45 as there was absolutely no reason for the umpteen visits as it left us feeling extremely unwelcome. At that point there was a large table in the room and a couple of other diners yet only we were being constantly stared at.

When I made the booking we had the table from 12:30 - 14:45 yet by about 1:30 we were given the bill so abruptly it was as if we were wanted out asap. Then we had yet another visit to the table by a dark haired gentleman in a red checkered shirt (who again, also wasn’t our server) who came right up to us sort of stared at the bill on the table then at the last minute asked us if we wanted anything? We couldn’t have been left in peace any longer than about 10 minutes the whole time. The whole visit was truly awful, it’s a shame as the food was nice but the whole time I felt I was being profiled so can’t say I’ll ever visit again after that experience!

(We’re three black woman incase it...

Booked a dining pod for six people (three of which were celebrating a birthday) and unfortunately the service left much to be desired. The pods are great and my preferred way to dine, but my mother in law made the fatal error of informing the staff of her gluten intolerance (not quite allergic, just intolerant) and it seemed to send them into a tailspin. She signed a waiver - which felt excessive but I understand their caution. The flatbread she ordered for the table came GF with an allergy flag because she’d ordered it (even though she said regular is fine and it’s for everyone to share). She ordered a regular steak but once again a GF one was delivered, but to the wrong person in our party. Most of the meal was over before the mustard we had to repeatedly ask for finally arrived (the first ask was when we placed the order). One of our pizzas was completely wrong and had to be remade, everyone else was almost done eating by the time it arrived. The chicken roast dinner was bland and green beans were raw. Drinks orders were consistently incorrect, one of the lattes had more coffee outside the cup than in…

I ordered the cookie dough for pudding which was DELICIOUS but came with some sort of caramel sauce that wasn’t mentioned on the menu and kind of ruined it for me. I wish it’d said so I could have asked for it to be taken off but by that point I was so tired of flagging down servers to send things back I just kind of scooped it off as best I could.

Look, I like the Polecat, it’s in a nice spot. The pods are great. The service is always friendly. The menu is varied. But the young waitstaff consistently mess up orders and forget things. I know it’s a bank holiday weekend and there’s probably a lot of staff absences to make up for, but it wasn’t particularly busy and we were not a large party. They have a ways to go before you can possibly justify a...