Port & Anchor Kitchen and Bar — Restaurant in England

Ok it's rare that I write such a negative review as I prefer to write positive ones for restaurants that I have enjoyed... however this was so poor that I had to post up.

We were up shopping for the day and stayed in the nearby hotel and booked into this restaurant for dinner. They had a Fleetwood Mac tribute band on with 3 courses for £30, which seemed great value. We stayed in this same hotel and dined at this same restaurant some years ago, when we were on a similar shopping break and we thought that the restaurant was so good for dinner on the Saturday night that we went back for Sunday lunch the next day and this was delicious too... so we had high expectations.

The venue has not changed much since we visited many years ago, the welcome was friendly and generally the staff were pleasant and the service was ok.

The starters were average, but we ate the majority of them as we were hungry. We both ordered a Turkey roast for main as we were so impressed with the roast on our previous visit... This was simply the worst meal I have ever been served in my life, we seriously racked our brains for anything that could compete and noting came close! The turkey very was dry, it was on a bed of mash that was edible , the sprouts were boiled to death and had no texture and were barely edible too and then things got really bad... the gravy tasted of vinegar and was sour, the roasted potatoes, parsnips and carrots were totally dehydrated and we couldn't even bring ourselves to eat them they were that bad. It was strange as they were not burnt, just dried out with no moisture or glisten of oil on them at all. In fact they looked like they were made of cardboard, I can't imagine how someone could get them to this stage!! It takes a special type of chef to take fresh ingredients and mess them up so badly that they bear no resemblance to what they started out as. When our plates were taken the waitress asked if everything was ok and I apologetically told her it was terrible and said that I felt obliged to give her the feedback.

To be fair what looked like the owner/manager came over and asked us about our feedback and we gave her our opinion and said to just take a look at the food we were served. She was lovely and took the feedback well and also offered us a couple of free drinks as a gesture of goodwill. Which was nice, but we just wanted to eat as we had bought a bottle of Prosecco and many vodka and lemonades already...

We were still hungry so for desert we ordered a chocolate brownie and a Black Forest gateau, thinking that surely you can't get these wrong... how wrong we were! The brownie was rock solid and really dense, we couldn't break into it and the gateau was just dry and crumbly with really cheap jam on top, not rich and moist as it should be, so we had one bite of each and left the rest. The waitress again came over and asked if everything was ok and I didn't have the heart to tell her the truth so just nodded as she said "are you full and can't manage anymore?"

So all in all a very disappointing experience, I just wish I had taken pictures of the food. I'm not sure what happened as reviews of the restaurant seem generally positive however our experience was totally...

We booked a Mother’s Day meal for 12 of us, all paid our deposits, and were looking forward to a lovely meal together. However, what we got was an absolute shambles from start to finish.

When we arrived, our table was only set for 8. The staff told us that we had called up that morning to cancel 4 places—something that absolutely did not happen. Instead of rectifying the situation properly, they brought in garden furniture for 2 of us, and our children had to sit at a completely separate table. Not exactly the family meal we had planned.

Things only got worse from there. We waited over an hour just to receive drinks, and when they finally arrived, they didn’t even have most of what we ordered. Some of us were left without drinks entirely, without so much as an explanation. They had ran out of wine, soda, blackcurrant and orange which we only found out when my sister ended up going up to the bar to ask where are drinks are. My sister then ended up serving our drinks for us—completely unacceptable!

The place was clearly overbooked and chaotic, with staff completely unable to keep up. The food was terrible. We ordered three courses, but by dessert, they had run out of meringue and served us a bowl of bananas and cream that looked like mush. The “raspberry Eton mess” was swapped for rock-hard brownies that were barely edible.

To top it all off, they gave us the wrong bill, then later corrected it—but even then, it was so confusing we couldn’t understand it. They claimed they had taken some meals off for the inconvenience, but we still felt like we were overcharged for such a dreadful experience.

The only positives? The singer was good, and the staff were friendly—but they were clearly overwhelmed. It’s a real shame, but we will never be returning. Honestly, I can’t believe this place has such...

I attended a friend’s Hen party at the Port and Anchor, having been there previously on several occasions and only ever having positive experiences and good quality home cooked food, so I was really looking forward to it. I payed £25 each for afternoon tea for myself and my daughter , which is average. Everywhere was set up nicely and the service was good, the food however wasn’t good!! We had 3 sandwiches each, the selection was poor, cheese on it’s own or with onion or tomato, ham and tomato and tuna mayo, that was the selection. Slices of cheap, shop bought sausage roll were also brought round and served. The scones and cakes were shop bought, our stand was between 4 people, so had 4 scones with 1 pot of cheap jam and 1 pot whipped cream, definitely not enough for 4 people! The cakes were packaged cupcakes, the cheap ones you get from the likes of Asda, I didn’t touch them. There was no tea served, I’m unsure of what drink we we’re supposed to get, but it didn’t appear that a drink was served with the afternoon tea. £50 for 2 afternoon teas is expensive, I expected good quality homemade food and good variety of cakes and sandwich fillings. Id be surprised if the food served cost more than £3 per head! I cook and bake, and know what good home cooked food should taste like, when I go out, I don’t expect cheap food from a packet, especially when I’m paying £25! The £25 per head that we all paid also contributed towards a singer, he sang really old songs that nobody really knew, he was more in keeping with a bunch of 80-90 year olds, not a hen party! Based on this experience, I won’t be returning to the Port and Anchor...