Priory Marina Beefeater — Restaurant in England

This restaurant and pub is in a great location on the lake and is really enjoyable in the summer with a large garden and loads of outdoor seating. Food is offered outside too but has to be ordered at the bar rather than there being table service. The car park outside is a decent size but be aware it’s very tight! Inside there’s two distinct areas, with a restaurant side and separate bar section, suited more for drinks and snacks.

The restaurant offers table service and has large tables suitable for groups as well as couples and single diners. Everywhere is really clean and the open kitchen is reassuring. There’s a good range of options on the food menu with some cheaper deals available during the week before 6:30pm. Our waitress was really friendly and was prompt with drinks orders. Soft drinks are sold as unlimited refills, and throughout the meal top-ups were proactively offered and brought quickly.

I went for one of the new starters on the menu - chicken and duck wings. Two chicken wings and three duck wings made it a good size and the sauce wasn’t overpowering, with some chilli slices adding a nice little kick. The chicken and chorizo pie was offered with a choice of potatoes or chips, and came in filo pastry. This made it rather unique and one of the sub-600 calorie options on the menu. Again, it was a good portion size and was tasty. The premium surf and turf steak came with good sized prawns, loads of chips and the steak was cooked nicely to the order of medium-rare. Unfortunately the promised calamari wasn’t present and hadn’t been replaced with anything else. Sauces were offered by the waitress and brought quickly in small pots.

While eating the mains a new waitress checked on our meals and introduced herself as taking over from the previous girl who was finishing her shift. This is the first time I’ve had the experience in such a restaurant which was really nice. Unfortunately though at this point (around 7pm) the place was starting to get a lot busier and the service started to suffer as a result.

It took a long time for desert orders to be taken and the ice cream took ages to be brought from the kitchen. After the meal it seemed to take forever to get hold of anyone for the bill. It doesn’t feel like it was the fault of the staff though, just not enough of them to go round so many tables.

Overall we had an enjoyable early evening meal here. It’s far from being the cheapest option in the town and did end up feeling a little steep for what we got. But the quality of food was good and it was relaxing, so for somewhere different it’s worth a visit if you don’t...

Went there with family on the spur of the moment as it was a lovely day to sit outside and have a bite to eat. When we settled on what we wanted i wentf to order our food and drinks. There was a young barman working (on his own, might i add) who was getting flustered because the barrel needed changing, then the till froze, so by the time he went off to find someone if was over 20 minutes by the time our order was completed! We had numerous things to eat but the 3 ladies each chose the large salad course of which neither of them hardly touched because it was tasteless and had hard root ends and very bitter leaves in it! Also af this point i went back to the bar to order them something else. We also had dirty cutlery and no napkins. The young man who originally served us was the one who came outside to our table. I proceeded to show him how the salads were disgusting (which he agreed) and could i have a word with the manager. He responded with this instruction and said he would get the manager asap. We were having our drinks and realised 25 minutes had passed and no sign of the manager! I went inside and asked to see the manager. A lovely lady came out and when I explained everything she was totally unaware of my complaint and that the barman had finished his shift and didnt say a word to anyone before he went home! This lady sincerely apologised and proceeded to give me a full refund of my original order which I thought was amazing. I made a point of saying that I had worked in hospitality for years and that the barman to be made aware of his mistake. All in all it hasn't put me off returning and hope ti visit again in the...

This restaurant is in a good location with great parking.

The welcome was friendly and the invitation to our pre-booked table fast and efficient. This was Christmas Eve and whilst the restaurant wasn’t overly busy, service was understandably slower than I have come to expect from this chain. This is an observation but certainly not to be viewed as a criticism.

The service was efficient and the food from the festive menu was okay rather than exciting with a large question mark over value. For example I paid extra for pigs in blanket and received 3 of the smallest sausages I have ever seen with a small piece of limp bacon attempting to cover the sausage. Little wonder no photo of the side dish was offered. The waitress was very friendly and accommodating to our needs and requests.

My daughter wanted to use her NHS Blue Light card which, whilst she could have used it, she was advised that it wouldn’t save anything because when the food was extracted from the festive menu, the waiter claimed it would only make a difference of £1 to £2. This isn’t particularly festive and does make me question the value of so called discounts offered to NHS staff. The two course meal with drinks and a coffee came to just under £100. Not particularly cheap for a chain restaurant.

Apart from my daughter being embarrassed that her Blue Card discount card was virtually worthless at Beefeater, the overall experience was okay. However, my daughter has indicated that next time she would prefer to visit a chain where NHS discount cards or offers have some value. Even though I paid, I have some sympathy for...