Salt & Malt Chew Valley — Restaurant in England

This takaway section of the cafe was highly recommended on social media. We visit3d twice and thought it was operated.. I stress that we only had takaway and noy food in the sit down cafe. We tried both cod and haddock on different days and scampi both times. On both visits we has crushed peas, tartar sauce and curry sauce. I have to say the fry on both days was variable and never quite right. Scampi: slightly under fried the first day and quite overcooked the second day. So, more flavourful on the fist occassion than the second. Fish: Cod was lovely and batter thin and crispy, but again slight under fried. On the second day Haddock which was pretty tasteles and the batterover cooked. Chips on first day were tasty and perfectly cooked but sadly were pretty awful the second I would guess say either blanched twice or refried from chip box - really awful, sad and the taste stale. Crushed peas: perfect, fresh and tasty on first day, older and pretty bland the second. Tartar: excellent both days. A really good homemade sauce. Curry sauce: perfect, well spiced.and.really nice.curry flavour on the first day, but overspiced , and.bloomin salt on the second - uncomfortabley hot spice which drown the flavour.of the chips etc. So, really hit and miss! Overall, the best I can give honestly is a 3.5 out of 5. I think the fact that they have a monopoly on sales of food and drink on this lakeside site has made them complacent and this is reflected in the qualityand the overpricing for a takeaway venue. I have also to say that although this whole site comes under the same name, they seem to be separate businesses! This can be seen also in the difference in facilities also. Takeway customers get grotty picnic council type benches in an are.which is scruffy and dirty that surround the site. The sit - down customers have a fenced-off seating area indoors and out with decent seating and kept clean, but not made available to the plebs (excuse my language, but that is how it feels). There is also a kiosk built on to the outside wall selling drinks, both soft and alcaholic, but again far too pricey..like being at a festival! Service at both was unengaging.

Photo attachedof second day food. I left chips peas and scampi from this batch.

We won't be giving them a third chance sadly. Sorry Salt & Malt, you need to treat your customers and your ingredients...

I had been looking forward to coming here when heading to a kids play class one day with my friend. We decided to sit inside and we ordered staff were kind of friendly. We sat down ordered. Food came relatively quickly I asked for vegan mayo and was answered with I’ll check but I don’t think so and also those chips aren’t vegan.

They are cooked in the same fryer as our sausages etc. so it depends how strict you are.

No where says the chips aren’t vegan!!!!

You wouldn’t think to ask because they are potato it’s natural to assume they are vegan.

So for me I have a meat/fish intolerance aswell as being vegan/gf so it’s not just a choice for me.

So the weirdly rude but trying to be polite waiter said ok upto you, you know how intolerant you are. I decided not to eat the chips and left them on the table. So whilst my friend ate I saw what looked like a confused and frustrated waiter pace past a couple of times glancing at my pot of chips just sat untouched on the table. Finally he came back to clear the table and sighed and said shall I just remove these from your bill?

They really should say the chips aren’t vegan it’s not cool to just assume people will know or accept it. Being vegan isn’t always a choice for some people. If you’re going to offer gluten free which I hope includes frying in their own fryer not with other battered fish…. And say the heat from the oil will remove the gluten nonsense, they should say not vegan. Tbh I didn’t ask this I just assumed but I will ask one day out of interest if I’m passing about the fryers.

Oh and the price for the tiny pot of chips was ridiculous I feel we might have gotten more for our money on a take away portion.

We paid and then both us mums struggled out the door with two prams whilst four employees stood a metre away watched and...

stopped here on my way home from work with a friend! we had fishcake and chips and battered sausage and chips, so the fishcake was old tasted like it was cook the day before and reheated for us, chips were soggy. the battered sausage was also old i would say cooked up to a hour ago and kept warm the chips were also soggy both meals were disgusting it was £10 for fishcake and chips and £2.40 for battered sausage and they have the nerve to charge extra for a small box of chips at £3.50. total bill was £15.90. total rip off. lets talk about the staff did not see to many staff members the two in the take away were ok the one that served me was friendly but there choice of background music was dreadful, sounded like drum and bass?

So location is beautiful on chew valley lake, it's a shame salt and malt have slipped so far i do not recommend this place to eat. there are lots of nice places to eat in chew magna like the two pubs The Bear & Swan and The Pelican and the Cafe MoonDance and if your after seafood try the Lazy Lobster. if your looking for a nice country pub try The Crown, near regil. and if your looking for somewhere to stay you can try The Bear & Swan in chew magna or the 3 star hotel in winford called The Old Farmhouse if they are full try The Prince of Waterloo, they also do good food have a big car park and...