Spotted Cow — Restaurant in England

We’ve been here many times before and always enjoyed the friendly staff, food, cleanliness and overall experience, but Tues 4th April we went for lunch, and the service was not good. I bought a glass of lemonade but the first glass I was given had lipstick and hand marks all around the rim and body of the glass, I returned to the bar and had to wait for over 5 minutes for a staff member to come into the bar area to see to my concern and change the drink, a young girl (staff) arrived from outside of the main front door. The 2nd staff member was on the phone around the other side of the bar which I couldn’t see but could hear and was committed to that call.

Whilst I was stood there the bell rang twice from the kitchen (we were the only ones in the bar so this would have been our starter) the chef came out to see where the staff were at the same time as the young girl returned inside. The young girl spoke very sharp to the female chef and then replaced my drink. The chef ended up bringing our food to us outside. During our main meal we ordered another round of drinks, this time my son in law had a broken finger nail in his glass of water, he took it back to the bar and the same girl was vey blase’ about it, my son in law refused a replacement due to her attitude, the cutlery was dirty and all our serviettes were wet that were wrapped around the knives and forks, considering we were the only people in the pub you’d think the staff would have ample time to make sure the cleanliness was to a good standard. Disappointed by our experience this time by both staff attitude and...

Popped in for some Sunday lunch. Myself the wife and my two children. All I can say is that it was terrible. Really bad food. The swede was full of pepper.. Yorkshire puddings where undercooked. Mash was made with margarine. It tasted awful. The roasties where black and brown but they were still hard inside. Poor quality meat. " Mostly fatty off cuts " I complained about the quality of the cooking and we did get half our money back but it was besides the point. No one ate the dinner and my family were still hungry so we had to go elsewhere . I wanted to speak directly to the cook or "chef" if they can call themselves that, but we were told they were too busy .So they couldn't even be arsed to apologise at all. I've definitely struck off the spotted cow for and type of food . If I could offer no stars then I would. I don't think they deserve my star at all. The waiter was very polite and appolagetic so I've nothing ill to say about them. Do yourself a favour and drive straight past if you ever consider stopping here for food. There's much better places in the area. Additional. It needs a good clean. Felt very mucky. Arms were sticking...

Total bill was £47.50. Ordered a pint of pepsi max and hobgoblin, sirloin steak and scampi, chips and festive vegetables, with leek sauce. And cheeseburger and chips.

Originally asked for steak to be cooked medium/rare (see photographs), and it was more medium than anything. Both of us didn't particularly enjoy the chips. They were cooked well but just lacked flavour.

The cheeseburger was very good, however the website menu and pricing is incorrect as it was more expensive than advertised. Also the food service times are wrong online too. They stop serving food at 8pm not 9pm as stated on Google.

The atmosphere was described as quiet phoned to see if I could book a table. However, when we got there it was quite busy, there were lots of children in, in their pyjamas. Maybe it was a special Christmas party for them?

The ladies toilets weren't the best. One was out of order and the other had visible damage. There was also a strong smell of sewage in there.

Overall, it's a nice pub in a lovely location (Elwick is beautiful).

Probably would return especially in the summer as the outside area looked amazing especially...