The Blue Ball at Braunston - Country Pub Restaurant, Oakham, Rutland LE15 — Restaurant in England

Visited The Blue Ball at Braunston today for Sunday lunch. On arrival, the venue presented really well it looked lovely, smelled great, and was fairly busy, which gave a good first impression. We were promptly seated.

When ordering drinks, I asked for a Coke and my wife a lime and soda. Both arrived completely flat. We mentioned it to the waiter, and they replaced them “at no charge,” which felt a bit odd to say as the originals weren’t drinkable anyway. Unfortunately, the replacements were still flat, so I decided to order a beer instead.

The waiter who took our food order, an Indian gentleman who seemed new, struggled to understand us and didn’t appear familiar with the Sunday roast menu. I ended up pointing to our choices on the menu, which he then left on the table before walking away. A more senior member of staff came over shortly after and asked if our order had been taken. I explained that it had, but the menus had been left behind. He said the waiter was new and still learning fair enough, everyone has to start somewhere.

Our food arrived and was presented really well. The beef was genuinely good quality and could have been close to five-star if it had been hot, but sadly it was lukewarm. The vegetables were nicely cooked but, again, only lukewarm at best. The biggest disappointment was the chicken it was so overcooked and dry that it was genuinely tough to chew. At one point I joked that the chicken seemed like it wanted a fight, it was that tough!

By the time we were halfway through our meals, our daughter’s food still hadn’t arrived, though she was quite happy picking at ours. My wife asked me not to complain. We don’t usually complain or leave negative reviews and tend to only post feedback when we’ve had a good experience.

The staff were friendly throughout and, to be fair, when they cleared our plates they did ask how everything was. I mentioned that the chicken was overdone, and the waiter offered to knock £5 off my main, which I accepted and appreciated.

It just felt like one of those days where a lot of things went wrong all at once flat drinks, communication issues, lukewarm food, overcooked meat, forgetting our daughter's meal. The pub itself has a lovely atmosphere and plenty of potential, but unfortunately this visit fell short of expectations.

I had to write this review as the whole experience was quite surreal. it felt like everything that could go wrong, did. We really wanted to like it and could see how it might be a great spot on a good day, but based on our experience today, we wouldn’t...

Booked for a good sized family birthday celebration. Good table was ready for us and we were served with drinks and our orders taken by seemingly capable wait staff. There were a couple of the supporting items missing from the starters which when asked for were simply stated as out of stock. Bit poor when the Co-op locally could have rectified the situation if anyone had bothered. It is a bit galling that the kitchen thought it OK to just serve dishes with deficiencies and not warn the clients before presenting the plate. Two of the main courses when served were completely wrong. This despite having read back the orders to check prior to sending the request to the kitchen. One meal was replaced as ordered after a 15+ minute wait. The other was not able to to be produced as there was no more of the main ingredient. It is ironic that we had gathered here from across the country many of us staying in a hotel 20 minutes away. Our deciding factor on choosing our venue was that the particular dish was available being a favourite of the host. Despite the fairly modest reduction to the bill it was all a bit of a cooler. Don't get me wrong the staff front of house were doing their best, very polite and attentive but badly let down by poor stock management and careless attention in the kitchen. Appreciated the gift of an individual chocolate brownie birthday pud with sparkler to...

Update 1/11/21: New team are in, and after being closed a month, the makeover is fabulous! Place is fresh and cosy and welcoming, staff are friendly and menu looks delicious, will be booking in for a taster in the new year! Spent many an evening here but not for a while, staff were attentive for the most part, my food was delicious as was others on the table, only thing that needed a rethink was the Moroccan confit duck leg, med couscous was very wet, flavour lovely but not easy to get the meat off the bone which meant everything was slopping about. Tiramasu Pudding was delicious, shame there wasn't a cheese and biscuits or chocolatey something for the boys, but understandable small menu with current times. Fire was lit, and we were put right next to it in August, so all got a little hot! Good evening had, place needs a bit of TLC as do all these older buildings, but still nice! I understand current landlord/lady are moving out, and wish them the very best of luck, looking forward to seeing what a bit of new vision brings, as it's a...