The Coach — Restaurant in England

A sadly disappointing, gusting to unpleasant, experience.

They've done really well in difficult circumstances and provided plenty of mitigation against covid. Well done! It must be exhausting working in hospitality whilst wearing a mask. I really felt for the staff. Confident, chatty, but I felt, keen to upsell. We had a late sitting, which I understand can keep staff from their family, but the whole meal felt rushed, with a pop-up-pirate waiter continually checking to see if we had finished.

The first irritation was the musty old teatowel/dirty dishwasher odour on all the glasses. House sparkling water is a great eco-credential, but was ruined because of the taste from the glasses. Similarly the cidre was marred by the same.

Scotch egg in veloute was served first and was magnificent. Velvet veloute, rich, sweet with umami depth of flavour, lifted heavenward by clever application of herb. The egg was runny in the middle, crisp panko outer, enshrined in a 15-tog duvet of deliciousness. I could have had five, if I'd a spare fifty plus quid. A proper triumph.

Chips with bearnaise were delicious if a little rationed on the sauce. Chicken kiev with cauliflower cheese was where the food went a little wrong. Great cooking, great product and dish design, but so much salt, it became truly unpleasant by the final bites.

Venison chilli ended up down a similar ocean flavoured road. Smokey chocolate with great heat, but ruined by over salting. Couldn't finish it.

The quail was our last morsel with a side of hispi cabbage. The hispi cabbage was perfection, whisper of bite left, slippery with butter, gorg! The quail was moist and the skin crispy, great cooking and well prepared. However, the black pudding was too salty and as the quail had also been salted it made the whole dish quite unpleasant. The sauce could have been great, but by this point my taste-buds were shot and I was so full of water (to subdue the salt) it was a lost cause.

We complained about the overpowering saltiness of the three dishes. It isn't like we are averse to salty food. I've a dozen different salts, from sel de guerande fleur de sel, to seaweed salt, pink himalayian, smoked salt, juniper salt, truffle salt, and I apply generously. But these dishes were saltier than a soggy-submariner.

Deserts arrived. Two that we had ordered and an extra from the kitchen to apologise for the salt. Amazing sticky toffee pudding. Brandy snap basket was a tiny bit thick, but I'm being extra critical. The ice-cream was stunning and the pudding itself was decadent and dreamy. I felt like an unpalumpa on the chocolate River ride. Profiteroles were different. Good yes, but I'm still deciding if they were amazing. The extra desert was also good, but I find it difficult to eat one desert, let alone another half especially after a large meal.

Espresso was good.

I'm really unconvinced of this interpretation of tapa. Portions were too big, or too pricey, or both and very awkward to share. There are 100 bars doing this much better in San Sebastian, Spain.

The bill was very very much full price.

Would we visit again? Not a sweaty salty saline chance. Is there better food for less locally? Based on our experiences, yup. At...

My friend and I wanted to try this place after I watched a review on YouTube and told her about it. We were really looking forward to it and I was really pleased to book our table on the morning of our visit. When we arrived, our first thoughts were that the pub was small but cosy and we liked how we had been seated next to each other. A nice touch, easier to talk to each other.

A lovely lady called Sarah served us. She explained how the menu worked and she took our orders. The starter came very quickly, a lovely soup. We ate that and we had ordered two sides for our mains. We had ordered chips and some stem broccoli. The pie arrived, along with the broccoli. I could tell that the broccoli was not particularly hot but that was not really an issue at this time. We sat waiting for our chips to arrive as we wanted to enjoy the whole meal together. We were surreptitiously looking around to see if other diners had their chips and they did. We did mention to one another that we hoped they had not forgotten them and it was then that Sarah came back and said that the chips would be a minute. This 'minute' passed and the waiting staff kept looking at us, then looking towards the kitchen and back at us again. Just then, a man, very red cheeks, who we guessed may be the manager or assistant manager came over to our table and said that the chips would be a minute. I joked 'had they forgotten them?' I then said that we did not want to start as we wanted to enjoy the whole meal and we hoped that the food would not go cold. He then leaned right into my face and said 'Well, why don't you eat it and then it won't will it!' in a very annoyed, rude way. To say that my friend and I were shocked was an understatement!

The staff avoided us after this and people on the table next to us saw that something was amiss. Sarah eventually came back, and sheepishly asked us if we would like dessert. We declined. Obviously, by this point we just wanted to leave. I went to use the ladies and when I came back my friend was explaining to the man with the red cheeks how we were shocked at the way he had spoken to us. He then turned to me as I neared them and he said ' Well, she accused me of forgetting the chips. We then left and said that we would never go there again and...

Absolutely dreadful experience and at the prices The Coach is charging, exceedingly bad value for money: Slow in preparing the food - we ordered a set lunch and a la carte and were told that the food would be served as soon as they were ready; in the event, the starter came and it was a long wait ( 20 minutes) before the main course came - when we asked, we were told that the kitchen tries to align the timing of the dishes from the set lunch and the a la carte - which of course is completely the opposite of what we were told at the start

Uninterested service - both waiting staff were unwilling and/or unable to provide decent service. For example, when asked about the delay in the food, no apology was offered. Not once. One of the staff went to check and never came back to tell us what he had found out, demonstrating a complete disregard for customers. Another example - at no point during the service did any of the two waiting staff ask us how the food was

Taste of food - except for the cauliflower soup, everything else was very salty including the fish and chips, sauces, chicken, etc. The overwhelming taste was one of salt. Chips? Salty. Fish? Salty. Hispi cabbage? Salty. Would have thought a restaurant at this price point would prioritise flavours and fully bring this out in each plate

In short, very poor value for money considering the taste of the food, lengthy wait times, and shoddy service. Why didn't we raise it with the restaurant? Because in our view both waiting staff were clearly uninterested in whether customers were happy and could not be bothered. It was all perfunctory. There was simply no point in providing feedback or raising a complaint when it was clear to us that they weren't interested.

Bottom line - if you are going to charge high prices (for example, £20 for fish and chips without the chips, which are an eye-watering £8 more, and yes, very salty), ensure the food is flavourful rather than simply salty and ensure your staff actually bother to do the job properly. And yes, it's pretty awful that no one offered an apology for the delay at any time, and that no one asked us even once how...