The Crown Inn at Burnham Beeches — Restaurant in England

How do we start about our… disappointing experience of The Crown Inn, Farnham Common.

Well I guess the best starting place is a congratulations to the staff member at the bar who took our orders at the bar. My partner had decided it would be good to order at the busy bar, for 6 people, with 0% knowledge of what we would be looking for. To top it off we were sat outside, occupied, so for half of the people present she chose to venture back and forth to collect order information. The gentleman at the bar was very patient during the entire 15 minutes it took us to fill out an order that could have been recited in 30 seconds.

Once we ordered there was a reasonable wait, about 30 minutes.

Finally our food arrived in dribs and drabs.

Now I use the word food lightly, because what we consumed during the course of our experience was not the most edible.

The only edible starter was the camembert, and that’s because it’s a block of cheese you put in the oven for 20-25 minutes. It’s simplicity in cooking is up there with toast. Now, to be honest the visit was a few weeks ago and I’m now struggling to remember all the dishes, beyond the ones that stood out.

The one that stood out for the starters was the duck spring rolls. These exquisite little dishes were served colder than my beer, and for some unknown reason they tasted like flowers that had been washed with hand-soap. I’m not sure why. It really does boggle my mind, but that’s how it is. Perhaps it’s a new pompous taste that the wealthy have acquired?

We also found that they had forgotten to bring through our new round of drinks and one of the starters, which would now be a 20 minute delay. Luckily, the individual who had ordered this was happy for us to continue on to our main course, which we hoped with a now profound hunger; would be to a more edible standard than the starters.

But alas, this was not the case.

The mains arrived after a further 30 minute wait. The food looked okay. Dare we hope? Dare we dream? Could it be, something to go down a treat?

No. Again, I struggle to remember the issues with all the dishes, but the star at the table by a strong lead was the chicken burger. Now, I’m not sure how they pulled this off, but somehow the chef had managed to somehow turn the smell of the nearby farm, into the taste of the burger! We were all so surprised, we took turns, taking small bites in morbid shock and dismay. How? How was it possible to captivate such an off-putting smell, and transform it into a taste? Especially when the food that taste was emit from was just a standard chicken burger?

In terms of creativity, we all felt amazed. In terms of edibility, I’m afraid we all rate this as an extremely low experience.

Oh, and to top it off, right at the end we finally our remaining starter and our round of drinks.

Not wanting to make a fuss, and understanding the importance of reviews on the internet, we left in a hurry and decided to put this on here...

I visited the Crown Inn today and was really disappointed by the fact that there is a severe wasp infestation in the garden that hasn't been dealt with. We asked to move inside and were told that they were short staffed and we could therefore not be accommodated inside, even though a member of our party also had a severe allergy to wasp stings. We had wasps on our food and in our drinks. This made the whole experience extremely unpleasant for everyone and we could not enjoy our food. Unfortunately my dog was stung while we were there and the staff member who served us mentioned that she had been stung several times while at work. If the problem cannot be dealt with please notify customers ahead of arrival so we can make a decision about whether we want to eat here or not. There were no citronella candles and no offer of insect repellant which I thought should be the bare minimum for this situation. Extremely disappointed with this and the attitude of the supervisor who I spoke to which was basically "deal with it", with no offers to replenish the drinks that had wasps drowning in them nor to accommodate us indoors due...

First experience at Chris Wheeler's new location The Crown, since leaving Stoke Park as Head Chef. Now Chef Patron here. Tucked away down a winding lane, passing trade must be relatively few so it needs some better publicity to boost it. We ate on a Saturday and still some tables were empty. Having said that, the food was excellent. Beautifully presented, hot and delicious. We had the tasting menu. Absolutely delightful. Great standard and as good as we got at Stoke Park when that was functioning. The bar and restaurant staff need some training. Although the front of house Manager was experienced and did oversee our order, she does need better support for a smoother running service. Will go again as the food definitely is worth the journey. Tip: Be prepared for a pitch black car park when you leave the pub. A few lights directed that way from the pub would make getting back to your car a lot...