The Dormouse — Restaurant in England

update 1 month later, nothing received from dormouse management as promised

Visited new year eve hoping to eat from the normal menu, as advertised on the website for guests before 6pm.

After serving our drinks order, we were told that they had changed the times and would only serve the new years 4 course menu at around £45 per head (exc. drinks). We checked at the table and the website still read 6pm.

With dog and at 5:30pm we had no chance of finding elsewhere to eat on new years eve so we proceeded after the waitress informed us they didn't have any other meals in stock. (We found the similarity of the new years menu to the main menu to be striking so we were further disappointed at their inflexibility to serve just one course given the false advertising, which we produced on the phone at the time)

At the start of the meal, I asked the waitress if the final course, a cheeseboard, was one each to which I was told that it was indeed a cheese board each. It was then beyond belief that they would only serve us one cheeseboard, despite confirming again the price included two! We had given what we thought was one of two of our cheeseboards to our new friends at the pub, (courteously first having checked with the bar staff that this was ok) and what ensued was an embarrassing conversation for all in the room in which the waitress had to defend only serving one, despite confirming two were included in the price, but that she could not serve us the second. Even the other guests were getting involved saying this can't be right and asking on our behalf to speak to the manager.

I contemplated my actions carefully, and duly requested and paid the bill in full without fuss before leaving, and apologised to the waitress for any confusion. So very British! This was more in respect to the poor waitress who I felt must have been put in an unfair position by her management and in respect to other guests. If you read this, we usually love your service! Who knows what was going on here?!

To the manager - you are welcome to contact me to put this right. Sadly your compliant form on your website is not working so this is in the public domain.

Food quality, atmosphere and staff are generally of good order here to us and our family who are regular locals so it's a shame to have experienced this very sour and surreal experience.

I'll update the post...

Limited vegetarian choice. The menu hasn’t changed all year at the sister Dormouse and Fox and Roman York pubs. The greens and grains salad gets worse, is small with a handful from mixed leaf bag of salad and two tablespoons of bulgar wheat and a smidgen of olive oil. Appalling for £15 and no love in my opinion, though I am a very good cook and know my greens and grains.

This time the tasteless salad was served with atleast 2 black hairs; I stopped after a couple of mouthfuls - first I choked wondering what the stringy thing was stuck in my throat before my next bite, then curiously feeling and unravelling one very long black hair wrapped in a fork of oily leaves and sliced pepper which trapped inbetween my teeth, which made me gag.

I’m blind in one eye and we were sat in a really dark area behind a brick column. I’d brought my very elderly relative out so I didn’t need to cook on a Friday after a long day at work followed by a late hospital visit and this did ruin our infrequent night out having arrive exhausted already.

However, to be fair to them, the waiter immediately offered to remake it personally, but I couldn’t face touching another meal there again after that, especially as what was delivered looked extremely sorry for itself and ill prepared.

The duty head waiter did come over and offer again as I was there with nothing, but I really couldn’t face consuming anything at that point, and by way of an apology he said he was wiping my aunts gammon and drink complimentary. She did say the meat was nice.

I use to like it there as it reminded me a little of the moors pubs of home (albeit on York’s ring road) when I don’t have time to drive there, but the fire wasn’t lit, the table chairs are hard to sit on now and the pub is now showing signs of neglect, dust and cobwebs and wear and tear. Not ideal for vegetarians, but good for carnivores I think. Such a shame. Note, they did try to apologise and atleast my aunt was fed. It was okay as I soon passed through being hungry and the duty manager did ask me if I wanted him to come over to help us with the door. Not a great experience for us, but we’re in the minority, aged disabled and a vegetarian, so probably not the ideal...

If I could rate this place 0 stars I would. AVOID your this pub and save yourself some money with buying food here. We visited this pub about 4 years ago. The pubs food was amazing and we always vowed we would come back due to the food being out of this world. Well this evening our meal out was highly disappointing and was nothing in comparison to the meal we had 4 years ago. First thing is first we order two starters. The soup of the day which was tomato and red pepper and crispy camembert bites. The camembert bites was cold, and the soup that came out was leek and potatoe. The second issue. We ordered our mains, a pork belly of the specials board and a sirloin steak except when the mains came out there was only the sirloin steak that was over cooked. My main was nowhere in sight. The waitress then realised she had not put my order through meaning we was then waiting for our new fresh mains to arrive for about an hour. The pork belly itself looked okay until I tried a piece of crackling that was poking out the mash that was cold. The waitress had told us the crackling had been taken straight out of the fridge. The mash with chives was packet smash potatoes. This was a so called 'special' that was £18.95. How they can expect to charge people them prices when the quality of food is less than weatherspoons. I think I would have preferred to save myself some more money and just eat in weatherspoons instead. Anyway after one disaster from another I finally complained to a manager. Whilst speaking to the manager I had a member of staff then argue and disagree that the food was crp and then stormed off huffing and puffing as I told him the food was disgraceful and disappointing at that price. I suggest if I was you dormouse after reading all the reviews you go and sack your chef and go hire a proper kitchen to sort your food out. You have seriously gone down hill, it's actually embarrassing, I would have much rather cooked tea at home for me and my other half and just save us the money we just pised up the wall tonight. Shame on you! AVOID....