The Duke Of Wellington — Restaurant in England

Visited The Duke of Wellington ,Sat 30th Nov for a birthday lunch. 2 of us. ( Male) . Both ordered Prawn Cocktail & Christmas lunch with turkey. I derive no pleasure in stating outright & without hesitation that the food was less than average. If there was a score below 1 Star I'd have scored that. I chose The D of W because I believed it has an excellent reputation. Our food was dire. Prawn Cocktails ( with lemon wedge & bread). Lettuce, Mari- Rose sauce & Prawns. That's it. A minimalist amount. Tomato, cumber, water cress ?...None. I'd give my cat more prawns than this & if they were King prawns then I'm my cat's Mother. The best part of the PC was the bread !! We're they child's portions ? Main Course. Turkey Christmas lunch. Think re- heated school dinner. Think microwaved larger dinner- for- 1. Think warm not hot. Not tasty. Sums it up so well. Nothing freshly cooked about our meals at all. Limp, tasteless carrots & red cabbage & with turkey & pigs blankets (2 per plate) that had a " re- heat" taste about them. Minimal gravy. What about a gravy boat for 2 adults ? Too much to ask ? There are countless restaurants we could have chosen for this what was supposed to be a special occasion. But I chose the D of W...to our cost. No...we couldn't bothered to complain. I dont want to complain. We just wanted decent, wholesome, hot, tasty food. We're just ordinary people. We just won't come back. Ever. The D of W was busy but I don't know how you achieve this offering food of this calibre....no calibre. I visit Toby Carveries at least once a month & their food is light years ahead of the food we were served today...and most of the time less than half the price & much larger portions. ( The Gent who served us was at least friendly. He was the highlight of our visit !) What does it take to " Murder" food such as we consumed? Is there special skills required ? Read: More than disappointing. Resembled school dinners. Not cheap. Not hot. Small Prawn Cocktail with classic ingredients...

I booked a table here for Easter Sunday and was expecting great things. I'd phoned up previously and asked about how much it would be for Sunday Lunch. I was told it was £8.99 for 1 course; £10.99 for 2 courses & £12.99 for 3 courses. That people can still order from the main menu if they didn't want Sun lunch. I thought that was reasonable considering so many eateries put up the prices when it's a special time & there were 10 of us BUT when we arrived and checked the menu - the beef wasn't £8.99, it was about £9.89, not the £8.99 I was told over the telephone. The tables we were allocated to were wobbly & there was no table service - you have to order and pay at the bar. Myself & my brother ordered starters - the soup was ok but it took the staff a long time to take away our bowls and it seemed to take ages for the main courses to arrive. I opted for pork - the meat, yorkshire pudding, gravy & roast potatoes were delicious, the veg was just ok the roasted parsnips were as hard as nails as if they had been left in the oven too long. Shrivelled up. It wasn't the special meal I thought it would be & I doubt we'll book again. I came here about 20 years and unfortunately the chain pub that it is now just...

Where to start - advertised as opening at 11:30am but didnt open doors till 11:45am - no explination. Q'd for food after being told the menu had changed only to then be told I couldnt order food yet. I ordered steak and chips. The steak was very average at best (even for pub food) and the chips were oven chips or a good impression of them, dry and bland. Wife and Daughter had turkey sunday lunch. I wouldnt be surprised if it was a microwave meal from the local supermarket, Im sure the yorkshire puddings were aunt bessies. All very below average and I expected more from them, pub lunches used to be really good there, good value and well made - what has changed ?

If the food had been up to standard value would have been good but thats about as nice as i can be sadly :-)

Others noted no beer available, they seemed to have run out of most things - fresh orange juice was a half used carton from local supermarket - what were they thinking of?

This was mothering sunday too, a reasonably popular day for people to go out for food, one you would expect them to make a better effort with really.

Other than the bar staff though, the servers were attentive and good, but let down by the rest.

My last meal...