The Grain Barge — Restaurant in England

I wish I could give no stars. We booked a table hear a few weeks ago for 21:00. We walked in and we got asked a few times if we booked a table because it was a late but we got there for before our 21:00 booking. One member of staff looked at her watch. We got seated on a four person table at the side and we wanted to be by the window. We asked if we could please move. There was only one other table of people in there. There was an empty four seat next to the window. The member of staff we asked laughed and said “that tables for four people, there’s only two of you” and we said “we’re on a four seater now” and we pointed out there was a whole area at the other end. They explained they have closed that area now and went to ask someone else if we could move (I’m guessing higher up) a lady came over and asked why we wanted to move and we said we wanted to see out of the window. She laughed and said “it’s dark you can’t see anything. That tables for four people” we sat there feeling really uncomfortable, not wanted there, the experience was just horrendous. I worked in restaurants previously and I would bend over backwards to make my customers happy, making reasonable adjustments to make their experience a special one. Moving us to the four people table would have meant just cleaning a bigger table when we were gone which when I worked in a restaurant I would have been more than happy to do. We were very polite and just got the sense they wanted to go home. We ended up going to East which was very busy, the vibe was great, the staff were lovely and attentive and sat us next to a window (on a four people table) and we had the best experience. After the experience I had at the barge I don’t think I would even give it a...

The Grain Barge is a lovely location in the centre of Peterborough for a tasty Chinese meal. As you can tell from the name the restaurant is in a converted barge which is permanently moored on the River Nene. The restaurant comfortably seats around 50 guests on tables of 2-4 seats but tables could be pushed together for larger parties. The menu is standard for a Chinese restaurant with all the usual favourites. Upon being seated there was a plate of prawn crackers to enjoy. We opted to share the set menu priced at £16.50 per head. For this we had a sharing platter of mixed starters which included crispy seaweed, ribs, satay chicken, filled dumplings and prawn toast with a whole prawn on top. Next there was half a duck to share with the usual accompaniments. Then there were three main dishes, one of beef, one of chicken and a third of pork together with egg fried rice. By the end of all that we were both quite full so opted against any dessert. I had two pints of Carlsberg and my wife had a large diet coke. All together the bill came to £43 which seemed reasonable to me. The service was excellent with the staff being attentive but not overly so. We dined at 5pm on a Saturday evening and were the first customers of the evening but by the time we were leaving around 6.15 the restaurant was over half full. We had booked a reservation beforehand. Based on my experience I would heartily recommend this restaurant and look forward to being able to...

My first time visiting The Grain Barge and it was an ok experience. I will openly admit that I'm not familiar with Chinese cuisine and I was hoping the menu would be of some assistance, I was proved so wrong! The menu has a vast array of dishes listed including a selection of vegetarian dishes, but the menu lacked an brief explanation of the dishes and what they contained, which could be a real issue if you had particular dietary requirements.

The members of staff were pleasant and our meals (well nearly all our meals) arrived quite quickly. The waitress got my order wrong and served me a prawn dish instead of the fish I had ordered, the waitress was very apologetic.

My Fish Fillet in Mandarin sauce, what can I say...it was mediocre, I was unable to taste the fish (or identify what type of fish I was eating) due to the very sweet taste of the mandarin sauce.

It was a nice atmosphere on the barge and you don't feel like you are being rushed. There was no breakdown of the bill; just a figure handwritten on a piece of paper for myself and my colleagues.

I'm glad I have experienced it, but it was not to my taste. The Grain Barge was recommended by fellow work colleagues who raved about the food, so you may wish to pay a visit yourself and experience dining on a docked/moored barge if you have not...