The Grand Junction — Restaurant in England

Today we visited The Grand Junction for our anniversary lunch/dinner. We had heard mixed reviews from diners at this exciting new restaurant and decided to make up our own minds.

I don't mind spending money on tasty food and we went in there ready to spend money on tasty food! What we spent money on was cheap sauce, nice toilets and tepid service.

The renovation is nothing short of impressive. Locals who know the property as the after hours dance spot "13" will be amazed at what they have achieved in the space. Its lush.

The food is pricey for Buckingham. Average of £10+ a starter. £20+ for a main. £31 for a steak which my husband and I both had; he the rib eye and I the fillet which followed our chicken wing starter.

The wings sauce was okay but the chicken dry and the bones disintegrating. The wine (£41 av. a bottle) was very good. The steaks, whilst cooked to specification, were flavourless. The chips were bland. The tomatoes in the rocket salad were brilliant and the best part of the meal. The sauces, bearnaise and peppercorn (extra cost), tasted synthetic like pre packaged tesco sauces. I've only bought a packaged tesco stake sauce once and I won't be repeating that mistake; ditto eating at The Grand Junction.

I thought the cherry on the top of the meal was the cheap kebab house style mayonaise and ketchup. Nay! Twas the response of our waitress (a supervisor based on her outfit) when I offered our feedback.

I praised the setting because it's lovely and the tomatoes which were heaven. But when I mentioned the lack of flavour in the meat, chips and seemigly cheap sauce she asked if I had a problem with the size of the meal (I'm inferring she thought I might not understand what to expect with a filet steak). I reiterated that my issue was the lack of flavour and the cheap sauce which I don't expect for the price we were paying.

She then retorted that the table behind us had the same meal and they said they liked it, so... 🤷‍♀️

Anyone with any experience in the serving industry, be it professionally or as a service user, knows that the appropriate response to constructive criticism is "Thank you so much for your feedback. I am sorry you didn't have the best experience and I shall feed that back to the chef." Don't tell the customer someone else thinks differently to them.

So. In summary the renovation is incredible. I highly recommend heading in for a drink and checking it out but don't eat there. For the money being charged we won't be giving it a second chance, sorry...

Marks Out of 10 Starters 0/10 Mains 4/10 Deserts 0/10 Coffee 9/10 Who in their right mind spends 4.5 million creating such an interior to only serve up what could only be described as below average pub grub?! Cooked by untrained basic chefs ??? The manageress needs a personality transplant and personally I would sack her. She possessed zero people person skills, or warmth. The assistant manager seemed practiced in appeasing unhappy clientle. (He did this very well, poor lad) The communication on the menu was unclear and indifferent between staff, so we were confused on some dishes. The service wasn't attentive having had to raise my hand more than once, seeming the restaurant was more or less empty this to me is slack service. *Starters, We both ordered the prawns which came in a piping hot cast iron pan, yet looked insipid and were raw inside. #FOOD Poisoning alert. Both returned obviously. *Mains, were tasteless. Frozen fish consisting of heavy batter and tastless chips. The lamb kofta which was highly unappealing in their appearance greasy, over cooked and compact, the only tasty fresh part of this dish was the small side salad and harrasia dip. *Desert, was meant to be morish mini donuts. They were dough balls covered in icing sugar that went hard like stale rolls, we were told after qualifying it was donut dough not bread dough to learn infact it was bread dough. Totally Revolting. Our bill was around £90.00 our dissatisfaction did not seem a surprise. Rightly so it was heavily reduced final bill, (bad for profit). When an establishment is charging top end prices. Then serve top end food it's NOT Difficult. Go to Daylesford or the The backlane tavern, Thatch at Thame to name a few all charging similar prices, yet manage to serve delicious food, that makes you want to return again and again. It's all very well rapidly expanding a business serving inventive attractive tasty food takes skill and attention to detail, many a big ship sinks in the restaurant business. When they take their eye off the ball and think pounds. Im sorry to say The Grand Junction FAILS ...

Can’t lie I was really excited for this, had heard nothing but nice reviews of this place. On arrival nice atmosphere but dinner I could not believe. My partner ordered a pizza with chicken, mushrooms etc and myself a chicken breast and chips. He took a bite into his pizza and from within the pulled chicken he found a bone! Not a tiny one either. Immediately sent this back not happy and that’s just not okay for on a pizza as he could have easily chocked. They replaced this and all was good. Then took a second bite from my chicken breast (butterflied to add so being much thinner) and pulled a bone from my mouth also. Absolutely mortified as I freak out about eating chicken off the bone I felt sick. Called the woman over and said it’s just not okay to be met with this reply. “This can happen. You do find bones in chicken breast when you cut close to the bone”. Ummm no you don’t. I’ve worked in 5 different restaurants, cooked chicken myself god knows how many times and never once managed to hack off a bone in the process. Felt very belittled by the woman who leant over me telling me it’s fine and happens when I replied well it doesn’t. I’ve never had it happen she said “well. It can do so.” She asked if I wanted mine redone and I said no at risk of having it again and by this point my partner had nearly finished anyways. I said that’s fine I’ll just eat the chips I won’t eat any more chicken. Yet when the bill came over. Despite eating only half a pizza and half a portion of chips as I refused to risk eating more of the chicken I was still charged full price for both. No thank you on the way out. No eye contact if that. Only one of the sweet young girls Stating she was mortified by what happened and doesn’t blame me for being upset. Safe to say if you go there either don’t order chicken or be happy being told that chicken breast is meant to have...