The Lord Raglan — Restaurant in England

First visit on a miserable wet blowy day. We arrived 5 mins before they had officially opened and the heating had not kicked in so we started with a coffee (just to warm up!). Met Lily (boss), engaging, bright, informative and despite being busy made time to answer our many questions. Server (Beth) was exceptionally helpful so we let her order for us (shared meat platter starter £18) with truffle oil chips (extra £6 i think). Food tray looked great (buttermilk chicken breast 'bites' x 5, best part of a rack of short pork ribs, 2 pork sausages (with leek?), pulled brisket and 3 pieces of house special 'corn on the cob ribs'). For those who savour food rather than just eating it, the chicken breast was rather dry but the coating was brilliant, crunchy and very tasty. In future I will ask that it is taken out of the fryer a bit earlier or switched for thigh meat. Ribs plentiful, very tasty, still moist enough inside but dry to the touch so could be handled if preferred. Sausages were perfect. Juicy, plump, well marked/scorched with 100% crispy skin. The pulled brisket was moist (not by using butter/dairy I learned, which surprised me) but got cold quickly on the metal tray and was much better when warm. Beth made a big thing about the corn on the cob ribs (and for good reason). They are whole cobs, quartered lengthways and then fried until half the moisture has been removed which intensifies the flavour to ultra sweet and nicely chewy. The result is a banana shaped piece of memorable finger food. Well worth trying. The parmesan & truffle oil chips were wasted on us as we could not detect the flavour over the much stronger competition from the meats or maybe its just my aged taste buds. Good array of wines, many available by the glass and something for pretty much everyone. Already booked to return later this week to try more options as we ran out of time on this visit but for info, the public car park is literally one minute walk away (virtually outside the back door) so if you have plenty of time, get the 4 hour ticket (£2) and avoid being...

Our visit for Sunday lunch didn’t get off to a great start. On the way to our table, the server stopped halfway through the restaurant to have a chat with another group who were leaving -leaving us awkwardly standing there waiting. Not the most welcoming first impression.

Things didn’t really improve from there. Service throughout was slow and sloppy. After ordering just 3 drinks, another staff member had to come over and ask what we’d ordered, as the original server had forgotten.

We were seated in the conservatory, which had the roof partly open. Both our table and another asked for it to be closed as it was cold and windy. After three reminders and a 30-minute wait, someone finally sorted it - turns out only one person was “authorised” to close it, and she was apparently too busy serving drinks at an empty bar. That pretty much set the tone.

The tiny jug of gravy we were given barely covered a single potato. We asked for more, which took another 10 minutes and came in another miniature portion - by which point we’d nearly finished eating. We were shocked to see a £2 charge on the bill for that extra drop of gravy. When we asked for it to be removed, the Supervisor came over to aggressively point out on a menu that it was listed as a side. We didn't have menus when we asked for more gravy, and no one mentioned there would be a charge.

Despite the restaurant and bar being fairly quiet, it felt like the staff were distracted and disorganised. A disappointing experience from start to finish, and a surreal...

Absolutely excellent for food and service, - we're really impressed! From the moment we arrived we felt very welcome. Good practices were in place for social distancing purposes. We were asked to sanitise hands upon entry then led to our table. We ordered food and drinks on the app and it all came within 5 minutes, which we were really impressed with. Hot and fresh. We both ordered the beef brisket which was incredibe and flakey and melt in the mouth! The brocoli side was cooked perfectly and tasted great too. I wasn't sure the dressing with the salad went with the brisket but as a whole dish it really was excellent.

Great selection of drinks too, good they had Big Drop low alcohol beers, which are a great substitute for the designated drivers. My husband is an avid craft beer drinker and he said it tasted like the real thing.

Onto the desserts and we shared the mouthwatering Oreo doughnuts and the not as impressive brownies. I think the chocolate sauce (artificial tasting) and ice cream (don't know for certain but might have been vegan - tasted of coconut) let them down, on their own they are nicer. We were both chocolate tasters so we generally are obsessed with chocolate and picky so don't let it put you off. They are still really nice!

Our server was Harriett and she was excellent. Very friendly and chatty and checked in on us.

The atmosphere was great too, a nice buzz without feeling too crowded and tables well apart from each other. Overall can't fault the service and food and we'll...