The Pot Kiln — Restaurant in England

I went here for a lunch with my parents on my own suggestion after remembering coming here a year or so ago (probably more) and remembered things positively.

Shame I can't say that anymore, I'm pretty sure me and my parents where the only people there with maybe an exception for 3 or so other people just drinking.

The fact you're the only people means service should be good no? Well quite frankly we felt pushed to leave as soon as possible. Due to gardening services where they had a leafblower going full blast less than 10 meters away, for an amount so small you could just use a brush it was absolutely deafening. What I think was the owner or manager came up to apologize to us, which is fine... But the fact it continued no less than 5 minutes later is astounding, this time a spectacular 12 meters away. No-one stopped them from doing this until we'd eventually left.

Saying that though it didn't take long as the food portions were absolutely tiny, yes two of us only had starters but when you're paying 12 pounds a fish based starter with nice bread you'd expect enough there to fit on more than just one tiny piece of bread. Probably why they only gave us one incredibly thin piece of bread. They tasted good, but absolutely no value when also comparing to other places listing the same price and also having the same quality.

My own was Game Satay skewers. These were tiny... I managed to finish two pieces of it in the time it took the waitress to walk to and from the kitchen with our thirds meal. Same story as before, tasted DECENT nothing spectacular and absolutely tiny.

And the same could be said for my dads pie, frankly £30 for this feels like a joke. This is more expensive than most Michelin star restaurant level meals or for a top class stake and this was neither. He was pretty neutral about it but he's had better pies.

This is all very sad, I genuinely can't remember the last time I was this upset and hungry after eating out, it really soured our mood as we all left hungry. We wanted to love this place because the location is amazing. I just hope things improve but at the moment I certainly won't be coming back till I hear good...

I stayed here for one night and I loved it (June 2024).

I travel solo a lot for work and I’m always keen to find unique spaces other than the Premier Inn who charge £65-250 for one night and offer no facilities. I was en route from London to Berkshire and then home to Yorkshire!

The Pot Kiln is excellent value for money. I paid £120 for one night.

Relatively easy to reach off the M4 (might be tricky in wet Winter) and plenty of parking immediately next to bedrooms and the pub/restaurant.

Beautiful location. 🌲

The kitchen was closed, but the outdoor pizza oven was compensating for all visitors. It was delicious. The local (Renegade) brewery is on tap and is worth trying. The restaurant is spacious and lovely on the eye. I bet this place is buzzing when word gets out; I learned it has only been open for 3 weeks.

I stayed in room 4. The bedroom was very clean and comfortable. Piping hot shower and bottled water. The room lacks a small chair to sit at the table to work (if you need to sit on your laptop). The toilet is really close to the sink; will be tricky for large/vulnerable people to reach. The biggest concern was no window or air conditioning in the room. At about 11pm the thermostat was showing 27C with no air flow. I had to open the bathroom window and door to cool the room down. I did wonder what it would be like during a rare heatwave. However, it was a joy and incredibly peaceful. Coffee machine and NO TV (maybe a conscious decision) in the room helps guests to relax.

In the morning the cows 🐄 are literally next to the entrance to the pub. I’d love to see this business thrive, so I hope my feedback is helpful and not viewed as a criticism. I had a wonderful 12 hours!...

What a shame.

Came here for lunch on a lovely day.

First, some things were actually very good. The vegetable side dishes, the scotch egg starter.

The octopus and prawn starters were pretty good as well.

Unfortunately though, there were a number of things that weren’t good at all - and this ruined the experience as a whole.

Our 12 hour lamb shank main was dry and overcooked which was such a shame as it was a lovely cut of meat.

The drinks were all a bit ‘off’ (not sure the bartenders were getting their proportions right.)

Worst of all, the service was quite unbelievably bad. Particularly so given it was not busy at all in the restaurant.

Drinks were made and left to sit on the bar while wait staff stood around ignoring them doing nothing.

No one asked us how our mains were (which was a particular problem because there was a problem with the lamb)

One particularly clueless waiter had probably the most annoying manner of any waiter I’ve ever been served by. He did very little ‘waiting’ and a lot of swanning around thinking he was Gordon Ramsey or something. Very odd.

Most disappointing of all was the manager’s attitude though. He actually walked past our table when we were discussing how the lamb was dry (it was quiet in the restaurant as I say and he definitely heard us) and he completely ignored this.

I always prefer to speak to the manager if there are problems with a meal rather than just go online and complain after. I know mistakes happen and bad reviews can really damage a restaurant’s reputation. But given he clearly wasn’t interested in doing his job and rectifying a glaring issue I didn’t even bother on this occasion.

We left disappointed and...