The Railway Inn — Restaurant in England

Hi firstly our objective. It was Sunday lunch with our respective parents 4 persons 3 of which like Trad Cidre. The Railway inn has been expanded nicely the restaurant is airy and light in heavy oak. Drinks 3 pints of Stans trad please and a soft drink. Can you go to Thatchers and criticise cidre? “ Really? “ well it tasted distinctly watery and of pear concentrate rather than of apples and not impressive by our reckoning . Food order 3 Beef roasts and a pork loin off the Sunday roast selection and a share pot of cauliflower/ broccoli cheese for 4. The plates arrived nice and hot the beef dishes looked good, unfortunately my pork was just a small oval loin accompanied by a piece of crackling and more potatoes than everyone else I found a hidden carrot slice or two, my partner felt obligated to transfer a slice of hers over and offered me some beef after i had struggled to stretch my porklett into the meal ! Everyone is struggling at the moment in Hospitality I acknowledge, The staff atmosphere was almost glum and just perfunctory tbh “Thatchers that Cidre was positively grim “ but there’s an enormous range of choice you have at your venue my last drink was half a Butcombe which was superb. Surely you sell enough tankers of Alcopops to be giving at point of source service second To none. From a grass roots west country family “yer cidre is on the slider” as dominant as it is in the breweries arms. Thankfully Ale cannot suffer the same fate short of just disappearing

If you love cidre visit The Orchard pub in Bristol or buy it from a small farm like Westcroft or buy bottled maybe. As a Sunday lunch goes we left full::::me on spuds n Yorkshire mostly and it got us out the house £100 + inc...

We loved the Railway pre-pandemic but unfortunately we were left really disappointed on this occasion.

Pros: The wait staff were friendly They presented my mum with a special plate with a 'happy birthday' message at the end of our meal

Cons: We were left waiting for an hour after ordering our food. We understand that sometimes this is unavoidable but we weren't warned of the wait at any point; had we known what to expect we may have ordered starters and definitely would have found something to keep the child in our group happy in the meantime. 4 out of 6 adults in our group ordered Sunday roasts and found them incredibly bland. The potatoes and Yorkshire puddings were overcooked and the gravy was completely tasteless. They were seemingly served with one piece of carrot per plate which was a bit perplexing. The monkfish was overcooked and dry. The burger was fine but unremarkable. We ordered two peach Bellinis which were good but priced at £8.50 on the menu and then appeared at £10 each on the bill. We queried this and our waitress was quick to rectify it without any quibbles. Dessert again took some time to arrive after ordering. So long, in fact, that the child in our group grew tired and asked to go home; we asked to cancel his order and were told this was no issue. In spite of this, it appeared on our bill anyway but, as above, our waitress removed it without any fuss. A couple of times we ordered drinks that then didn't appear so we had to flag staff down and remind them.

Unfortunately this visit has put us off returning, especially as we know of other places in the surrounding area that serve much better food at a similar...

What a shame! We had high hopes for our meal yestetday but it did not reach our expectations. The 'new' menu describes what sounds like some lovely food.

However, having ordered the gammon, you can imagine my disappointment when I received cold ham. Our waitress apologised and said that since "ham, egg and chips" had been re-described as "....gammon ...." they had being experiencing some issues.

I was offered another meal choice (baring in mind how long I'd waited for the first meal of cold ham, a rubbery fried egg and luke warm chips, I was reluctant to select one) and so, cautiously I chose the flat iron steak.

We were assured the meal wouldn't take long. Everyone else at my table had finished their food. We were on a time constraint too: we booked our table for 12pm so we could be ready for our Thatchers Tour at 2pm. At approx 1.50, having had to complain again, meal two was delivered. Luke warm steak, luke warm chips, a boiling hot single onion ring and cherry tomatoes. The steak was overcooked at one end and grissle at the other.

I gave up! I left the table, feeling very upset and disappointed. I am not sure what has gone wrong at this pub but I was not the only one with a problem: a full debate was going on between the waitresses stood behind my seat about another table: overhearing this conversation felt very unprofessional on behalf of the staff ...

Thankfully, the Thatchers Tour was great: John knows his stuff and the afternoon did have a silver lning. Thank you for...