The Stone Grill — Restaurant in England

This review is based on me being disabled and I always include access in my reviews. I have broken my review down into sections: Accessibility, Food, Service and Atmosphere.

Booked for 5 people.

Accessibility Section: I am disabled and my aunty who is 93 needs to use a small pedestrian mobility scooter as she can hardly walk. It stated it was wheelchair friendly so thought great.

We arrived and the partially completed ramp was blocked off. With my auntie unable to walk that far we used the ramp anyway as there was no other obvious wheelchair entrance. Apparently there is a side entrance but we were not told about it at all even whilst leaving.

Once inside we were told we couldn’t bring a pedestrian type mobility scooter into the premises. I asked why, the manager said they didn’t have insurance for motorised vehicles. To me this is a breach of the Equality Act as insurance would be a reasonable adjustment. It’s no different to a motorised wheelchair, so I’m perplexed as to how can they therefore claim they are wheelchair friendly?

I went to use the disabled toilet, but it was locked and I had to ask for it to be opened. This toilet again didn’t have a bin or sanitary bin. This was an issue for me who has Crohns Disease and needed to use such item. They did say it was occupied and not locked, so I stated I was concerned someone might have fallen. They did then unlock the toilet, and nobody was using it.

Accessibility is a big issue for me and others like me. We should have the same access to services as anybody else but here it fell short.

Food and Service: We were never asked if we’d like another drink, in fact we felt quite as if we were an inconvenience seeing as we’d complained about the accessibility issue. My 93 year old auntie only eats plain food. She fancied a beef burger but not on a bun, no salad and would have liked some mushy peas which they served with fish and chips. We asked if she could have peas, like they served with fish and chips, and told “peas??? No you can’t have a portion of peas”. The server said it very abruptly and in a condescending manner. I explained why but was still told no. So we ordered a portion of seasonal vegetables for her. These came and were so unappealing they never got touched. Her burger was burnt. We told the server who just said “thank you for that” but did nothing. My mum ordered a 16oz steak and could not cook it well done on the stone as it didn’t fit. Plus the mushrooms etc were cold. Again told server who did offer to replace it, but we’d still have the same issue. I gave my mum half of my smaller steak. The 8oz sirloin was lovely.

Atmosphere: Where we were sat was extremely dark, when we asked if they could turn on the light we were told they had a known technical issue and couldn’t and so had to sit in very dim light. The photo showing this is lighter due to my iPhone taking good pictures in low light levels. But seeing as it was a known technical issue, maybe they should have supplied another source of lighting, especially when you have to cook your own food at your table.

I was told we were only seated there due to being late, which we were, but I did phone to say we would be due to the pre booked disabled taxi not turning up. I was told not to worry. The restaurant wasn’t full anyway. I had booked the table days in advance too, so why move us (supposedly) seeing as I did phone to say we were definitely going and explained my situation (we couldn’t just get any taxi due to the mobility scooter and 5 of us).

It was just a terrible experience, and the food was ok. I’m not one normally for leaving bad reviews, everyone can make a mistake but it the whole evening was one mistake after another.

Starters were nice, 8oz sirloin was lovely, 16oz couldn’t cook ourselves how we wanted it (well done), drinks ok too… that’s all I can...

The Stone Grill has been a favourite restaurant of ours for the last few years. It has always been a pleasant experience. We decided to give it another visit last weekend as we haven't been since it was revamped. First impressions were good. The restaurant looked beautiful and much brighter inside than it used to be. The staff were quick to take our order and serve our drinks and food. That's the positives. Now for the negatives. There used to be many more booths which were spacious and cosy at the same time. Now some of those have been replaced with small tables which are very exposed and close to each other. I understand they are trying to get in as many people as possible and it's not good for them having two people sitting in a table for four and usually I'd agree with that. But the nature of this restaurant is different because you don't get just two plates down. You get hot stones, sides etc. On top of that we decided to get the exotic meat sharer for two. Which consists of 6 different cuts of exotic meat served on two long wooden boards. When you add those boards to the hot stones, the plates and the sides the table was awfully overcrowded. It made eating very uncomfortable. We had to eat our meat straight off the hot stones as there was not enough space to put our plates in front of us. It really ruined the dining experience. As for the food, we noticed there are new items on the menu so I decided to order the frogs legs. I've eaten those in other restaurants so I was looking forward to trying them again. I was disappointed to say the least. Other places usually serve them either battered or roasted. What I've got here was pale, boiled meat which was swimming in olive oil. Didn't look appetising and didn't taste nice either. My husband said his squid started was lovely. The exotic meat was nice and more than enough for two people. It was good to see they had so many different types this time. As on all our previous visits for years there was only kangaroo steak available. The staff were very friendly and polite. The drinks and food were served quickly. I asked for my stone to be replaced and Emily did that in no time. My only complaint was that even though the staff could see that our table was overcrowded with plates etc. they didn't attempt to remove any even when we were finished with some of them. So we left with mixed feelings. We don't know whether the issues were caused by the fact it was Saturday night and it was very busy. But still when you pay so much money you would like to get a pleasant experience whether it's busy or not. We will probably give it another try as we love the restaurant and we've been going there for years. We just hope it will be a positive...

We had been staying in the B&B owned by this family owned restaurant, and was given the offer of a percentage of the bill at this restaurant because we were there guests. athough we had a bad experience at the B&B, with a very unwelcome arival, we were delighted with the quality of the food, and decided to have Our second evening meal at the stone grill. I can understand some people may find getting Raw steak delivered to your table, with a very hot stone to cook your steak on, may be a great experience, I doubt many would come back again, but i expect there would be some, just not me, or any of the 4 of us at the table. first when the hot stones went on the table, all 4 on a small table, it felt you were facing a furnace, i got very uncomfortable, with the lack of ventilation, while cooking the steaks on the butter provided, the smoke was terrible. at the table next to us was a party of 8 celebrating a birthday. with the birthday Boy being very loud, as a result of to much beer and wine. the young waitress was left to her self to deal with them, and refused to get him more beer until he finished the one he had in front of him. over all a bad experiense. I went outside to get some fresh air and left my wife to pay the bill. when they came outside my wife and her sister came out very upset. when they were paying the bill the owner was not given us the discount, for being there guests at the B&B, when my sister inlaw reminded the owner of the promised discount and showed him the flyer of the advertisment for the discount, that we were verbally promised at the hotel, he told them that was the voucher and should have displayed this first ( even though he knew we were his guests at the B&B ),then became very rude to my wife, and her sister. when they came out they were very upset, so much so I was going to go back in to talk to him. they were frightened of an argument happening, and with us having to stay at there B&B, they would not let me. never again very...