The Waldegrave — Restaurant in England

I originally emailed this review privately to the Waldegrave Arms, East Harptree. No response has been received.

I booked a table in advance to have a birthday lunch with some friends and our 4 children at the Waldegrave Arms recently, and I feel compelled to offer a review of our experience.

We all agreed that the outdoor eating environment in your garden setting was lovely, we were fortunate to have had good weather and the kids all enjoyed your new play equipment.

The staff were friendly, but the service was very very slow; we waited ages for our drinks and about 30mins for our food despite the place being practically empty other than us. 2 small teacups of warm water with tea bags to brew our own tea, which we immediately returned to the bar to exchange for hot water, for £5.60, is extortionate.

When the food arrived we couldn't believe how uninspired it was - when you namecheck your French(?) chef "Phillipe" and your veggie curry is priced @£15.95, I hope you will agree it's reasonable that we would expect to receive a pretty decent meal. It was a smaller-than-average size portion with plain white boil-in-the-bag/microwave rice, supermarket mini-naan, microwaved poppadoms, no pickles or dips and of such mildness as to be unrecognisable as a curry of any description. The beef 'madras' was similarly disappointing - mild, dry, flavourless and the meat hadn't been effectively trimmed so ~10% inedible fat.

The kids' meals of sausages and chips were strangely not very child focussed - the sausages were fine but the chips were giant wedges and the salad was a fancy leaf affair with raw onion and dressing applied. None of the 4 hungry kids wanted anything other than...

This is a great location for pub. The floor staff are super attentive but the bar staff pretend you don't exist. The food was average pub grub at gastro pub prices. The beef (£21) was overcooked brown/grey. The roast potatoes not crispy but soggy, the roast veg the same. Slimey fake gravy and cold Yorkshire pudding... Not an awful lot to say about the sub par roast at the price. Was that your music playing in th3 restaurant or someone playing their own music through their phone? Because the sound was awful!! It would be a great pub for an afternoon drinking, but a "country pub" with £6.60 pint prices! You'd have 1 and leave and go to the city. I won't be booking again. The location is beautiful but far far better priced meals and drinks...

Wow what a fantastic pub to stumble across on a walk around the area. We received such a warm welcome from the landlord and members of staff and felt instantly at home. They even brought biscuits and a water bowl out for our dogs and were very kind about them both being a little shy! Pay no attention to the old reviews - this pub is now community owned, and as such is under new management and the fantastic team there should be celebrated! Our lunch was the best we've had in a very long time - also tonnes of gluten free options which is rare in rural areas, and delicious options for vegans too. The food and service were a 10/10. The curry sauce on my vegan fish and chips was my...