The Wooden Spoon — Restaurant in England

A strong contender for the worst meal out I've ever had. I ordered pate on toast as a starter. The toast was stone cold. The pate was unlike any pate I've had before as it resembled dog food in look and (probably) taste, though I naively told myself it was because it was homemade and an acquired taste. I should have known better. The main was a medium-rare steak that was greyish brown where it should have been pink. The chips were OK, however once we got near the bottom of the shared bowl we noticed a lot of dark hairs. The barman apologised and said he'd point this out to the owner/chef. A couple of minutes later he came back with the explanation from the owner that the dog had got loose in the kitchen! He did seem quite surprised that we clearly considered this to be disgusting rather than a perfectly reasonable explanation. He was a nice guy who seemed embarrassed by the situation he was put in and knocked one of the mains and a round of drinks off the bill, though in hindsight we should have made more of a fuss; I'm left having to hope that we haven't eaten too much on-the-turn meat and dog hair, as well as having a niggling doubt over whether I was served dog food...

We'd arrived after the circular walk around rivers, weirs and lakes so a welcoming looking pub sign tempted us to enter. Immediately saw a sign saying "all our real ales kept in tip-top condition". Discovered they had one ale called "something white ale". Three pumps with labels so small you could not read them. I made it clear we only wanted a drink and didn't need food as the small dining area was clearly busy. A shout from the kitchen to the barmaid announced "there were no tables" but we could have a drink. We made for the door on the basis that real ale appeared to be in very short suppy and asking what ciders or an had on tap seemed like a waste of time and an unpleasurable experience even if they had one. This pub has been in the family for twenty years - no doubt...

Found it by chance when we were looking for somewhere to eat on our way home from a weekend away. Wasn't sure about it at first but then when we got inside it was packed with lots of local people. There was so much choice of food, but we decided on Roast Beef, it was delicious, beef melted in your mouth, there was 5 slices, roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, and mixed vegetables. Everything was delicious, maybe some more vegetables and gravy would be nice. The Sweets are tasty I had Banana Eaton Mess, yummy. All food homemade and staff were so friendly. In fact we are going to go back next Sunday. Highly...