The Woodspeen Restaurant — Restaurant in England

This has been our go to restaurant for several years for family and couple celebrations but not after our last experience. Started well with cocktails but went down hill from there. Although one was delivered later than the others after a claimed miscommunication by the waiter and bar staff. It was a maguerita, not the most difficult to make nor the best marguerita as it was extremely sour with no sugar syrup in it judging by the taste. Food was disappointing. Starters were good but mains not so great. My steak was well cooked but the pepper sauce was thin and pretty tasteless, the mushroom side served with it so rich it was inedible. My wife's cod was so salty she couldn't eat it. I tried it and found the same, I wouldn't have been able to eat it either. On top of that the service was not great with the cod dish arriving minutes after the other 3 mains to our table. Then we ordered coffees with petite fours. Coffee arrived but not the petite fours. We had to chase them up and got excuses why they hadn't arrived rather than an apology. We were sat next to the open kitchen not necessarily a problem but could hear the chef being rude and aggressive towards the service staff throughout , not great. This rather spoilt the atmosphere. It wasn't their fault one of our party didn't get their main with the others, it was his. We watched him plating it up after the others had been served. The potato side was delivered to the table even later. I expect the food to arrive together with excellent service at this restaurant. Then half way through our coffee we were told that they wanted the table back in 10 minutes so we were rushed out. What would have happened had we ordered dessert? To cap it all my wife was then violently sick through the night, starting 5 hours after the meal, classic timing. Hers was the main course delivered late This was our 3rd visit this year and will be our last. Usually have been at least twice a year since it opened. Extremely disappointing birthday experience. And with a £450 sting for 4 people. Feeble response from The Woodspeen to my feedback. They offered a free bottle of champagne if we come back, not worth anything to me as I hardly drink and never when out having driven. They'd have realised that if they'd checked our order as I'd had a mocktail and sparkling water. The cost to them would be less than the service charge added to our bill! No concern over one diner being ill all night after eating there. Won't be returning and wouldn't recommend either. There's plenty of better choice...

We came here a year or so ago and were a tad underwhelmed with it then, so weren't exactly itching to come back but all these good reviews couldn't be wrong? Staff were friendly and accomodating with the exception of the French sounding wine waitress who couldn't crack a smile. The Scandinavian inspired interior is a highlight, classic Danish chairs abound, it's a good place to be. We decided to have some cocktails, I asked for a single shot special and was brought a gin and tonic, this was replaced with a pink cocktail that was so strong I couldn't drink it all, it also put a glass of wine out of the question. To the meal itself, starters chosen were scallops which were superb, herring also very good and terrine which was okay, The mains, bar one, though were very average, the bar one was the balontine pork, my sons both had steaks which were ordered rare and medium rare, these arrived medium to well done and pretty tasteless our local pub does far better and at half the price. My wife and I had the partridge to share, it was over cooked and bland and apart from some decent potatoes the veg was horrible, a kind of sauerkraut with some bits of bacon, some burnt sweet corn and burnt cabbage the meal was reminiscent of one we had at a cafe in Germany except that cost about a tener, But my daughters vegatarian dish was a joke, it seemed to be a vinegary grain mustard mixed with dried bread crumbs with some mushrooms and dried cavalero nero, it was bloody awful, she couldn't eat it. Then on to the puddings, which by an absolute dichotomy were all lovely, a creme brulee with rasberries that has to be one of the best we'd ever tried, a custard tart with nutmeg ice cream and chocolate orange dessert I forget the name which...

Really underwhelming experience. I liked the idea of the subtle, unpretentious cooking and flavours on offer here, but sadly this manifested itself as blandness. We ordered off both the set and the a la carte menu. The set menu was really poor and doesn't represent good value at all.

Off said set menu was a dish of poached hake with a 'sherry sauce', how very vague, it was a white sauce so fino or Manzanilla I guess, who cares as you wouldn't be able to tell it had sherry in it, just a white wet garlic sauce. Maybe a splash of fino at the end to give that yeasty tang would have helped. Other duds were a pigeon ballotine served cold that was fairly bland and, ermmm, cold - fridge cold pigeon is a strange thing to eat, the accompanying root-ey bits were fine but no more.

To finish we shared a chocolate tart, the pastry was too thick and was nor crumbly, nor short. The warm chocolate sauce it had been filled with lacked any real depth and texturally was all too similar to the one you buy from the supermarket for children to squirt over some soft scoop. Balsamic was mentioned and did occur, as a miniscule amount on top of the milk ice cream, easily dispensed of by one small movement of a teaspoon, why bother!?

It wasn't all doom and gloom, the lamb rump dish from the a la carte was good - meltingly tender, well rested pink lamb and the agreeable flavours of the accompanying things were nice. And that's the problem here for me, it's all a bit nice and unassuming, but the lack of novelty leaves you with nothing when things don't come together, and that happened in four of five dishes for us. I will say the service is good and the room is nice and tasteful, but maybe, as with the food, some fireworks...