The Trent Lock — Restaurant in Erewash

It all started when I Phoned up, automated booking system was easy to book a table!

Had to amend booking from 4pm to 3pm, pub could accommodate us and was great.

Asked if the pub is dog friendly, which it is in the bar area and outside seating area. But in the restaurant side it isn't, so we decided to not bring the dog this time.

When we arrived there were 6 staff and 1 supervisor. We were left standing around for about 5 or 10 minutes but it did feel forever standing around not knowing if we were to be seated down by a staff member or if we were to put on our exploring boots and hunt down our booked table..

The supervisor was polite qnd explained the restaurant was a bit hectic at the moment and we said it was ok, that we understood. (there were 2 other tables in the entire pub so I'm guessing the hectic period had already happened and they were recovering, or there was something happening in their outside barn).

After being shown to our table the supervisor explained that Phoebe Would come and take our drink order. We asked if they would recommend any gins and Phoebe couldn't recommend any other than saying that they had a lot of gin. Our dinner guest who had been before suggested the blood orange Gin so that's what I ordered.

We ordered the calamari and patte for starters and they both looked incredible!

So our main food finally arrived after quite a bit of waiting and my son's pizza looked amazing, our dinner guests chicken pie looked great, although we had to ask for some gravy to go a long with it. My wife had the pork belly and it looked and smelled amazing!

There was quite a bit of waiting going on for Phoebe to bring out the last dish, my Hunters chicken schnitzel, and when she finally emerged it was with bad news. Somehow from me ordering the meal at the table, to Phoebe inputting the order into her iPad, to the kitchen receipt printing in theie kitchen... That hunter chicken disappeared and I am left plateless... Queue sad violin music...

It finally arrived!!! And wow, I wish it didn't :(.

Chips were undercooked as if the chef had literally dunked them in a fryer just to put some heat on them. Still raw in the middle, at least it's the potato chips and not the chicken 😅. Speaking of the chicken it was really nice, Cooked beautifully! Just a shame it came out late on a rushed plate..

So finished our meals and sat for 20 minutes wiatinf for someone to come clear down the table and offer some desert menus... Instead I had to flag down the supervisor and ask her myself, this whole Trent Lock experience is shaping to not be a nice experience..

Whilst we look at the deserts menu, the supervisor comes down to the table behind us and says that one of their meals hasn't been cooked either!! Mental!

Ok "be right back in 2 minutes to take your desert order" just turned into waiting 15 minutes... There are now 4 tables... What is going on? Just had to flag down said supervisor who clearly didn't like to be inturupted...

10 more minutes later and still waiting for our deserts, we have now resorted to playing penny football across the table to keep our 5 year old entertained...

Ok we got there and the deserts have arrived! This absolute MARATHON of what we thought would be a quick lunch is almost over!

The banoffee pie desert I had was Incredible! My son enjoyed his brownie, but what 5 year old wouldn't?! Our dinner guest enjoyed their sticky toffee pudding, but it's hard to not like sticky toffee pudding! Edit: my son's chocolate brownie had been thrown into a microwave which burnt the entire underside of it...NOT GOOD!

All in all, this experience has completely changed my view on this pub. I'm trying to figure out why? What has changed so drastically? Last time I was here it was perfect and I had recommended this restaurant plenty of times because of that. Now.... Now I wouldnt recommend this restaurant to anyone and I'm thinking I may have some apology letters to write to friends and family...

Total time to have a late lunch for 3 people and a 5 year old: 2...

The atmosphere coming into the restaurant was not pleasant, bar staff did not have any character about them didn’t have any banter while trying to order drinks at the bar, didn’t have a smile on their face, when serving myself and family. Restaurant staff tired to put myself and family in a cornered area for when stating I struggle with claustrophobia. Also stated that there only place but then let us have another table, but then No one else sat in that area so we could have sat anywhere! Couldn’t order what we wanted on the menu as there was none left. However was able to order the trio roast which did not make sense as we all wanted the belly pork which was on the trio menu. When getting the food, the roast potatoes where hard and hollow, had the end of the cabbage in the green veg, gravy was cold, with the pork belly the meat was hard and the cracking was soft… (wrong way round!!). Had the olives and garlic for starter - there was only two garlic gloves - and they tasted off! One of the waitresses when talking to her didn’t look like she was happy with being at work as did not smile once throughout while trying to host myself and family. To that conclusion Very disappointed in the services and meal on this occasion - when in the past I have really enjoyed coming to this restuarant. I will only return to this restuarant but only for drinks due to the area, I will never eat here again. Only ate part of the meal as we were hungry after a long day. After complaining they did knock off two meals however they should have just knocked it all off, it was that bad. Just to add… when paying for the bill they stated we needed to pay for drinks however they were paid for prior to having food, that what we thought anyways. So they were trying to make us pay for something that was already paid for. This is bad customer services and not exceptable. No commuincation what so ever. Should of had a receipt of the drinks to state it didn’t go through at the bar!!! Bar staff should have said she’d have put it on the tab, so there was no confusion. Not exceptable!! However manager was nice and understood where we were...

We went to Trent Lock as it states online it caters for Gluten Free, and it was within walking distance for us from where our boat is moored. We arrived to an almost empty restaurant to be told they were fully booked but they could make an exception for us because there was only 3 of us. We told them my husband is coeliac and needs gluten free food which they said is fine and the menu is online, so we ordered drinks. The online menu has very limited options for gluten free (about 3, all very expensive and not what my husband would eat) so we considered having our drinks and leaving. The manager accompanied the waitress to our table with an iPad and said there were more options on there but they use the same fryers for most things. My husband ordered gf fish & chips, which we thought should be pretty simple since it states they can do it on the iPad. The poor waitress had to come back to our table twice to say they couldn't do the chips gluten free unless he had oven chips, which he agreed to, then again to say they couldn't batter the fish because of the fryers being used for gluten starters so would he have his fish fried in a pan without batter. By this point we were hungry and he said yes just so he could eat and leave. When the food came even the manager said it "looked better than he expected". It was an all round disappointment and we still paid £18 for it! He ate it because he was hungry but they obviously don't know what they are doing with allergens and shouldn't be advertising it! The food I had was nice but certainly not worth the price! We won't be going back and certainly won't recommend to anyone, particularly not with an allergy!! I will say though, the waitress who served our table (I didn't get her name) was absolutely lovely and I really did feel for her getting sent to our table again and again to say "sorry but ..." it should have been the manager...