Mash & Barrel — Restaurant in Great Yarmouth

Visited Mash and Barrel first time yesterday and to say we disappoint is an under statement! We will not be returning!! We were seat nicely enough. First drinks order was slow to be taken. The restaurant seems to be young people with no experienced leadership on how the service should be run. Four waiters came to the table at different times displaying the lack of communication between because they didn't know orders had been given. The menu was very limit with half of it not available to order, reason given was the delivery van had gone awol and manager had only just sent an email regarding this!!! I ordered the steak which came without steak knife, over done not medium rare as per request, very dry and chard! Had to ask for more mushrooms that were from a tin, the chef could have cooked them with the steak in butter to make the better but they were very plain and tasteless! The peas looked dire and the chips were no better! £15 for a meal I didn’t eat. My son had mac and cheese was to inedible which is a surprise as he loves his mac and cheese! With so many people coming to the table none asked was everything ok nor did they clear the table of the drinks glasses, just brought more drinks over! when ordering desert, yes we were a big party however our order was mind blowing for the young man taking it as he made the mind blowing action to his colleague when he reached his till station. some of the deserts came out, treacle sponge ( massive surviving ) with no spoons. Whilst waiting for ice cream, that part of the order came out terrible wrong and when spoons finally arrived the dessert had gone cold. They had run out of the ice creams ordered so the kids went without desserts!! The staff kept coming to the table with other tables food asking was it ours! Service is very disorganised, one of our 11 yr olds could given better direction. We received a privilege discount and the 50% off off a bill of £185 which was a surprising amount and very high price for what we received! I asked to speak to the manager whilst one of us paid at the bar and no one came so when we left, the four serving staff were huddled together at the bar whispering!! The kids need someone who can be bothered to run the business accordingly so that the restaurant justifies the price because we won't be returning during our stay here and will say to anyone who asked about it not to bother! You had time over the closure due to covid to get improvements in place as many other business's have done but clearly you missed this opportunity which is a shame. Very over priced, bad quality of food...

Wish we had never booked/visited in all honesty, a complete disappointment of an end of holiday meal.

On arrival we waited to be seated as directed by the sign, we were then told (from a lady on the other side of the restaurant) to sit wherever as they werent busy. This was the only greeting we got, we werent told about unavailable items, how it worked, ie table service or order at the bar etc, so after waiting about ten minutes with no interest from any staff we fumbled about ordering online.

We had breaded mushrooms to start, frankly there were the saddest looking breaded mushrooms I have ever received when eating out (have had them at many other places) the salad was wilted and slimy, and there no sight of the garlic mayo promised on the menu either.

For mains we had the ultimate burger, it was okay wouldnt describe it as an ultimate burger, we have had much better, chips overcooked and cold, we ordered a children's macaroni cheese, which after two bites my son refused to eat, i tried it and it left a horrible after taste and had a funny smell, he seemed fine with the crinkle chips and beans.

For dessert we had a sticky toffee pudding with ice cream, it was about a quarter of a scoop of ice cream, hardly worth putting in the bowl, we had the billionaire cheesecake that came with a rather lovely looking slimy spoiled strawberry to put you off, the children's churros fondue is the only dish i have no issues with tbh.

So overall don't waste your time. The lack of personal service isn't for me personally, the guy running food was friendly enough but this was the only person who actually interacted with us.

Drive 5 mins down the road and go to the smoke house, absolutely outstanding food in ample portions, absolutely worth the few extra pounds and their staff seem happy to see you, take orders and interact...

UPDATED AFTER 2 YEARS The Sunday Carvery has been improved since my review of here 2 years ago. The Price has gone up due to inflation to 2 for £20 which is now worth it for the quality.

The Carvery Deck is still out of bounds, The food promply arrived within 10 mins of ordering via the app, the Meat is plenty and warm and tasty, The Roast Potatoes are much better, The Mash is soft and creamy, the Veg (Carrots, Cauliflour, Broccoli) were on the hard side but that is personal preference for me. Overall it was very tasty and good value for 2 people. Only criticism is the gravy comes in a small jug. a bigger jug of gravy would be better. I mean it does say "Lashings" of gravy on the menu. 4/5 Stars. Things are looking up!

OLD REVIEW BELOW (WAS 2 STAR OVERALL) We decided to have the carvery as we've never had the carvery here before. Didn't have breakfast and was so looking forward to it.

It wasn't self serve, they brought everything out to you. I ordered on the app and I clicked two extra yorkshire puddings and two extra pig I blankets. I ended up with one extra yp and 1 extra pib and the plates were small. The roast potatoes we more like potato bites they were tiny & only got 3. Mash was lumpy, gravy was like water? Sliced gammon was more like shredded gammon (although this was nice if I'm honest), 2 tiny pig in blankets, cauliflower cheese looked grey (what the...) and carrots were OK.

The adult carvery was £11.99 but it was on offer at two carverys for £18.99. Still wasn't worth that much. If I had served that I would of been embarrassed. They have a carvery counter area like a Toby carvery but wasn't open.

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