The Mailbox — Restaurant in Lincoln

What an experience! I recently ventured into the Mailbox on what was one of the windiest and wettest Wednesdays of my existence. After a long day out in the cold I could think of nothing better than tucking into some nice hot grub, so what a pleasant surprise it was for me to discover that the Mailbox had its own special deal named 'wing Wednesdays'. For the measly price of 25p per wing I jumped at the chance.

Attempting to balance my student financing and my ravenous appetite, I settled for a small but fulfilling total of 8 wings, with a filter coffee that came with bottomless refills. This small yet enjoyable meal barely dug at my wallet, only deducting me of £3.00 for the pleasure.

A short wait later, giving me plenty of time to fill up four ramikens of different , beautifully designed sauces which I will order from worst to best (Katsu, Buffalo, BBQ and Ghost Chilli), my wings came flying to the table. They contained a generous serving of meat tucked snuggly against the bone, which I couldn't wait to wrap my teeth around. The meat separated from the bone with a satisfying crunch, warming my cockles from my previous few hours out in the rain. I used one wing for each of the sauces, just to find which one was the best. The katsu tasted like any regular curried sauce, therefore not innovating enough to earn itself a higher ranking on my taste test (4/10 at best). The buffalo sauce had a nice kick later to the bite, however one of my part noted a toffee note to the flavour, which after discovering I failed to notice anything other, ruining the spice that I originally tasted (pushing this one to a 5/10). Now this is where the sauces get interesting... I don't describe myself as a BBQ boy, however the BBQ sauce was a pleasure to digest. Maybe this is because I did not have high hopes for the flavour, however the texture of the sauce was lovely and thick, sticking to the wing like sticky weeds to my friends t-shirts back in my youth ( a pleasure of a throwback). The glaze was rich and smokey, and a much preferred BBQ to other sauces of the same flavour (8/10). The ghost chilli sauce was nothing short of delightful. An impeccable fruity taste to start, just kissing the tongue with both fire and passion. My only knock was that it could have been hotter as I am a man of heat, however it was just enough to keep me stimulated throughout the course of the wing (9/10).

The staff were as warm welcoming as the hot chicken flesh that was slowly working its way into my body. When me and my group were admiring the vast gin selection across the bar, we exchanged friendly banter with one of the barmen about whether or not it was too early to start drinking. This left me feeling comfortable and willing to share discourse with the staff at any given moment. A waitress who came to take our table number from us was also extremely friendly, acknowledging us as troops which I found very fitting as we soldiered our way through the array of wings and sauces.

For £2.00 for the wing selection, and multiple coffees for an extra £1.00 piece, my visit to Mailbox was fantastic and left me looking into my diary for when I can return. My only issue with the day was I wish there were more sauces to try. Experiencing new flavours is a huge hobby of mine, and an inviting location such as the Mailbox seems like the perfect place to do just that.

Many thanks to the staff and keep up...

We came in for a "bottomless brunch" for a special birthday. We arrived at 1:25pm for our brunch that was supposed to begin at 1:30pm. It took until 1:45pm for someone to even bother coming over to take our order. After we finished our first round of drinks, we didn't get another round for at least 20 minutes. We were offered 2 drinks each due to the manager complaining they were "getting shafted" even though the pub was seemingly empty. One of the group ordered a chicken burger with nothing but a slice of cheese. The burger arrived with none of the requested modifications. When we complained, the server was quite rude when dealing with our complaint. Saying "well do you want me to take it back". The new burger arrived and was the exact same burger, just with the lettuce scraped off. It still had BBQ sauce and bacon, which the party member does not eat. We took the burger up to the bar and yet again it was taken away. The others had finished their meal by this point. The burger finally arrived with the corrections, 15 minutes after they took the incorrect one away. By this point we had already been in there for an hour. Also, we still had no drinks offered to us after our second round. Overall, it felt as though we were a burden to the staff even though we were the only ones booked in for brunch. Due to the clear staffing issue, we were offered extended time for our brunch which we agreed to and this was never followed up on. Our brunch was due to finish at 3:15pm yet between 3pm-4pm nobody came to check up on us or even offer us the bill. Our party counted a maximum of 4 drinks each (half of these were just cokes or orange juices). Soft drinks are a quick drink to make, especially since we were ordering them with no ice or lemon. When the manager finally brought us the bill after an hour we raised our concerns. We felt neglected and he didn't seem interested in our complaints. A simple 'what were the issues with your brunch' would have been nice. Instead, he goes away and prints off a new bill. This is where he offers a bottle of Prosecco for our troubles and this was not adequate (we still had practically a full bottle sat on the table because it was disgusting). We said that it simply was not good enough. He then screws up the bill aggressively, huffs and storms off. He returned offering us a discount, despite telling us 10 minutes earlier that there was "nothing he could do". We were paying customers, the least he could do is show some respect, he was nothing but unprofessional. If we wanted food and a couple of drinks, we would have done that rather than paying £25 for the same. We were given 1 of the brunches for free, yet this still seems stingy. There were also some smaller issues worth mentioning, such as staff walking around with their hair not tied back, almost touching peoples food which is disgusting. Also asking for drinks with no ice yet them coming with ice. Overall, as first time brunchers, we will definitely not...

We booked a table to watch the Ireland v Scotland rugby world cup game that had an 8pm kick off on a Saturday night. We did worry about how they would balance the showing of live sport against their regular Saturday night schedule. In hindsight, we should have realised they wont and just stayed at home.

Despite the website being explict that they were taking RWC specific bookings, there was no effort made to ensure that the game was enjoyable or even watchable.

We were stuck in a corner, with an obsecured view, so we couldn't see the screen properly or the score or gameclock and had to contend with people and barstaff constantly blocking ourview. The commentary was also drowned out by the DJ.

There were 3 tables between us and the screen who were not there for the game. The space was there to have arranged a different set up, if appropriately planned by the staff in advance. We asked a staff member about moving. He said he would check then ignored us.

Knowing we had pre booked for the game, we were given a table in the corner furthest from the screen and speakers, blocked by 3 tables who were closer to the screen yet not there for the game

Despite advertising bookings for the games, to say the effort put in to ensuring they were watchable was tokenistic, would be a generous exaggeration, at best.

If your priority is your regular Saturday night schedule that is understandable. I get that the rugby was not the priority for many. Then don't pretend otherwise and to do so is simply dishonest.

To those who might respond, "its Saturday night, what did you expect?" I simply expect the thing I booked to do, to be provided to a good standard. Mailbox had no interest in doing so. They should have simply not taken bookings for the later games as it is clear they are unable or unwilling to balance the competing needs.

If you want to see a game with a later kick off, I wouldn't come here. I certainly won't be back for any more games,...