Hillfield Farm - Dining & Carvery — Restaurant in Metropolitan Borough of Solihull

We visited Hillfield Farm for dinner after a charity run to celebrate. The restaurant was almost empty and we were asked if we had a preference where to sit, we said we would prefer a window seat, we were denied a table in the nice light part of the restaurant as it was an eight seater and we were only 4, we were ushered over to a dingy corner which had a window just past the table (the corner was dark and not very inviting bringing the mood of our group down), on being seated we noticed a couple sat at a six seater…they weren’t denied because there weren’t 6 diners.

We ordered using the app which was ok, we noticed that the food choice for vegetarians was limited and the menu didn’t seem to have changed in years. I ordered the beer battered fish, on first glance it looked dark but I put it down to the poor lighting in the corner. On starting to eat my fish I found it over cooked, the batter was rock hard and I felt I would break a tooth on some of it, I ate the fish inside, during our meal no one came to check if everything was alright.

We decided to visit the cake away to take 6 pieces of cake home, we decided on what to have then waited at the till, there were 2 members of staff on the bar at this time, a young man and an older lady (manager?) I stood with my daughter at the till and the lady proceeded to serve a man standing next to us, she then served another 2 men, I told my daughter if she served another customer then we were leaving, sure enough she served yet another customer, that was it! We returned to our table to get our belongings and was about to leave when she came over and apologised, too little too late unfortunately, we refused to spend anymore money in there and shall not be returning.

We have visited Hillfield Farm many times over the years and have noticed a decline in the portion sizes and quality of the food during the last few years, we used to enjoy our meals and always visited the cake away but no more, we shall find somewhere else to dine...

So this is a tough one to review.

The place is lovely, great atmosphere, lovely staff overall experience pretty good! However...

I do what I always do, have a couple of drinks before I eat. I was half way down my second drink when I went to pay for a carvery. It was 20:10 and the chef had decided to clear it all away! Considering last food orders are at 21:00 I though almost an hour early was out of order personally. I had watched them bring out a fresh gammon about 30 minutes prior, which I was excited about as that's my go to carvery meat! When I was told they had cleared it away, the gentleman then said it was all going to the waste food service 'to good to go' and the rest was going on the bin. However, I could see that the only thing that'd been taken was the yorkies and the meat. This made me mildly sad.

So I opted for fish and chips instead. Great choice, didn't wait long and the fish was cooked to perfection, glistening. But it tasted very very similar to the southern fried chicken they also have on the menu. So it was odd to taste chicken whilst eating fish.

Food aside let me talk about the beer. You can tell that they look after the cellar and lines and glasses, as every pint was perfect.

As I write this review, my plate was taken away from me by a waitress, I hadn't finished, just taking a break. And she did not say a word to me, 'was everything okay?' Etc... I was going to take the rest away. But nevermind.

I'm flabbergasted

Edit: I saw a massive selection of cakes, ordered one and also told the gentleman that the lady took my plate before I had finished. And gave me the cake Free. So all is well. Just a bit of communication would have been...

ok so went for lunch on Thursday 8/8/24 and thought i will buy something a little more expensive so opted for the chicken combo, my wife had a small carvery and my daughter had the fish and chips, my chicken combo for £12.49 stated on the menu southern fried chicken skewer, 2 chicken breasts, it came with indeed a cheap frozen chicken skewer and 1 SMALL chicken breast cut in half CLEARLY with a few frozen cardboard chips, when i called the waitress over and explained this she wasn't in the slightest interested and just stated that's the way it comes! this may i add was by no means edible, it had black char lines on it like it had been char grilled but was clearly taken from a frozen bag and badly microwaved until it was shoe leather, i complained then to what i thought was someone senior who eventually said after much arguing that that's the way it comes she would get me another breast, this was obviously rushed and was like trying to eat the sole of a dead rhino! the fish and chips was only tilapia and tasted like it was dragged from the local carp pond oh and there was an argument at the carvery from another lady that purchased a standard carvery but only got small carvery meat, if you read this then you have been pre armed! this is saying something now but you are better off stopping at McDonalds!! and i know what people are going to say "you need to complain at the time so they can mitigate their...