Magna Charta — Restaurant in Newark and Sherwood

Visited on Friday 12th August. Was a lovely day with the temperature around 30. We opted to dine outside as with many of the other guests. We sat close to the rear doors and were going to order from that table. As we were looking through the menu an older gentleman came and sat on the table next to us an instantly lit a cigarette. This put us off completely and we retreated to the larger pinic tables to the rear of the children's park. Once we were there we noticed other families and groups had also moved over there possibly for the same reason as none of them seem to be smokers themselves. I understand it was outside dining and smokers are free to smoke outside but if possible I'd certainly recommend they have an area to smoke away from the rest of the diners who when it is nice weather they wish to eat outside. It would certainly put us off eating there again if we did wish to dine outdoors. We could not fault the service, the staff were nice and polite and we really enjoyed the food. We just couldn't of eaten so close to smokers as it really puts you off eating. So please if possible designate an area for smokers away from the rest of your customers who have opted to dine with...

Haven't been here in a few years and really used to like it but it's gone a bit down hill. The staff were friendly enough but we had a wait for our food considering it wasn't that busy on a Sunday evening and didn't seem to really communicate what was happening with our table. A prawn cocktail was ordered as a starter and it was literally lettuce and prawns, with butter that was rock hard. 2 x squid rings were ordered, both of them the batter had softened like they had been sat out for awhile. Out of 4 main meals, there was problems with all of them. My meal was received wrong and they did remake it and deduct it off the bill because I waited another 10 minutes whilst everyone else ate there's. When i did receive my burger, both mine and my boyfriends we're both burnt and unseasoned and the fries were both unseasoned even though they were both ordered seasoned. The steak that was ordered medium well did not come as such and was covered in watery bbq sauce. The coleslaw and gravy were also watery which made the Sunday dinner unenjoyable. All in all not a very good experience and considering it was a well wanted meal after a long journey wouId have been better to go home and...

Friendly and helpful staff. The beer seems well kept - no complaints there. The lighting, layout and decor creates a modern but bland and characterless ambience - family-friendly and inoffensive, but not enticing.

As for the food: well, to be honest, it's below average for the money. The steak pie I had was very dry, with lots of pastry and not much meat, and it was served with an absurdly tiny amount of gravy - perhaps half an inch in the bottom of a small round dish. I left most of the pastry.

On another occasion I had one of their burgers, and it was OK, but no better than countless mass-produced burgers you can get in any cheap eatery, and certainly well below par for the money. If you fancy a burger, you'd be better going to McDonalds and paying half the money.

Two of my friends had the chicken salad and they tell me it was very good, so maybe you should stick to that.

In summary: very good staff; good beer; below average food (especially at that price); family-friendly but...