The Cross Keys — Restaurant in Newark and Sherwood

We went for our 41st wedding anniversary on Monday night. My first glass of wine smelt weird, but I didn’t want to make a fuss so drank half of it before ordering a second glass. I didn’t mention anything about the first until my husband stopped me taking my first sip of the second glass, as he spotted a black thing floating in it. I retuned it to the bar and the girl was very apologetic. I also mentioned my first glass and brought it to her to smell she agreed with me and said I could have the second glass “on the house” and also have a large instead of a medium. The meal was even more disappointing! We asked if the meals came with veg, the young man said “yes, seasonal veg and new potatoes”. We got veg and roast potatoes??? they were obviously left over from the Sunday. Bone dry inside and out, soft and soggy with no crisp or juices. My slow cooked pork was exactly the same. Slow cooked pork usually falls apart, this was solid and again no juices or moisture even under the crackling which was not crispy, just solid and dried out. ( maybe again reheated from Sunday??) I always have a dessert after a meal, as I have a sweet tooth but we couldn’t wait to get out. I even got charged for the weird wine, which the barmaid agreed wasn’t right!!! I know some people are always writing reviews and complain, but I can honestly say this is the first time I have ever done this. I had to set up a Google profile to do it. This is because we were so looking forward to going out, which we only do on special occasions, and it was so disappointing! People might say that we should have complained more at the time but we’re not those type of people, and the young waiter was trying hard to be polite and attentive. It wouldn’t have been fair on him. Needless to say we shall not...

Today is mother's Day and it was my decision to have lunch at the Cross Keys Epperstone , HOWEVER, although the service is exceptionally good and the atmosphere was pleasant UNFORTUNATELY some of the food was not upto standard, the Roast beef was not enjoyable it was tough and very difficult to cut & chew , most disappointing possibly would have benefited from being sliced more thinly , my roast potatoes were nice unfortunately my mum and my son didn't enjoy theirs as they were undercooked, I could go on about other derogatory aspects of the main course adding more criticism but won't. I was the only one out of the three of us to choose a dessert which was a DELICIOUS bread & butter pudding with butterscotch sauce NOW if only I could have felt the same way about the previous two course's, this evening I would be feeling much happier about my decision to eat at the Cross Keys on this...

Just returned home from eating here and I can honestly say if it wasn’t for the landlady’s extremely bad attitude and her vicious dog - which attacked my five month old puppy once, and also took a second attempt - I’d have considered giving the place five stars.

Food was good and our waitress was lovely, however the landlady’s mutt aggressively attacked my puppy as soon as we walked into the pub and the landlady failed to intervene - it was left to me, my mum and a couple of locals. The second time her dog went for mine, rather than apologise and simply say it was out of character, she was very unpleasant. The landlady was abrupt and even tried argued that her dog was ‘friendly’... as she carried it away growling! Obviously she failed at offering a basic level of customer service - no apology, nothing.

The landlady could do with learning a thing or two from the waitress who served us....